National Anthem Project
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The National Anthem Project was a public awareness campaign launched in 2005 as a major initiative of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. At the time of its launch, the National Anthem Project website declared "MENC is sponsoring The National Anthem Project to revive America's patriotism by educating Americans about the importance of The Star-Spangled Banner-both the flag and the song." Sponsored by MENC with major support from the
Jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...
brand, and other sponsors such as
NAMM The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...
, Bank of America, and the Gibson Foundation, this campaign, which later used the slogan "to restore America's voice through
music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...
" was MENC's most ambitious project to date. A former First Lady,
Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...
served as honorary chairperson, with country music's The
Oak Ridge Boys The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was change ...
as the official musical ambassadors. The stated purpose of the project was originally "to revive America's patriotism," but this was later modified to suggest that its purpose was merely to encourage more singing of the national anthem, or to bring more public attention to the role of music in American schools.


Support

A bipartisan discourse of American government officials, including more than twenty governors, Members of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Department of Education, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the Department of Defense, and National Endowment for the Humanities, indicated their support for the project and its goals. Project supporters also included civic organizations such as the Grammy Foundation, the National Education Association, the U.S. Conferences of Mayors, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the American Sportscasters Association, American Association of School Administrators, the National PTA, Music Teachers National Association, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and Drum Corps International.


Project background

According to a 2004 Harris Interactive survey, nearly two out of three Americans (61 percent) are unable to recall all of the words to
The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
and three in four Americans indicate that school is where they learned the anthem and other
patriotic Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
songs.">"The National Anthem Project: The Campaign to Restore America's Voice through Music Education, sponsored by MENC: The National Association for Music Education"
/ref> However, a survey showed that only 39 percent of Americans could complete the third line of The Star Spangled Banner correctly with "...through the perilous fight." (In a version written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line ends "...through the clouds of the fight."https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/uc05112x.jpg ) According to the National Anthem Project website, throughout the United States music programs have experienced extensive funding cuts over the past several years, and on average four percent of the $450 billion spent on teaching American children goes to music, which means 55 percent of students receive inadequate music education. Further, while local school boards struggle to close ongoing budget gaps and meet new federal requirements, music continues to be cut in districts across the country. "When these programs are cut out of public schools, we're not simply depriving our children of music, but hindering the teaching of our nation's history and heritage," says MENC Executive Director John Mahlmann, "Learning patriotic songs helps our children form bonds with their communities and instills pride in the American ideals we all hold close to our hearts – freedom, liberty and equality."


Project events

The National Anthem Project toured the United States in 2006, making "Road Show" stops in every state and Washington, D.C. The Road Shows featured music performances by student ensembles, an interactive education center, and music education advocacy materials. Visitors were encouraged to try singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" to test themselves on its lyrics. At each stop, one singer was designated a winner and given $1000 to donate to the local school music program of his or her choice. Having concluded its Road Show, the National Anthem Project focused on the planned Grand Finale in Washington, DC, June 14–16, 2007, which featured a performance of The Star Spangled Banner on the
National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...
. On June 14, 2007 more than 1,200 participants gathered at FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins near Washington, D.C., to celebrate the Project in a singalong led by country star Taylor Swift. That same day more than 5,000 students joined together on the National Mall at the
Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...
with "The President's Own"
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for an afternoon concert. On June 15, school ensembles from around the country performed throughout Washington, D.C. at eight monuments including the
Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...
, Capitol Reflecting Pool,
World War II Memorial The World War II Memorial is a national memorial in the United States dedicated to Americans who served in the armed forces and as civilians during World War II. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The memorial consists ...
, and
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. The Grand Finale's third day of celebrations was hosted by
Drum Corps International Drum Corps International (DCI) is a governing body for junior drum and bugle corps responsible for developing and enforcing rules of competition, and for providing standardized adjudication at sanctioned drum and bugle corps competitions througho ...
at the Navy/Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. These festivities included a special singing of the national anthem, and later competition of drum corps from around the country. The National Anthem Project Grand Finale events garnered more than 220 news stories, reaching 26 million people. The Project continued its tradition of celebrating National Anthem Project Day on each September 14. The day aims to promote the importance of music education and the Project by encouraging teachers, students, parents, and community members and leaders to participate in joint celebrations. Events include singalongs and public statements of support for music education by local school administrators and elected officials. Media coverage of National Anthem Project Day and public statements of support from state and national elected officials are available online on the Project Web site.


Criticism of the project

Criticism of the project includes the following: # The National Anthem Project encourages American music teachers to focus on content and coverage rather than musical skills and understandings in their curriculum, an approach that is contrary to some contemporary theories of instructional design. # Like the "Mozart Effect", use of the National Anthem Project for music advocacy brings greater attention to the work of music educators, but it also promotes the educational use of music as a tool for non-musical objectives in other academic subjects. # The National Anthem Project facilitates the promotion of a corporate agenda in public schools, complete with company logos some characterize as advertising. # Since its inception, military divisions were publicly credited as "Supporting Organizations" for the project and explicit discussion of support for the US military has featured prominently in public discourse surrounding this project. Public criticisms include Amy Beegle's (2004) documentation of musical propaganda in American schools during World War II, and suggestion that music educators should "reflect upon the experiences of past generations" (p. 67). Later, Jere Humphreys remarked that "the National Anthem Project sends questionable messages during this time of controversy during a foreign war and the reduction of civil liberties at home and abroad" and warned against the "messages and images this campaign engenders" (Humphreys, 2006, p. 183). More recently, Carlos Abril (2007) cautioned that most of the Project's efforts "propel absolutist views in which declared truths take a front seat to divergent understandings and discoveries" (p. 81). Estelle Jorgensen (2007) also wrote that "selecting The Star-Spangled Banner as the focus of a national campaign to teach the nation to sing can be read as too narrow an objective in that it forwards the limited claims of nationalism to the exclusion of building international and local affiliations and identities. Rather, music teachers need to resist the claims of excessive nationalism in order to ensure that these other interests are also served" (p. 153).


See also

*
Branding national myths and symbols Branding national myths and symbols (BNMS) is a field of research focusing on branding and marketing of a nation's myths and symbols. The research blends the theories of marketing, cultural communications, sociology, public relations, and semioti ...


References


Further reading

;Books: * * * * ;Articles: * * * * * * * * *{{cite book, title=A Singing Citizenry: Popular Music and Civil Religion in America, author=Meizel, Katherine, publisher=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(4), p. 497, date=December 2006


External links


The National Anthem ProjectThe National Association for Music EducationNPR-Citizen Student: Teaching Patriotism in Time of WarMartha Nussbaum - Patriotism and CosmopolitanismInside Higher Education - Honoring the Anthem or Free Speech?Patriotism and Nationalism in Music Education (Ashgate press, 2012)
Music education in the United States American music history 2005 in music Propaganda songs Propaganda in the United States The Star-Spangled Banner George W. Bush administration controversies American nationalism