It’s March, and Conference Season is beginning again. Whereas 2021 saw a return to educational conferences, the 2022 season promises a real flourishing of events as people return to enjoy the pleasure of one another’s company and the joy of carving out time to attend … Read more
1 Van … 2 Parents … 5 Children … 5 Weeks … 32 States … 11,000 Miles … and countless songs to pass the miles! Last August and September, our family, with five kids then aged four to seventeen, traveled from our home in Richmond, … Read more
I’ll never forget this moment. It was about two weeks into my 20th-century music history class—a key course then in Southern Methodist University’s music-history curriculum. I was on a professorial “roll,” forecasting for my sophomores a few of the drastic changes that would occur in … Read more
The word itself drips with trendiness: Google. Plus, “hangout” doesn’t really make you think of scholarly pursuits, does it? But there it is. “Google Hangouts” is the new place to go! And we’re going. Starting with our Spring 2014 courses, we’ve added Google Hangouts to … Read more
How do music history, homeschoolers, and the Van Cliburn Series come together? On an airplane, of course. Airplanes present a peculiar work environment. On the one hand, everyone is miserable, stuffed into a tiny place with dozens of similarly compressed folks. Add in the crying … Read more
I love conferences. From the moment we hit the exhibitor’s parking lot, it’s an adventure. After long hours of driving, it’s a relief to jump out of our ’99 Ford Expedition and enter the lofty exhibit hall. I register, locate our booth, and look around … Read more
I recommend two firm boundaries for parents who teach private music lessons to their own children. (In my last post, I outlined some of the advantages teaching one’s own children music lessons.) First, fix the lesson time and stick to it. A specific time obviously … Read more
Learning to play an instrument is a great way to expose your child to music and its developmental advantages. Giving your child private music lessons is not the only way, of course. Curricula that explore the development of cultural movements and ideas, such as Discovering … Read more
What’s green, takes up a five-foot bookshelf, and promises to “carry you forward upon this road to the high goal toward which all of us are making our way“? If you shout The Harvard Classics, then you’ve guessed correctly. The 51 green volumes once widely … Read more
