MENC’s Web site proclaims it to be “the world’s largest arts education organization,” a claim that, on its face, might seem odd when one considers that almost any group in China or India is likely to have more members than any similar group in the United States.

While many professional groups in China are not true NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), China has the world’s largest number of trained teachers to serve its huge population of schoolchildren.

Harry Price, who is enroute to becoming director of the school of music at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, has given the matter some thought. He says,

“MENC should start thinking more globally and modify its Web statement to reflect the fact that there are other numerically larger arts organizations on the planet. We could say ‘one of the world’s largest’ and come across as more world-community-minded.”

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MENC member Harry Price currently heads the music education department at the University of Oregon, Eugene. A former editor of the Journal of Research in Music Education, as of August 2009, he’ll be a music professor and director of the school of music at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia.

--Ella Wilcox, June 3, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)