Orchestra blog takes on NASM accreditation

Ron Speigleman from Sticks and Drones talks about NASM accreditation in this blog post:

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is in the business of accrediting Music schools. I have read through pages and pages on their site and have yet to find the word audience. They accredit music schools who stick to their own autonomous missions. Creative freedom in how to educate is important because of the differing opinions and methods in addition to the strengths of faculties, but there’s one big problem that lies at the heart of this body which is that it focuses solely on the institution as a bubble and not on the successful advocacy of the art form, or the success rate of the students in finding employment after graduation. They basically will accredit an institution for coming up with a curriculum and sticking to it!

His bottom line:

Music schools have to burst their own bubbles and participate in society to help create more demand for the art form so that students have a greater chance at finding employment.

It's a great, thought-provoking post. Read the whole thing!