A Note on Music Teachers.

As you may or may not be aware, March is Music In Our Schools Month.  But hold on.  While I'm showering you with surprises, I had a past life in which I taught elementary classroom music for 6 years before I had ER.  I think I may have dropped that bomb on you before, but unfortunately I do not remember the context in which I did, ergo, I cannot provide a link back to the post wherein I mentioned my previous occupation.

I should write contracts.

But, I digress.

While I have no clue at this juncture in my life whether or not I will return to the music classroom, I have been forever marked by the experience of teaching music--the good and the bad of it.  With each day that passes, I am becoming further removed from the safe haven that teaching music provided for me, and I am becoming more OK with that as time goes by.  However, I am not so far removed that I don't have something that is still viable to offer my fellow music educators in terms of support.  And actually, I don't think I am going to offer music teachers with support this time; I think I will reach out to those of you who do not teach music and give you the support.

Music teachers celebrate Music In Our Schools Month from January to December.  Talking to them would be like preaching to the choir.

Go ahead, you may guffaw.  

*ahem*

A few things you may not know, or may have forgotten, about music teachers

• Before music teachers got accepted to their undergraduate school for their desired course of study, they needed to audition and be accepted to the school's music department; acceptance to either the school proper or the music department did not guarantee acceptance to the other.

• Music teachers are, in general, proficient on several instruments, can sing well, and have had multiple experiences performing with various groups.

This is me...just playin' the bass with the 5th grade orchestra...

• The music teacher you know might sing in a community chorus, be a member of a U.S. Military reserve band, or play in a professional orchestra, in addition to his teaching duties.

• Music teachers have a working knowledge about what type of instruments they recommend for their students (i.e. a Yamaha recorder, or NOT a clarinet from Wal-Mart).

All Yamahas, all the time.  Soprano in hand, alto at the ready.  5 months pregnant, btw.

• Music teachers are the music experts.  

• Music teachers are skilled at and are interested in lots of things, including: dance; art; math; reading; foreign languages; world history; physics; enjoying life; writing, etc., because you see, all of these things are inherent, to-the-core aspects of music.

Yeah, here I am, liking art.  And I'm making my kid like it, too.

• While the merit of a classroom teacher has been {nearly} reduced to the scores achieved on standardized tests behind closed doors in a quiet, unnaturally-controlled classroom, the merit of a music teacher is {more or less} put on display at least twice a year in a noisy, unpredictable gym/auditorium/gymnatorium/cafetorium during public performances for parents, administrators, and their non-music teaching colleagues--the toughest audience of all.

• A music teacher is not a DJ, and is not your personal iTunes library.  So, for example, ON St. Patrick's Day, do NOT call your music teacher in her office to ask if she has "some Irish music" because you'd like to listen to it later on in the day in your classroom during an "activity."  Because if she's quick on her feet and has a pair (which most female music teachers have been growing since day 1 of their first job), she will say, "No, sorry," with pleasantness in her voice, whether that is the truth or not.

• Music teachers who are certified in Orff-Schulwerk worked their ASSES off at grad school.  Don't know whether or not a music teacher is Orff certified?  Ask him.  He'd love to talk about it with you.  

The take-home message is this: Music teachers are people too and it's ok to cut them a break once and a while.  They don't just clap little rhythms to kids.  They don't have to like, or even care about, American Idol.  If you ask them if they saw it last night and they said no, get over it.   

The next time you want to ride a music teacher's tail about not doing this, or doing that instead of the other, or giving them a demeaning task because they're "just" the music teacher and they're probably not doing anything important, I want you to stop and have a good, hard think about what your community would be like without them around.  Do you really want to live in a society where the music education available to students is either a) non-existant or, b) provided by an untrained instructor?  Because an untrained math teacher would sure as hell not be permitted to do their job.  

And one more thing.  You can't get this out of a 2-year old with math: