According to OneNewsNow's Pete Chagnon, Bergonzi wrote a piece that appeared in the December issue of Music Educators Journal titled "Sexual Orientation and Music Education: Continuing a Tradition," that "ultimately concludes that sexual orientation should be a vital aspect of music education, and that homosexual musicians should be highlighted and celebrated."

According to Chagnon:

"In the article, Bergonzi contends that traditional music education reinforces a heterosexual lifestyle to the detriment of homosexual students who often feel left out. He notes that traditionally speaking, heterosexual love is often the subject of most music -- and argues that as a result, heterosexual students are often more privileged than their homosexual counterparts. He goes on to argue that homosexual music students often feel left out and have no one to talk to about their love issues. The music professor also makes mention that heterosexual music teachers have advantages over their homosexual co-workers because they do not have to hide their true selves. Bergonzi ultimately concludes that sexual orientation should be a vital aspect of music education, and that homosexual musicians should be highlighted and celebrated."

Chagnon also pointed out that in Bergonzi's staff bio, posted at the Web site of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: School of Music, states that Bergonzi "sees schools as agencies of social progress."  

Professor Bergonzi responds

In an exchange of e-mails, Bergonzi, Professor of Conducting and Music Education/Strings, Chair of the Music Education Division, and Conductor of the UI Philharmonia Orchestra, told me that his piece in the Music Educators Journal "ask[ed] readers to consider whether and in what ways heterosexuality has long-been part into the music classroom in ways we just haven't seen."

According to Bergonzi, "The reporters were certainly selective in what they chose to include in their summary so as to feed their politically correct agenda. ... [T]he approach I took of my article was not to sermonize about what music teachers should do.... The article's emphasizes heterosexuality and asks teachers just to consider how this affects our curriculum, teaching strategies, and the lives and experiences of our students and colleagues -- yes, in particular, those who are not heterosexual."

Bergonzi added: "Apparently, asking professionals to reflect on what they do is something that upsets a lot of people when it comes to sexual orientation."

The professor noted that it was "very ironic that many writers say that the arts are more accepting of homosexuality when my experience with this one article, written in 2009, and the first of its kind in a music education journal, has proved to me that it's quite the opposite, for reasons awaiting someone to research."

An inspiring story

The University of Illinois music professor, and the author of several books, including Rounds and Canons for Strings: Shaping Musical Independence (Kjos, 2003); co-author, Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra, Vols. 1 and 2 (GIA, 2001, 2003); co-author, Americans' Musical Preferences (National Endowment for the Arts, 2001); and Effects of Art Education on Participation in the Arts (National Endowment for the Arts, 1996), has an inspiring personal story.

He is a "first generation" Italian-American who, but for the fact that his grandmother was a housekeeper for a music teacher, would never have had access to private music lessons. "The elementary music program in my suburban Boston school district was not very functional," Bergonzi pointed out. "It was much better at the secondary level and the teachers there worked to get me involved in the musical opportunities nearby in Boston. The programs were beyond the worldview of my dedicated parents. I am also the first child in my family to go to college, a result of music scholarships."

Bergonzi's experience relates directly to his belief that schools ought to be agencies of social progress, an idea that John Dewey, the American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been very influential to education and social reform, championed.  

"What's contemptuous about my story as an example of school as agencies of social progress?" Bergonzi wondered. "A first-generation immigrant child goes to college because they attended a great school district and earned scholarships based on talents s/he worked to develop with the help of their school teachers? So, what's wrong with schools as agents of social progress? I suspect it's the goal of the progress. Would there be so many mission-driven or religious-based private schools if it were not, in part, because parents want their children and their society to progress in a certain way?"

Despite Chagnon's emphasis on Bergonzi's "viewing schools as agencies of social progress," it is just one of four points the professor outlines in his staff bio in the section headed "Teaching Philosophy":

"The beliefs that guide my music education actions-as-teaching include (1) viewing schools as agencies of social progress; (2) expecting access to sequential, comprehensive music education for all children; (3) cultivating the relationship among performers, school-based teachers, and studio faculty at all levels; and (4) situating teacher preparation courses in school settings. Finally, I try to demonstrate, particularly to my graduate students, how the University's work and the profession of music education, including its research base, are bettered when the university functions as a resource for addressing issues of critical professional importance. In short, my approach to teaching is one that demonstrates and helps students recognize their own potential for professional leadership and problem solving."  

Illinois Family Institute tries to link Professor Bergonzi to Bill Ayers

Perhaps the most disingenuous aspect about the OneNewsNow piece was the attempt by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute -- an organization affiliated with the American Family Association -- to link Professor Bergonzi to Bill Ayers. Ayers is the 1960s radical that Sarah Palin and others tried to link to Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Higgins told Chagnon that "That is quintessential social justice teaching...and Bill Ayers -- many people have heard of Bill Ayers [who] is at the University of Illinois the Chicago Circle campus -- is sort of one of the premiere contemporary advocates of this, and they view themselves as agents of social change.... I don't think that's the proper role of public educators."  

"Linking me to Ayers seems as an attempt at guilt by association," Bergonzi stated. "It's a bit ironic that groups attempting to link me to terrorism are themselves on the watch list of the highly respected Southern Poverty Law Center."

As a result of the OneNewsNow article, Bergonzi said that his inbox had "been getting a steady stream of 'mail.'" "Overall, the supportive ones were more powerful as they are inspiring, touching and personal, full of how lives have been changed by music teachers; the critical responses are pretty much all cut from the same cloth, not very thoughtful, with no apparent interest in dialogue."