I once heard a music professor say, "if everything is accented, nothing is accented." We've all seen a 16-bar phrase of music with every note accented. When we play the ink precisely as it is written, the music sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown — monotonous, boring and predictable.

Time is a precious commodity. As music teachers, we not only have to protect classroom time, but we have to carve out a few minutes (or hours!) here and there to take care of our must-do, non-negotiable tasks.

One of the most effective actions we can take as music teachers is to seek an understanding of our entire school and community and not just our music program.

Yes, you read the title of this article correctly — please proceed with caution because this topic may offend most music teachers.