Several of the articles in this issue encourage us to re-think taken for granted attitudes and practice, to jolt us out of complacency. Take ‘creativity’ for example. The word tends to get bandied around as a catch-all, so that it loses touch with any specific meaning. Jere Humphreys, in his Point for Debate, ‘Toward a reconstruction of ‘creativity’ in music education’ takes the long view, and ranges from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to postmodernist ideologies. The basic tension (dualism) he identifies as being between realist and idealist positions, which leads him to conclude that creativity needs to be understood as a social construct. But there are no quick-fixes: to comprehend its significance requires us to consider psychological, cultural, and political/social and economic factors. Likewise,words such as ‘tradition’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘context’ tend to have politically correct connotations in connection with world music. But Huib Schippers, in his paper maintains that almost all music is transmitted out of context, and that the formal education system is a major exercise in recontextualisation. Music educators have to come to terms with what he calls the ‘global flow’.