I'll have more to say about this soon (I'm still getting my thoughts together) but I think that, even in the midst of high stakes testing, we are going to see a window of opportunity for educational endeavors like the arts and other "hands-on", interdependent learning experiences.
You can Google the answer to many things, but you can't Google what it means to learn and perform Grainger...you have to experience it. And to be keenly aware that you arrived at the understanding through a shared journey with others....each student assisting the other in the creation of a work of art....this type of human endeavor is both irresistible and irreplaceable. I've been talking about "music for humanity's sake" but Yo-Yo Ma recently said it better...Art For Life's Sake.
The larger the human knowledge base becomes, the more important it will be to know how to corporately express, how to serve a greater good together, and how to create shared meanings. Reimer and Elliott mash up? Possibly, much to their dismay. Those of us that are actually teaching ensembles everyday see the realities of this thing we call ensemble music making.
More later.