Conservative?

I want to address Woodford's statement that "music teachers are notoriously conservative". First of all this statement immediately puts me on the defense. I don't consider myself to be conservative when it comes to my music. On my own time I enjoy all varieties of music and I'm always listening to new things. In a classroom I would be comfortable teaching any genre of music. My personality might be more reserved at times, and I may not always talk in class but I still have very passionate views on things. In a survey taken in England and Whales it was discovered that although popular and ethnic music was studied in school, the majority of the teachers felt more comfortable teaching classical music. Even though their students were more receptive to the popular music, teachers ignored those connections to stay inside their own comfort zones. At the end of all the statistics, Woodford makes this comment. "In short, music education in England and Whales (and in North America, too) is out of touch with current school and social realities." I am uncomfortable with this assumption Woodford makes. First of all this survey was taken in England. How can these results be transferred into the United States school system? Was there a similar study done here? I would agree that not every school is striving to teach popular music. There are teachers who have been doing their job for a very long time and may not feel as equipped to teach rap or hip/hop. However, this does not give the leeway for such a blanket statement to be made. In our education here at Westminster Choir College, one of the more classically focused schools, we are encouraged to step outside of our comfort zone and connect with our students using their music. To honor their wold and use students current emerging culture to connect with them, while inserting our knowledge of the past. Even if we are not being expressly told to focus that way, our common sense steps in. Examples from our own music experiences influence us on how we want to teach children. If we had bad musical experiences where we were bored and not interested, we want to be the opposite and challenge students and help them enjoy the experience. If we had great experiences we as teachers, want to continue that experience and add our own flavor to it. In the survey the typical picture of the teachers who participated was of a classically trained musician who had just entered teaching from a traditional music degree. To my thinking, if you can see that your students are not engaged and not interested and you do nothing to change that in any way, you are not a good teacher. If a teacher feels more comfortable doing one thing all the time because that's what is familiar, then I happened to feel that they should not be a teacher. They need to put their education to good use! Where is the passion for teaching and spreading knowledge? I may be a few things, but passive and conservative about music I am not!