Good music lessons - Chapter 3
To conclude our series on good music teaching, we want to look at what contribution music school directors can make to the quality of music teaching and how politicians can create a favorable environment for them.
The ideal music school management supports the employed music teachers in their daily work, communicates transparently when it has to allocate additional work and ensures that the teachers can understand the allocation of workloads. It senses when someone feels disadvantaged and then seeks a discussion with the teacher concerned.
The music school management is aware that most teachers do not have a permanent position at their school, so they have to take on several jobs, whether as a music teacher, as a musician or in a completely different subject area. She therefore understands that the teacher cannot always be available for all school tasks outside of actual teaching, as this can otherwise lead to scheduling conflicts with commitments for other jobs. She takes into account that someone with a very small workload cannot take on as many additional tasks (meetings, presenting instruments, conventions, parent-teacher conferences) as someone with a large workload.
The music school management provides pleasant classrooms with natural light and tuned pianos in the music school, but also in external classrooms such as rooms in the elementary school, as well as an appropriate infrastructure in general.
She facilitates various forms of student performances, creates the basis for ensemble lessons and ensemble performances and attends as many student concerts as possible. Her feedback is benevolent and constructive so that the teacher can accept the criticism she receives because she feels valued.
The music school management thinks strategically, is imaginative in creating new additional teaching areas, and also takes up creative ideas from teachers and checks whether they can be implemented. For adult lessons in particular, it provides flexible subscription offers that could attract additional students.
The music school management is well networked and tries to improve the working situation of its employees in cooperation with the music school associations by campaigning for music lessons to be possible during normal school hours and for the planning of new school models to take into account that there must be space for music lessons in terms of time and location. In general, she advocates in politics that music lessons should not be seen as an unimportant hobby but as an important part of a comprehensive education.
It works together with other music schools, music school associations and professional associations for music teachers to create a legal basis for sufficiently high subsidies for the widest possible range of lessons.
Politics
This brings us to politics and the question of how it can support good music lessons: Politicians who support music education understand that a favorable environment for music education does not come cheap. They resist the temptation to cut funding for music lessons because they know that various studies have shown that music lessons are extremely beneficial for brain development, even if the first attempts on an instrument still sound awry. They understand that music lessons are therefore an important investment in the future. And they recognize that children and young people who receive musical training are more likely to join a music club or choir later on, i.e. clubs that later enrich the cultural life of the community. They therefore provide a reasonable budget for music lessons, and in education policy they are also committed to ensuring that space for music lessons is not forgotten when planning compulsory school lessons. In higher education policy, they are committed to ensuring that enough music teachers are trained in all classical and pop/jazz subjects, and they provide the financial resources for these courses.
