I agree that music (and other arts) is poorly thought of in schools and is just as important to a good education as languages, social studies, sciences and trades. The answer to that for those of you who care is to get elected to your school board and damned well get the arts into the curriculum by forcing school districts to budget for programs and teachers with the skills needed to teach the arts. It is fact that the most 'poorly voted-in' elections are those for the school board, and imo it is a tremendously important position because it is there that influence--for good or bad--can be exerted.