Music Education and the Limbo of Unrealized Possibilities

Abstract

In this introductory editorial, I explore whether music education has moved to a stance of moralism rather than one of ethical teaching and action. In this essay, I define morality as the principles that enable one to discern if something is right or wrong, good or bad; ethics guide an individual or group’s behavior or activity based on those principles.1 Therefore, any ethical action emerges from principles grounded in a moral belief. The questions posed in this editorial arise from a recent opinion article that called for “a less moralistic humanities.” What does this call mean, and how might it look in music education, a disci-pline classified within both the humanities and the social sciences? Following the discus-sion, I introduce the six articles in this issue of Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. Each essay relates in some way to the question of “a less moralistic humani-ties,” for which the editorial introduction serves as a prompt for consideration.