For December, cartoonist Tom Batiuk, a friend of music educators, presents a new Halle Dinkle cartoon for MENC members (above). A Lowell Mason Fellow, Batiuk was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his comic strip, Funky Winkerbean.
Batiuk was a big part of Music Education Week in Washington in June, 2009, drawing a strip for U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan on behalf of MENC.
A former middle school teacher, Batiuk took the stage with Duncan for the presentation of the cartoon during a rally at the U. S Department of Education.
Halle Dinkle cartoons formerly appeared in MENC’s Teaching Music, then moved to the MENC Web site in 2009. In a series of interviews with MENC the cartoonist discussed his working process, and his interest in music education.
Batiuk’s themes are timely, as this cartoon from earlier in 2009 demonstrates. Is your program facing possible budget cuts? Looking for ways to advocate for your music program? MENC’s Advocacy Web site offers research, anecdotes, quotes and other material, through the SupportMusic “Make Your Case” database, which offers compelling reasons for strong support of school music programs.
Or log on as a member and visit MENC’s forums to discuss concerns with other music educators.
Look for new Batiuk cartoons on the MENC Web site in 2010.
—Roz Fehr, December 3, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education
