This paper examines the tradition of ‘teaching’ in the arts, taking, as a case in point, recent attempts by music educators to make school music more appealing to students. Research is cited which would seem to call into question the effectiveness of years of so-called curriculum development in music, and the point is made that the reforms may not have been sufficiently radical. By reference to the writings of R. G. Collingwood and H.-G. Gadamer an argument is developed around the notion that the arts cannot in fact be ‘taught’ and that the troubles connected with, in this case, school music, arise from the failure of music teachers at all levels to acknowledge this fundamental intuition. The paper follows Collingwood further in suggesting an account of arts teaching which sees the arts as a way of having ideas, and the purpose of an education in the arts as helping someone find their authentic, expressive voice.

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This paper is intended as a sequel to my earlier paper, ‘What's Wrong with School Music? (BJME 1995, 12, 185-201). It carries an account of recent research into the arts in secondary schools which suggests that, despite National Curriculum reforms and innovations, music still lags behind the other arts in the general esteem of students. The paper proposes that the trouble with music in schools is that it has failed to modernise, that is, that it has somehow been impervious to the creative developments in classical and popular music. Robert Witkin's Art and Social Structure (1995) provides a theoretical account of modernism. The baleful influence of Hymns Ancient and Modern on generations of music teachers is condemned. Cited by way of contrast are two examples of a fully modem music education discovered at the Dartington International Summer School of Music. These, it is argued, capture the participatory ethos promoted in the Anthony Everitt's recent Gulbenkian publication Joining In.

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