My room today was filled with students.  This is not unusual for me obviously, but they were a little older than my usual bunch.  These were potential future teachers, sophomores testing the waters of what teaching music is all about.  My purpose was to guide and answer questions for them but it was also to make sure I was honest with them, because what they want to embark upon is not the easiest of professions, to say the least.

The data tells us that 50% of new teachers will leave the profession within five years.  How does that compare with other professions?  According to some research, the attrition rate for police is 28%, Architects, 23%, Lawyers, 19%, Engineers, 16% and Pharmacists 14%.   Several different studies state that attrition rates for music teachers range anywhere from 40-50%.  11% leave within the first year.  Why would a person spend 4-5 years earning a degree only to leave their chosen profession within a year?  I tend to believe it may be because we don’t honestly prepare them for what’s to come.

I have just started my 28th year and I’ll be honest, I think more about leaving the profession than staying.  It is not the same as it used to be.  My education prepared me to sing arias in many languages, analyze scores, and compare music from a historical perspective, but the national standards had not been created yet and I think I took one class in elementary methods with an adjunct professor, and an additional class on special education.  Other than an intro to education class, that was it.  As a new teacher, I made plenty of mistakes but I loved what I was doing enough to figure out the classroom management thing.  My administrative background, something I did before getting my teaching degree, has been a godsend when it comes to all of the administrative duties I find myself doing now.

Not much has changed in terms of teacher training. These students spend a great deal of time in specific lessons, participating in ensembles, learning how to play secondary instruments, theory and history, but methods classes are unrealistic as students are teaching their peers who never behave the same way their students will.  Yes, they discuss standards, but how do they relate to the students?  Are they more than just a way to write a lesson plan and choose activities?  What we tend to say is that no degree really prepares you to teach, but I believe that we train music teachers to be musicians rather than teachers.  It’s almost as if the music gets in the way of the teaching.  I believe it’s one reason music teachers are leaving in droves.  Yes, we need to be experts in our discipline, but teaching is it’s own art form, a difficult, intricate art form, and we do students a disservice if we are not honest with them and prepare them for the difficulty to come and solutions to help them through the process.

When I mentioned the percentage of attrition, the practicum students’ eyes widened.  None of them believe they will become disenchanted in such a short time and leave the profession.  I don’t want to discourage them, but I want them to enter the profession with eyes open.  Most of my time is not spent in actual teaching.  It is spent doing paper work, planning and professional development in things that many times are unrelated to teaching music.  Paper work that will make me accountable, professional development that sometimes has very little to do with my teaching but deals with things that should be handled by professional health professionals.  I spend time in meetings that take time away from preparing for teaching in the name of communication and accountability.  This is just the nature of the beast.

This is one reason why I insist that my student teachers attend every meeting and be a part of most of the paperwork.  I want them to fully understand what they are getting into.  I was so impressed with the thoughtful questions from these practicum students, the enthusiasm to learn.  I want them to love what they do and to love and take care of children through music.  But I also want them to stick with it for a while to make a lasting impact.  That’s why I’m trying to be truthful to our future teachers.