The Kodaly Method I: Comprehensive Music Education (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: The Definitive book on the Kodaly Method
Review: I read the first edition of Choksy's "Kodaly Method" after my first year of teaching, and thought, "why didn't they teach me this in college?". The next year, I bought the second edition when it came out, and used it as a guide for teaching for many years. It had become so tattered and worn, but I still referred back to it. I broke down and bought the third edition last summer, while doing my level 2 Kodaly certification. I wasn't sure I wanted to pay that much for the book, but it has been worth it.
For anyone starting out in teaching music, you need this book. It gives grade by grade guidance of what to teach, how to teach it, and suggested materials to use. You might not set up your curriculum exactly as stated in the book, but you will definitely find useful teaching examples for the main concepts at each grade level.
The song anthology in the back has been expanded and is more complete than ever before. There is quite a bit of pedagogical information for each song, that is included in this edition.
My only question is "Why don't American colleges and universities use this method as the basis for preparing its teachers?". It is definitely the most thorough and sound foundation to build upon at the undergraduate level; then procede into Orff-Schulwerk training at the graduate level. Both of these approaches have been so integrated into American music teaching, they deserve more intensive study in teacher preparation than the casual mention or superficial discussion that they seem to currently receive.