Klarinet Archive - Posting 000174.txt from 1997/08

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Kids Today
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 11:53:52 -0400

On Wed, 6 Aug 1997, Karl Krelove wrote:

> Speaking as an experienced school music teacher, I wish the only problem
> were inadequate course work. I need to tell you something that most
> schoolteachers figure out after they've been on the job a few years: one
> learns most of what you've mentioned (and much more) on the job, from
> your more experienced colleagues,=A0 your students' questions, and your o=
wn
> mistakes. No one will ever come out of a college program in any area of
> education adequately prepared to do anything but continue to learn.=20
[...........]

Thanks for that healthy dose of reality and common sense. I was a music
teacher in the public schools for 6 years and have been teaching music
education students at the university level for 32 years. The principal of
the school in which I first taught, who rarely said anything that made any
sense, did tell me one thing which I found to be true and which I have
never forgotten. He said that no matter where you go to college or what
kind of teacher training program you may experience, you will learn more
about teaching in your first year of teaching than you did in your entire
college curriculum. =20

Music education students need to realize that there never has been a
single new teacher who was completely and thoroughly prepared for teaching
when they began their career. Some of them learn to overcome this, some
merely become frustrated and blame their colleges for not "preparing them
better."

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy=09=09=09University of Evansville
Professor of Music=09=091800 Lincoln Avenue
=09=09=09=09Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu=09=09(812)479-2754
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