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John is the founder and volunteer president of America Sings! Inc., a non-profit organization that encourages young performers to use their time and talents for community service.With a bachelor's degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master's Degree in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, John is recognized internationally as a creative and motivating speaker for teachers and students, school boards and parent associations.

He is the author and composer of many musicals and choral works that have been performed by millions of children worldwide, as well as educational videos and tapes that have helped music educators excel in their individual teaching arenas. He has staged hundreds of huge music festival ensembles in his association with Walt Disney Productions and directed productions featuring thousands of young singers including NBC's national broadcast of the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade, presidential inaugurations and more.  

John stars in children's musical and exercise videotapes, most recently the series Jjump! A Fitness Program for Children and is the Senior Contributing Writer for John Jacobson's Music Express magazine.

John's book " A Place in The Choir: Finding Harmony in a World of Many Voices" is rapidly becoming a staple with music teachers worldwide. He is an author on the new Macmillan-McGraw Hill textbook series Spotlight On Music. John has done workshops for music teachers in every state in the union as well as numerous overseas conferences. No listener leaves a presentation from John Jacobson unmoved or unchanged for the better.In this interview, John reflects on educational issues and his latest endeavor to improve the lives of children everywhere!

1) John, I understand that after many years of leading America in song, you are going to try to run for Congress. What prompted this decision?

The short answer is…I love my country. I believe in service.

I have a great life.I have profession I absolutely love. This country has been very good to me. And that is precisely why I need to run.I have always believed in service. It is something my nine brothers and sisters and I were taught as children by our parents and grandparents. Like my friend Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Find says, service is the rent you pay for living.

Twenty years ago I started a non-profit company that empowers young people involved in the arts to use their gifts to help others.That was something I felt qualified to do at 30 years old and it has been incredibly gratifying and successful changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people some in little and some in grand ways.Now, I am fifty-one. And my ability to do service has matured and I feel ready to serve in a new way.

You are fair to ask, what possible credentials do you have? What makes you qualified to represent anybody? All I can say is this; I will run for office on the platform that has defined my entire life, a platform of family virtue and American values. As I told you I come from a family of ten children. My father was raised on a farm as one of ten children himself. Most of them and most of my siblings grew up to be come teachers because we were taught through example that there may not be a more noble profession on the planet that that of the educator of children. I have spent the last 28 years traveling this country working with young people and teachers alike. And here is what I have learned.

All God's children got A Place in the Choir. I even wrote a book by that title. I dedicated it to my mother because as we were growing up there was a practice in our house at dinnertime, especially in those years when all ten of us were still in school you see we were ten kids in ten years.) There were very few evenings when all of us were home at the same time for dinner. But my mother's practice was to set the table for all 12 of us. She would then fill all the plates as we took our places. Then before any one ate we would look around the table to see who wasn't there. My mother would remove those plates to the refrigerator or oven so when those siblings came home for football practice, or church choir or whatever there would at least be a late full of food for them.

Believe me, then the eating frenzy began. But what we all learned from that example was that this is the way the world ought to work. Look around. Make certain that everyone is taken care of before you necessarily help your self. Music teachers do this so wonderfully. They always make place for every kid in their choir. There is always a flag to hold, a curtain to pull, a line to read, a light switch to switch. There is always a place for every kid in the choir, as there ought to be in the choir that is humanity. When the rest of the world catches up with music teachers and my mother it's going to be a better world.

So this I why I want to be a congressman.

I am thrilled at the notion that we might have a woman as president and a Black man as vice president. I am equally thrilled that it might be the other way around.But in truth, in heartfelt truth, I pray that when peopleactually cast their vote they are not thinking Woman, black man, liberal, conservative, Progressive, even Democrat, Republican but are looking to the very essence of that human being and thinking " ah yes! I live in a land where all are indeed created equal and I am proud to be represented by this good person."

2) Since you have been involved in music education- what changes do you think need to be made in the American education system?

Let me limit my answers to the federal government's role in education since I am running for a federal position. Otherwise, we'll be here all day.

First - Congress should immediately reauthorize and fund the Forest County and Schools program, which ensures a predictable payment to federally impacted forest counties, removing dependency on timber revenues to fund education. I strongly support increasing Title I and other ESEA resources and targeting those resources to help high-poverty students.It is unreasonable to believe that we can achieve the goal of quality schools for all without paying for it. Public education provides us more and better return on our investment as a nation than any other use of public funds.Fully fund federal educational mandates such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA.)This is a basic promise that we make to states and local schools.

Second - The federal government should supplement and support state efforts to provide a quality education for each student.The US Constitution is clear in giving individual states the authority to establish public educational systems that meet state goals.The federal role in education should be limited to those areas where federal assistance enhances state's efforts (special education, technology infrastructure, supporting anti-poverty efforts, and more.)

Next - I would advocate for removal of the "stick" approach of punishment and retribution as a way to enforce federal educational reform standards.The federal government does not care more about the students than the individual school district, teachers, parents and citizens.

Teachers are professionals who should be supported in their efforts to serve the diverse gifts and needs of their students. If a student is failing, the problem is known by the teacher before anyone else, and the ability to work with other support professionals to find a successful solution should be a school-level, child-centered team approach without concern that the school's standing will be impacted by high-need students.

By focusing on individualized solutions, small class size, and adequate funding, public schools and the children they serve, can and will succeed. In order to maximize effectiveness of all educational programs, the broader levels of government ought to support ongoing research and development of successful methodology used by master teachers, encouraging and providing incentives for their proven programs and innovative approaches.

Fourth - Paraphrasing Oliver Wendell Holmes who is purported to have said,"The first generation of Americans studied war so that the next generation could study business and industry so that the next generation could study the arts." Surely we have progressed that far by 2008. I hope you agree that some of the most important things we ever learned, we learned through music.

ABCD, Buckle Up For Safety, I'm Just a Bill. Roger (Emerson) and I wrote a musical entitled The Musical Adventures of Lewis and Clark.Dead on 5^th grade curriculum.The fifth grade classroom teacher came down to the music room and said, "What are you teaching down there in that music room behind the boiler?The music teacher responded. "Why? What do you mean?""Well, we started our unit on the explorers with the fifth graders to day, and I asked them if any one knew anything about Lewis and Clark, and the whole class sang,"It was eighteen-four not a day before, they left my home and family!"

Now that may not be crucial knowledge, but they are going to remember it their entire life because they learned it through music. Now you might say, "That's all fine and well."And the truth is they may have learned that anyway in their social studies classes, in the same way they might learn their multiplication tables with my song about Conga Math.But my question is, who is going to teach them life's most important lessons?Who will teach them about concepts like honor and passion, tolerance and compassion and what it means to be a part of something larger than themselves?Who is going to teach them about what it truly means to be human? I'm not making this up, research has consistently backed me upon this, at the same time confirming that the concepts of flexible thinking, imagination, improvisation and the like are taught not just as well through the arts but better!

I truly believe that the arts, blended with good science and technology, are the skill needed most in the 21^st century. If we embrace this, we won't have to worry that there are a billion Chinese or Indians ready to take our jobs. We have something they don't have: American ingenuity and creativity, and it has never been overshadowed. However, it must be nurtured by consistent emphasis on arts education.

Finally - Blend any Universal Health Care initiatives into an overall approach to children's wellness so that all children come to school everyday ready to learn.This includes identification of chronic problems such as obesity and diabetes and returning vitally important physical education and health education programs to every school's curriculum every day.

It also includes healthy school lunches and the availability of healthy snacks at school instead of sugary foods and carbonated beverages. This is why I started a fitness program for children called Jump!The federal government must play a leadership role in this effort.Healthy kids learn better. Send teachers healthy children, and they will teach them.

3) Since this is an education posting, what are your main education concerns?

See above answer and remember above all,

"It's the kids, Stupid!"(Apologies to all language teachers)

4) How do you see illegal immigration affecting education?

These are very complicated issues.

We are a nation of immigrants. Every year, a million people enter the country legally and another 500,000-800,000 people come illegally. I believe that most of people come here with the sincere desire to make a positive contribution to the American Dream. Our immigration system is broken and the result is that good people, full of dreams, become criminals. Consequently, everybody suffers, including the schools these children attend.

I believe, we need to have secure boarders and legal ways for immigrants to come to our country, work and go home to be with their families. We should also be putting pressure on our neighboring countries to do better by their own citizens so that there are real opportunities to replicate the American Dream in their native countries.This would of course include re-examining trade deals and even human rights issues.

5) I once heard that " if you put a musical instrument into a child's hands early enough, those same hands will never hold a gun or knife to harm or injure another person". Would you increase funding for instrumental music as well as choir etc?

We under fund arts of all kinds at our peril. It is unconscionable that in this day and age we even consider making cuts in the areas where children are most effectively taught the concepts of cooperation, flexible thinking, passion, compassion, honesty, courage, integrity and what it means to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We CAN afford it and it MUST be a priority.

6) Do you have a web site John, where people can learn more about you? and what you stand for ?

Thank you for asking. Johnjacbsonforcongress.com

You can go their and read issue statements, make a large or not so large contribution (boy! is it expensive to run a campaign!) send me a message or register to help.

I'm serious about the expense part. I hope that your readership of educators nationwide will recognize the value of having one of their own with a seat in Congress and help me financially to achieve it. The votes I make will affect teachers and their students nationwide.

7) What last position statement do you want to make?

A few years ago I wrote a piece called the Music Teacher's Creed. Now, I've modified it a bit to speak for what I hope will be the tone and tenor of my campaign for Congress.I call it A Candidate's Creed(or in my case) A Place In The Choir Congress!

A Candidates Creed

I want to be your Representative.

In this endeavor I vow that I will be honest so you and others can trust me.

I will be strong.
I will be brave.
I will be a friend to the friendly and the friendless.
I will lift others up.
I will look and listen for hidden beauties in my constituents, in my opponents and in my peers.
I will toss harmony onto the world.
I will use my candidacy to help others to hear as well as to listen,
And to listen to understand.
I will use my candidacy to help others
Not just to exist with freedom but to live in freedom.
I will use my candidacy to help others to be true
And to see merit in the cause.
I will keep my standards high but my eyes closed to the small faults of those around me.
I will be an "instrument of peace" and joy and light,
And I will help others find genuine joy in each and every day and peace with the Impossible.
I will cultivate a love for America, as well as hope, truth, honesty, kindness, strength, perseverance, compassion, gentleness, discipline, dedication, pride, humility, wisdom,
And, most of all, courage.
I will try to demonstrate through my work that making a living is not nearly so rewarding as making a life.
I will use my candidacy to help others to look up instead of down.
I will use my candidacy to encourage a yearning for
Elegance, rather than luxury.
Refinement, rather than fashion.
Wealth, rather than riches.
Giving, rather than taking.
Life, rather than resignation.
I will be a model of joy.
I will be a banner of hope.
I will help others to be great,
And, above all, I will always remember that it is NOT "us" and "they" but
WE the people of the United States.

Alas, when my candidacy is over, win or lose, I pray that I will be able to look at my reflection and say that through it all, I upheld and defended perhaps the finest document ever penned: The Constitution of the United States Of America.

Published March 17, 2008