Response to Froehlich Chp. 1
Hannah De Los Reyes
CP III
10/26/09
Response to Froehlich Chapter 1
My initial reaction was to disagree with Froehlich’s statement that the image of music teachers may be “overshadowed by one’s desire to fit into the community of musicians that music schools typically represent” (Froehlich pr. 8). I wanted to say that because there are so many music education students at Westminster, we do not have the same type of ‘community of musicians’ of which she speaks. But, the more I considered, the more I definitely agreed that this question of occupational identity is an extremely important and pervasive one. Even though we do have more education majors here, the students are not exempt from this feeling of uncertainty of their role in the musical community.
I think is seems like there tend to be two routes main to becoming a music teacher: (1) the performer who eventually falls into teaching and (2) the non-performer who always wanted to be a teacher. But, I think that one might argue that the second group is genuinely far less in number than it presents itself to be. Christer Bouij indicates in his article Two theoretical perspectives on the socialization of music teachers that the most desirable role in the music community is that of performer. He notes that when students feel that they cannot succeed as a performer they resign saying “I will become just a music teacher” (Bouij pg. 4). Many other students may feel pressure from their parents to have a financially stable career. Froehlich says that pursuing music education rather than performance is “a compromise that often pleases a student’s parents more than the student” (Froehlich pg. 10).
Shorty after I finished reading this chapter, I was talking to a friend from back home who is also a music student. He brought up this subject without my prompting saying that he often goes back and forth between feeling like a performer and a teacher. He told me that he felt like his main goal was to be a teacher, but his school environment focused more on making him a performer. It would appear that he is a case of one who always wanted to be only a teacher, but then I asked him to clarify that he did not want to be a performer. He said, “No. I do. I just want both, and I don’t want to perform in the way they want me to perform.” Meaning that he loves different styles of music and would love to be a rock performer. So even when it seems like the main goal of a student is to only be a teacher, there are often mixed feelings about occupational identity.
I know for myself that I do not fit clearly into the teacher identity, yet. I’ve never thought of myself as a solo performer, but I never wanted to be only a classroom teacher either. I could maybe see myself as a professional choral singer, but I know that I want to conduct as well. I picked music education because many authorities that I trust told me that it would be the best basis for what I want to do. But, I honestly felt a little disappointed when I started to learn all about elementary general music classroom teaching. That was not what I had envisioned myself doing at all. In addition, as Bouij puts it, “students have difficulties in adapting to the fact that they are not now learning for themselves, but in order to teach others” (Bouij pg. 4). I often find myself questioning how I could be a good music teacher when I am still learning music myself. And further, why am I spending so much time learning how to teach when I should be focusing on mastering the content?
So, even though there are a large number of music education students at Westminster, it does not really diminish the issues of occupational identity, especially because it is likely that a large portion of those music education majors have mixed motives for their choice.
Bouij, Christer. Two theoretical perspectives on the socialization of music teachers. Music Education Symposia, University of Massachusetts Amherst. 2003. <http://scholarworks.umass.edu/music_symposia/2>
Froehlich, Hildegard C., Sociology for Music Teachers: Perspectives for Practice. Pearson Prentice Hall. Copyright 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey.
