As a profession, music education has long been plagued by a sense of its own inadequacy, particularly in the area of school music. This brief essay suggests that factors which contribute to this condition include the common acceptance of the notion that the primary function of music is to amuse and entertain and the concomitant rejection of serious music in favour of insubstantial ‘popular’ repertoire. The paper calls practitioners to a thoughtful re-evaluation of the value of music and the proper purposes of music education. The author concludes with the recommendation that the objectives of aesthetic education be adopted as foundational to the practice of music education.