Klarinet Archive - Posting 000604.txt from 1998/06

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Beginner students
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 15:00:00 -0400

On Thu, 18 Jun 1998 GTGallant@-----.com wrote:

> Lets face it, how many music "educators" on the 1-12 grade levels can
> actually play their OWN instrument, nevertheless teach ALL instruments?
> Most school music teachers I've run across can't play their way out of a
> wet paper bag!

There are many sides to this question. First, it would be well to realize
that there are also many great performers who can't _teach_ their way out
of a wet paper bag. An understanding of music and of the requirements for
successful performance are necessary in order to be an effective teacher,
but performance ability does not insure teaching ability. I have known
teachers who taught musicianship at a very high level but who themselves
had not been performers for a very long time.

This is one of the reasons that music education students are considered
somehow inferior at many larger universities and conservatories. There
are always those who will take the position that persons cannot teach
an instrument unless they are able to perform at a professional level on
that instrument. Thus, the result of this thinking is that music
education majors, for whom performance is necessarily not emphasized as
much as in the case of performance majors, are somehow second-class
citizens. Unfortunately, taking this line of thinking to its logical
conclusion would mean that no one would ever qualify to be a music
educator in the public schools.

I cannot agree that a strict diet of private instruction is the panacea.
This must of course form the core of the education of the performing
musician, but expert teachers can do much teaching in the class
situation, also.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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