Submitted by Linda Lawson, Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Idea posted July 9, 2004
Several of you have mentioned not having music textbooks. Students here in Kentucky are tested by the State Department of Education in music, so many districts provide music books for the students. When textbooks are adopted, the old ones are often just stored or discarded. Most are still in mint condition.
Last year, two of my schools consolidated. The Superintendent adopted a school on an Indian reservation and requested that the district schools donate obsolete books to them. We discovered many books in storage rooms that were sitting unused.
If your school needs music books, you might consider contacting a district with school closures to request donations, or make an offer to purchase old books less expensively. (Our school had complete sets of four different series of music books and records which were just going to waste. I was thankful to pass them along to others who could use them.)
Another suggestion for obsolete books and records is to place a set in the school library so that other teachers and students can enjoy them.