Teaching Today’s Kids: Inclusion, Accommodations, and Family Partnerships with Cortez Daniel

Alan and Steve talk with Athens, Georgia–based music educator and Tones Collective co‑founder Cortez Daniel about what he’s learning from teaching “today’s kids” in K–12 and community settings. Cortez shares how his work in public schools and with organizations like Evergreen Children’s Chorale and Tones Collective informs his approach to accommodations that maintain rigor, preventing learned helplessness, and meeting students with diverse needs—non‑verbal learners, English language learners, and blind students—where they are. They explore how he uses AI as an inclusion tool, why “relentless positivity” matters, what’s changed in students’ attention and motivation since pre‑pandemic days, and how inviting families’ skills and goals into the program can transform a music community.