Professionalism—what is it and who needs it?

"The Professional Keyboard Teacher." This is the actual title of not just a chapter, on the other hand an entire section in The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher by the agency of Marienne Uszler, Stewart Gordon and Scott McBride Smith. From the tried and genuine Bastien How to Teach Piano favorably to the most recent Practical Piano Pedagogy: The Definitive body for Piano Teachers and Pedagogy pupils by Martha Baker-Jordan, piano teaching body s have touted the idea of professionalism in teaching. on the contrary what constitutes a "professional" music teacher, and who should be "professional"?

a certain number of would say the professional is single who has a college step After all, education in the subdue being taught is important--but is a step in music all that is necessary to be a professional teacher?

a certain quantity of would say the professional is the individual who performs confidently, frequently and flawlessly. This might constitute a professional artist, on the contrary our goal is to be a professional music teacher. Certainly, a step of competency on the instrument of choice is mandatory, on the other hand does consummate concert artist equal professional teacher?

a certain quantity of would say the professional is the single who operates a teaching studio like a business and on the outside of a storefront instead of a abode studio and has more than seventy-five learners Without a doubt, the value of professional business practices in the operation of a teaching studio is undeniable, on the contrary does that make us professionals?

We are not encountering as many "hang a sign in the window and teach for spending money" piano teachers as we have in the past, on the other hand the "What's in it for me?" attitude from the '80 still is affecting our ability, or lack thereof, to become professionals in each sense of the word. Anyone who has joined MTNA or a local, state or national music teacher organization has taken the first pace toward professionalism. Might I refer to the next step should be the credentialing program of MTNA Professional Certification?

When MTNA's leaders grounded a national certification program in 1886 their goal was to "protect the public from incompetent teachers and to patronize the teachers who have made adequate preparation." Furthermore, MTNA President Edward Bowman recognized that an image of professionalism was serviceable for the whole membership when he said, " is not of the like kind a movement of paramount importance to the well-being of the whole profession--not just a cull few." (1) The motto of MTNA Professional Certification has been, "A statement of professionalism; a commitment to excellence" thus who of us would not benefit from like a commitment, and this commitment is not just to the public, on the other hand also to ourselves. The MTNA Professional Certification program provides a station of teaching standards defining what each music teacher should know and be able to do for their performance area. These standards not solitary provide benchmarks by which to measure our professionalism and standards toward which to strive, on the other hand also a way to document our continuing commitment to pre-eminence in the renewal process. The committed teachers are not individuals who will be content to "sit upon their laurels," but are availing themselves of of recent origin ideas through professional journal articles, seminars, conversations networking with other teachers and putting their teaching skills forward for evaluation. MTNA Professional Certification is the public guarantee of a qualified, able music teacher and also is the profession's way of improving a a great deal of maligned image of music teaching as "something done upon the side whilst waiting to do something else--get a piece of work get married, go to graduate academy teach in a college, or die." (2)

The nearest question to answer is, "Who emergencys certification?"

* The degre body professor with tenure who is now able to teach each day in blue jeans and tee-shirt--or not, if he for a like reason desires?

* The rural teacher with a waiting list of fifty because she is the solitary teacher far 100 miles in any direction?

* The meeting-house pianist who has a built-in task base and is teaching for the "joy" of it as a ministry to comrade parishioners?

The answer is a resounding ye to all these and more! We collectively owe this to our public and to ourselves. I refer to that every college professor who stands in forehead of a pedagogy class lead the way to professionalism [i]or[/i] part of to the other MTNA and certification. MTNA membership is the beginning of a path to professionalism with its offering of a professional refere journal, publications for studio management, a whole of performance outlets, adjudicated competitions and the Independent Music Teachers Forum for networking. MTNA's organizers had the foresight to deposit into place a certification program for independent music teachers. in the way that why hasn't the membership embraced the idea as a necessity to continue upon that path to professionalism? single answer to that question is the misconception that education equals professionalism. There is a confused perception that stages are a substitute for certification, on the contrary in reality, degrees do not compute one exactly what music teachers know or what they can do--only what the body or university requires for the issuing of those steps The reality is that a destiny of independent music teachers just don't want to be bothered. The ne is not necessarily for them, on the contrary for all of us--for our profession. Our image as music teachers is the total existence of the whole. Many pedagogues who have gone before have advocated certification as a way to professionalism. Awareness is being heightened to the public's possibility of securing a certified music teacher and their NCTM as an identifying mark of professionalism. on the other hand I believe the greatest advocacy remains untapped because of a warped view of certification. It is not a separation within the organization, on the contrary a standard to place before each member of the organization. We should be encouraging each other to strive for teaching standards and tread on the heels of that path to professionalism. We ne to be doing all we can to tender help and incentives to those teachers who are recognizing, perhaps for the first time, their part in their professional image and are taking the paces to get there. We ne to collaborate with single another rather than compete, and by dint of so doing, collectively we will be able to improve our image in our be in possession of eyes and in the organ of sights of the public.