ABSTRACT
Among the many themes of the book is that music educators and their school and university programs are often vulnerable to downsizing or elimination by politicians and educational administrators in a time when all education is conceived as primarily serving an economic purpose. All too many people wrongly regard the performing arts as educational frills because they are only entertainment when they are collectively a major industry themselves and making a substantial contribution to the economy. Music educators are themselves partly at fault for this misperception of the social and economic value of the arts because, for many generations, they have been committed to the “art for art’s sake” educational rationale that relegated them to the margins of schools. The chapter debunks this rationale while drawing on philosopher John Dewey’s conception of music and art as critical tools that can play important roles in the defense of democracy.
