One of the great things the Music Manifesto has done, but may never be remembered for, is that it's encouraged the sector to act as more than the sum of its parts.
Many in the sector have responded fantastically to the demand that we think beyond our organisational boundaries and our personal egos to the vision that the Music Manifesto has set out, which is that we can all do better together, and must do better together, to give all children a quality music education experience.
As the MM has sat back more over the last few months and asked those charged with leading to lead, one of my gentle anxieties is that we don't default back to a position where leaders across the sector scuttle about doing their business in quasi-competition with each other. It's clear to me that one of the key roles of the Music Manifesto Partnership and Advocacy Group (MMPAG) is that it must keep reminding us all why we need to work together and it must be firm in demanding that we do. And that goes for everyone, government included.
Over the last three years I've had the privilege and the opportunity to talk up the extraordinary work going on across the whole spectrum of music education. We all need to be advocates for each other. When we're out and about promoting areas of work we are passionate about, we should ask ourselves: Who else is working in this area? Who else is passionate about these issues? Have I spoken to them recently? What should I be saying beyond my own personal interests and my organisation's interests to promote other people's extraordinary work and the wider goals?
In this context it was great to hear Culture, Media and Sport Minister Margaret Hodge talking to the MMPAG recently, and to see her listening intently to the wide cross section of voices from the music education field. The Music Manifesto has always been the joint responsibility of the DCSF and the DCMS, and the DCMS's contribution via their engagement with the cultural industry is vital if we are to achieve the ambitions of the Music Manifesto.
In the same spirit, those of us working in music have a lot to give to the wider agenda on cultural activity currently being discussed in light of the government's five-hour cultural offer, and the emergent Youth Culture Trust. But I have always maintained that we have as much, if not more, to learn from practitioners outside music, who are either generically promoting the importance of creative education or specifically developing insight and activity in other art forms, such as dance and drama.
I was reminded of this recently when undertaking some school assessments for Creative Partnerships. I had the privilege of spending three days in three different schools looking in detail at their leadership in delivering a 'creative education' to their pupils and their local communities. I was overwhelmed by the recognition of parents, pupils, teachers and governors of the transformative power of creativity, when used with verve and vigour in the education system.
I spent two days in two special schools, one that works with children with autism, and another that serves children with severe special education needs and multiple disabilities. The interesting thing about those schools was that music was fully integrated into a combined creative offer across the day, I witnessed extraordinary multi-sensory installation-style classrooms, personalised learning programmes that utilised a wide range of art forms and some of the best creative educational practice I've witnessed for a long time.
Tremendous credit should be given to Creative Partnerships for all this, and to the pupils, teachers and parents who are the real heroes in those schools. And it's a simple reminder to us all that we must look beyond our boundaries, and promote and celebrate extraordinary practice wherever we find it.
I'm currently turning my attention to a keynote address I'm to give in July in Bologna to the International Society for Music Education, and I'm keen to hear from friends and colleagues about what you think I should be saying. But I can't get out of my head the idea that it is time for a global movement around the power of creative education and that music has something extraordinary to contribute to that.
Music can change the world but not just through giant rock concerts, or music as agitprop, or orthodox instrumental learning. We all know that communities can be bound by music and here's an example I'll leave you with. I was talking recently with Howard Goodall about his trip to South Africa. He visited two schools there, one a primary school of 1300 children in Durban and another a rural primary school of 350 children.
In the first school, every year 200 parents and carers die of Aids. And in the second, in a school of 350 children, a parent or carer dies every day. Every day for 365 days of the year. It's an astounding statistic. And the thing that is currently holding those schools together through the trauma, the shock and the sheer necessity for survival, is the daily bond provided by singing. It acts as therapy, reflection, mourning, and a ray of light.
Marcx