Excellence Without Excuses...A Music Teacher's Odyssey

Growing up in the segregated South, Joyce Garrett dreamed of becoming a high school music teacher patterned after her high school choral director. She got that opportunity when hired by the District of Columbia Public School System in the turbulent mid-1960s. In a career encompassing over 30 years, she managed to inspire and greatly impact the lives of countless students through building a world class choral music program. The "Excellence Without Excuses" program emphasized more than music. Students were taught life skills and the importance of accountability, dependability, hard work, and academic achievement culminating with a world class performance at the prestigious International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. These accomplishments lead to special invitations including the White House, international travel, performances with Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Patti Labelle, among many others, and the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show with Bruce Springsteen.
How did this group of Washington, DC high school singers overcome the challenge of participating in a prestigious international competition in Vienna, Austria? This memoir follows the life and 30-year DC Public Schools career of honored educator Joyce Garrett who founded the "Excellence Without Excuses" program, using choral music to teach perseverance, self-discipline, and higher education. This book chronicles how she inspired her students to reach beyond their immediate grasps, lead purposeful lives, and fulfill their dreams.

Joyce Garrett is an honored music educator, choral director, and founder of the "Excellence Without Excuses" youth-intervention choral program During her 30-year teaching career at Eastern High School in Washington, DC, she received numerous notable awards, among them the Readers Digest "American Heroes in Education" and Washingtonian magazine's "Washingtonian of the Year." Her choir placed second in the prestigious "International Youth and Music Festival" in Vienna, Austria, which landed appearances at the White House, the Today Show (NBC), and CBS Sunday Morning. For 25 years, she served as Choral Master for two yearly TV specials, "The Kennedy Center Honors" (CBS) and "Christmas in Washington" (NBC/TNT).

Marion Woodfork Simmons is a family and community historian who empowers and assists ordinary people in preserving history by transforming their memories, photographs, and memorabilia into compelling local history books or memoirs. She became an author after noticing a scarcity of written information about the communities where her ancestors lived.

Simmons has received several awards for preserving local history, including recognition from the Board of Supervisors of Caroline County, Virginia, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Paul Edward Sluby, Sr. Meritorious Achievement, and the Annual Caroline Historical Society Award.

She gives presentations on researching, documenting, and preserving local history to genealogy and local history groups.