Confessions of a Retired Music Teacher - Part I

I have always wanted to write something. Apparently this is it.

Introductions are in order. Reader - retired music teacher. Retired music teacher - reader. Now with that out of the way, I can begin my confessions.

I am a retired music teacher. There, I said it. I am retired. Since I have only had two jobs in my entire life, the fact that I am now unemployed is difficult to comprehend. As July would normally be my downtime even when I was teaching band, choir and elementary music, I don't miss teaching...yet.

Not too many teachers stay in their first job unless they have some connection to that community. I must be an exception. Though I had no connection to my school community (in fact, my wife and I moved 250 miles for this teaching gig), I stayed put for 30 years.

Why does one pull the proverbial plug after what most people say was 30 years of successfully and musically educating America's youth? The answer is hoops.

Being a public school teacher is not the noble profession it was when my career began. I remember an undergrad college professor telling us that teachers were on the same plane of regard as priest/minister/rabbi. Public school teachers are now the whipping posts of politicians. All of society's ills, most of which are linked to economic disadvantage, are instead placed on the heads of America's public school teachers.

In that we are deemed lazy and derelict merely by our choice of vocation, we are therefore required to jump through the many, ever-changing hoops set before us by law makers. Most of these law makers answer to wealthy political contributors, so in order to continue reaping those benefits they must legislate hoops for educators to jump through. When teachers are successful in jumping through the hoops set before them, the law makers and their sponsors decide that the hoops must be too low and therefore must be raised. The ultimate goal of this ongoing exercise is for the law maker to rub his or her hands together and gleefully shout, "Ah-HA! I knew you were all lazy incompetents! We MUST privatize education and treat it as any other business!"

Just between us, Big Business is outraged that public school education is a multi-billion dollar industry that actually pays the folks doing the work rather than CEOs, CFOs. board members, etc. That flies in the face of what is holy to the uber-rich. If you get the impression that I do not fancy politicians or billionaires, you would be correct.

The younger kids have changed over the years as well. When I began teaching, young kids were full of wonder. They were like sponges absorbing all teachers could offer. Due to media and internet bombardment, along with a digital pacifier stuck in their tiny faces from birth, young children have an attention span similar to a house fly. I still enjoyed working with high school kids when I retired. The younger kids... eh - not so much.

Well, that is introduction part one. Don't worry - this isn't going to be a political diatribe with each blog entry. I may even entertain you now and then!