Music is an outburst of the soul.

-Frederick Deluis

Welcome to the CPS Office of Arts Education Music page! As the Music Curriculum Supervisor, I am very happy to see this momentous event morph from dream to reality. The opening of the 2008-2009 year offers many challenges to the CPS music education family;  programming issues, inadequate resources, and No Child Left Behind constraints are but a few of the challenges that we face. 

This is the beginning of my 38th year as a music educator. I have seen many changes, but the one thing that does not change is the music and those wonderful children that we teach music to daily. It seems that there are always more things to do with less time and resources available. The demands on you are great but the rewards are greater.

Our office is committed to bringing a new life and attitude to our music teachers. The mantra of music for this year, and in the future, is: “Music Education; Not Recreation.” Our goal is to make music, and the all of the arts, the “5th Core subject. We are not “just music teachers” anymore. We must put into our minds and spirit that music is, and should be, at the forefront of urban education in the 21st Century. Music is as much an exacting science as it is an aesthetic art form. The concepts of “literacy and numeracy” have been the crux of American public education. Let us add the idea of “creativity” to American education; and creativity can only be attained by the ardent study of the arts.

Best wishes,

William Braddan McClellan
Music Curriculum Supervisor