At an abbreviated burrito night tonight, Dingus, G and I were talking about the fact that DIngus would be pursuing the Music Ed degree at UNT even though he has no desire to become a band director (you should have seen the look I got from him just for asking that question). Though the MUED degree obviously has more inherent value than a performance degree (except for the fact that the latter, coming from UNT, would mean that one survived a fiercely competitive environment), it also means Dingus will have to take a lot of stuff he'll never use, such as the methods classes (where you learn to play [sort of] and hopefully teach all the different instruments; imagine Dingus playing, say, the cello) and three years of marching band (G and I laughed and pointed when he brought this up). I ended up with the same situation--taking a lot of classes full of "unused" knowledge or skills--even though I at least thought I was going to be a band director back in my young, misguided years.
The solution, it would seem, would be to have a MUED degree aimed specifically at future private instructors--a Bachelor of Private Teaching (BPT) degree, if you will. Some research would have to be done as to what would be required to attain this degree, but I'm soliciting suggestions from the readers of this blog (yes, all four of you) as to what the ideal BPT degree would definitely have or not have, while still fulfilling the requirements of the degree-granting institution. (C'mon, lurkers, this means you too. I've enabled anonymous comments on this blog, but please identify yourself at the end of your posting.)
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4 comments:
I wish the "powers that be" who decide what constitutes a degree could be as intelligent as most students. I don't think that a MUED degree at UNT or for that matter any other degree at any institution (how appropriate) of higher learning focuses on preparing one for their selected field. I came to this conclusion many, many years ago as a college student. In the fours years I spent earning my degree I was only required to take 30 credit hours that I would actually use in my chosen field. What about the other 98 you ask? Well of course they were the standard English, History, and other garbage that I already took in high school and passed to be able to get into college! Duh---what's wrong with this picture? I was pursuing an education degree but alas, they did nothing to teach me how to teach! Pardon the oversight; I did have 9 weeks of student teaching. And of course in 9 weeks you can learn everything. That's why there are so many wonderful teachers out there today. I would hope that the curriculums have changed over the years to include classes like "how to handle discipline in the classroom" and "how to not bore your students to death" but somehow I doubt it. Here's an idea.......what about ITT Teaching Institute? Cut thru the BS and train you for your job! Pass a proficiency exam for English (to make sure you can communicate intelligently and then go on to the important stuff. If you want to be a private music teacher, you'll not only receive instructions for your instrument of choice (which would include care, handling and repair so you could pass all of this pertinent info on to your students), but also business and tax courses so that you would know exactly how to deal with everything involved in being self employed. Of course you would need music history, music appreciation and all those other things but what you would NOT be doing is wasting your time on courses that you would never use! But I guess this concept is just too logical.
Hey, Anonymous, would you mind uncloaking? I haven't disabled anonymous comments on here because I know that some people don't want to get a Blogger account just to comment (kinda like I have with Xanga), but I would like for people who use that function to "sign" their posts.
But yeah, you may be right on something like an ITT (even the initials work!), though I'm sure the unions and everyone else who has a vested interest in all that crap we're put through in undergrad school would never let an idea like that see the light of day. *sigh*
This one's a bit hard for me to comment on... what with the rather large watery expanse and therefore cultural differences between us :)
BUT... I understand what ur saying about having a much more specific degree for those that want to do private teaching of music. I've felt the same about some IT degrees over here in Oz. However, I really can't comment as to what I'd expect in it - I spose I just don't know exactly how things operate in the private tuition area over there!
If I'd known in undergrad school what I know now, I would've gotten a "Double Ed" degree--Music Ed and Jazz Studies combined. It probably would've taken even longer to get my bachelor's than it already did...but I bet it would also have balanced things out by making my master's take less time, since I took so many undergrad jazz courses as electives during grad school anyway.
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