A reader writes:
“I retired from teaching music K-5 two
years ago. Still cannot read the children’s goodbye letters and
artwork. When the children heard (from a snarky colleague) that I
as leaving they cried and protested for 2 weeks. I remember a 3rd
grade boy in his music class who spontaneously dropped to his knees
and said, “You can’t leave! You are our only hope!” The person
hired after me phoned to ask questions about the position said she
thought they were hiring my assistant. As a graduate student she’d
read my articles and research on teaching children music… Since
leaving my wonderful students, I turned again to writing. The
manuscript is under review. Thank you, Diane Ravitch for your
advocacy.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I do feel that as a music teacher I have a better opportunity in terms of flexibility for creativity in my teaching. Now more than ever the class time and programs I do with the children will give great definition to their public education experience. I take it very seriously.
Fortunately I have a great principal and wonderful PTO. Support is excellent.
LikeLike
Retiring music teachers everywhere, thank you on behalf of my younger son and his cohort. I think you saved his life, around age 17, when a couple of his talented friends fell into despair, and we lost them altogether.
The clear and simple joy you can bring them from their musicality, while they’re young, might someday carry them through bright or dark times. You never know.
Joanna, now you and this young graduate student are their only hope, but don’t be worried. They’ll take it with them.
LikeLike
The same was done for me by my music teachers all the way through.
🙂
LikeLike
getting to folksy. As a retired teacher, keep to the “car crashes”. Every teacher has a story.
No mention that teaching has been controlled since the steam engine. We need to focus on the “new” benefits to the corporations and their foundations, Maybe one or two postings per week that are hard hitting or teachers will tune out to the site..
LikeLike
Teachers will NOT tune out this site. Disagree completely.
LikeLike
You have a cold heart.
LikeLike
Not you Linda. Mr anti folksy Mugavan.
Folksy is good.
Folksy is public school. Or it should be. You can be folksy and still be well-read, literate and wealthy.
Folksy keeps us humble.
LikeLike
Not to mention foundation money, Gates, comes with strings attached and we don’t need to prove the “benefits” to incompetent control freaks who have no intentions of improving authentic teaching and learning. Foist their experiments on their own children and get back to us on the results.
LikeLike
Joanna…it is the right brain/left brain thing. Music and music teachers give us so much joy.
We all post mainly the pain of this noble profession, and the assault on education, so today is a perfect time to laud the arts and music which make life worthwhile.
LikeLike
Mugivan–what is your story?
LikeLike
As you can probably guess, Joseph, this blog is not just to disseminate the latest corporate shenanigans. Teachers are here for the moral support as well. I hate to sound sexist, but your problem may be more a male issue. Men tend to be less tolerant of the touchy feely stuff and want to get right to the point. Tough. Learn to skim and skip over what doesn’t interest you. I do.
LikeLike
I wonder if I’ve also read the music teacher’s article and research on teaching children music.
I am both over-joyed and a little sad when my students decide to major in music in college. I’m over-joyed for obvious reasons: As music scholars, they love and want to contribute to the proliferation of music in society. However, I am sad because some seek to enter the teaching profession in the current climate. I know my struggles to find a job in a recession when music teaching positions were being cut, but the ridiculousness of what is going on in public education these days makes me hesitant to encourage these amazing kids to be teachers. Free-lancing is a tough career. Finding one steady performance gig is very difficult–musicians tend to have many masters for whom they work part-time and from whom they never receive health benefits. It’s a rough field that makes it challenging to support a family. Teaching is starting to move in the same direction. So I bite my lip, do my best to support them, and hope they can see it through. The way STEM is pushed in schools these days, you’d think everyone should be an engineer.
LikeLike
To all the music teachers here today, I say a big thank you.
My son, now an attorney with a son of his own, remembers with greatest love, his elementary school music teacher, Jackie Churchian. She loved the music and the world, and her musicians. She saw in this boy who was smallest in his class, a French Horn player. Much to our surprise he loved it.
In Oct., I am taking my son and 4 year old grandson, to hear Itzhak Perlman play a children’s concert at Disney Hall in LA.
Music teachers are great civilizers of their charges and add to their joy forever.
LikeLike