He advocated teaching music with an emphasis on creating pleasing sounds, deriding the "machine-like chug-chug-chug-chug" that he heard from amplified bass instruments in 1950s rock and roll.
He encouraged all people to avoid placing too much emphasis on material objects at the expense of those things of significant beauty that required time and effort to appreciate.
In this early model for comprehensive musicianship, students sang and played the music, wrote essays, and took exams, receiving one half credit for each semester of work.
Earhart chaired a committee of prominent musicians consisting also of Walter Damrosch, Arnold J. Gantvoort, Oscar Sonneck and John Philip Sousa tasked with developing a singular, standard version of the Star Spangled Banner.
The committee was formed by the U.S. Bureau of Education at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson to recommend the official version of the song that would become the national anthem of the United States.
Despite doubts that it could be accomplished, Earhart organized and led an orchestra made up of conference members at the 1921 MSNC meeting, including Edward Bailey Birge on viola and Osbourne McConathy on French horn.
He continued to serve his profession until the end of his life, helping young teachers who sought his advice and writing articles for the Music Supervisors Journal supporting aesthetic education.