What I want to do

I’m not happy with my job.

There are many reasons, but a few major ones:

• I trained to be a band teacher, and that was taken away from me, due to budgetary constraints.
• I only received minimal training in the General Music area (read this University profs, you need to cover more!), yet that is my full time job now.
• My salary is dependent on the whims of the politicians in AZ, who to be quite frank, scare the living daylights out of me sometimes.
• The time I do have to educate children about the wonders of music, which is already minimal, is subject to interruptions from testing and other school related activities.

I’ve spent the past couple of years thinking about what I want to do with my career, the prospects of being able to do that while still living in the place that I want to, and how successful I would be in light of the ever-changing state of public education here in AZ.

Community and Public School Music Education

It is interesting to me that I chose to work in the public education sector, when my music education didn’t begin there as it does for many people. I began my musical life as a four year old in the Suzuki method. The Suzuki method is a very community based system here in the US. I spent many Saturday mornings (missed a lot of cartoons [sad-face]) taking master classes and other related activities with other Suzuki students. I can also remember at least a few different trips to Suzuki summer camps.

When I traveled to Germany and the Netherlands in 2007, I learned a bit about the music education over there, or at least in the areas I visited. In the areas I visited, music education is addressed more on a community level rather than in the public schools. In this situation, members from the community participate in the music program, and their community ensembles are made up of all different age categories. I found it to be an interesting take on music education.

Music Education in Arizona/United States

There is a lot of controversy in the US/Arizona regarding funding for government programs, with public education being one of the larger expenses. Additionally, there is a strong demand for ‘accountability’ in public schools, which is resulting in more money and time being spent on analyzing the education of our students, and less on the actual learning of the students. As a result, music education and other ‘non-core’ subjects are being pushed to the side to make sure the students are getting all of the important testing time they apparently need.

What I want to do

I’ve had a growing desire to start working with or starting my own out of school music program. My eventual goal would be to have private lessons, master classes, and performing ensembles all under the same organization. Ideally, during the weekdays, adults could take lessons and master classes, and maybe even have small ensembles, after school, kids could come take lessons and master classes. Ensemble rehearsal times would depend on the make-up of the group: i.e. school age students would rehearse in the late afternoon/early evening, adult groups could be during the day, and the weekends would be available as well.

Facilities would include rooms for private lessons, larger rooms for master classes, large rehearsal rooms, and a performance hall.

Delusions of grandeur maybe, but it’s a vision I can’t shake. I think it can, and it will, happen some day.

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