There are certain pieces of paper that are obviously important in our lives.  Our birth certificate, social security card, marriage certificate, death certificate, etc, all of which require no more than to jump through certain hoops in a certain order at a certain time.  Academics are the same way, with the same necessary jumping, however, there is the assumption that with each piece of paper, you are somehow smarter, more qualified than those who have no degree or perhaps a lesser degree.  If I pay enough money at the right time for the right number of courses in a certain amount of time and receive certain grades, I too can hold one of these coveted pieces of paper.  Can I succeed in life without it?  You bet, but I’m not always sure that those who have jumped through more hoops than I always agree with that.

I hold a Bachelors of Music Education Degree.  This means I spent four years jumping through the right hoops to earn that degree and the rights and privileges that go with it.  Over the years I gained many more credits, enough for a Master’s degree and then some, but not all from the same institution. People assume that because I’ve been teaching so long that I must have my Masters.  Nope, I don’t. Does it make me any less smart?  No,  Does it make me any less educated?  No, I just don’t have the prescribed courses all in a row from a single institution of higher learning.  And yet, I’ve been able to, with the help of great colleagues, work my way through the ranks of music education professionals to now sit on the National Executive Board of the National Association for Music Education.  I can guarantee that the others who sit on this board as well as its societies and councils all have greater degrees than I do.  And this is not a bad thing as I learn from them every time we get together.  But for some reason there’s an assumption that you can’t pursue these types of opportunities unless you have a Dr. in front of your name or PhD behind it.

I want to say again, that I believe I am where I am today because people believed in me enough to encourage me to pursue these opportunities.  And most of them hold higher degrees than I do, but they don’t treat me differently because of it.  However, there is a caste system of sorts in academia where some who have gone through the hoops consider themselves more of an expert in the field than maybe those of us with only one degree.  Despite the fact that I have nearly 30 years of experience in the field, someone who has, let’s say, five years of experience but who has attained advanced degrees may feel they are more the expert.  Why?  It’s the difference between what some might call book learning versus practical experience.

Unfortunately, a vast majority of courses taught to prepare music teachers are on the impractical side, courses chosen by the higher ups in the world of academia, who might not have as much of a practitioners perspective.  Perhaps it’s been a while since they’ve been in the classroom or they weren’t in the classroom very long, but I often question the hoops that students must jump through to garner their undergraduate degree.  For instance, it’s great to learn about music theory by analyzing Mozart, but how about including how to write or arrange things for your future middle or high school ensemble as well?  It’s great to learn about the history and style differences of the classical composers, but how about more popular styles as well to speak to kids where they are and compare the two?  And while it’s important to teach future teachers how to play various instruments, it’s more important to teach future teachers how to teach those various instrument to others, especially beginners.

And then there are evaluations that must be done in order for the student to graduate.  Another hoop, but if the hoop is required, it should be meaningful to the person being evaluated.  It should also be a model for the student in terms of how they should be evaluating their future students.  It’s important to have a good foundational base in the subject matter and to be musically literate yourself, but it’s the art of teaching those things to future students that should be the most important.

As I vent a little bit about these issues, I also know that there are things about the process of creating college curricula that I don’t completely understand.  I learned many years ago that it’s easy to be the armchair quarterback if you’ve never actually been a quarterback.  I have been a part of academics for what feels like my whole life, and have sat on boards and committees and attended various training for many different aspects of education from the local to the state to the national level, but there are still areas that I don’t completely understand because I have not been immersed in it.  That right there would be the only reason why I would perhaps continue, at my advanced age, to pursue a terminal degree.  In order to be considered “qualified” to be in the middle of what I feel needs to be addressed, despite my years of experience, means I must jump through the hoops to get the piece of paper that suddenly earns me the right to be taken more seriously.

So, do I play the game or do I try to prove that there are other ways to have my voice heard?  That remains to be seen. As always, I will follow my passion for what I do, learn as much as I can and use my voice to support music education and music teachers to the best of my ability.  With or without the paper.