The question,
"Should music educators be experts in jazz or American folk music?"
America, we the people, the founders and creators of blues, the original rock n' rollers. The hippest and meanest of the improvisationalist, howlin' away at the moon every night.
We created this culture, no matter which way you look at it, it's all ours. Some other countries got a hold of it, put a couple chapters in the book, but its our birthright, our gift to the world, our psychotic, addiction ridden, hyper active love child.
So the question is, should American music educators be experts in jazz or American folk? Understanding American music is understanding America. It's understanding our culture, it's understanding our history, its understanding who WE the PEOPLE are, not those that represent us, but who WE are.
So I guess the answer to this question is, rock on music teachers, rock on.
Nice and short and to the point! The one thing I would try to look at with all of this is how can we make our kids well rounded musicians from this and how can we define it.
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