Why Musicians Become School Music Teachers... And Why They Quit

If you’ve engaged in the college admissions process in the last twenty years, you’re aware that most applications have a writing component. For example, when I was applying to Music Education degree programs in 2002, most of the applications asked for a “personal statement” - something to show the admission officers a bit of my personality while also giving them the chance to assess my writing chops. However, one of my selected schools required a specific topic for this essay: “Why I Want to be a Music Educator.”

Those who have written an essay for a college application or a cover letter for a job application know how challenging it can be to succinctly express why you are a great fit for the job or degree program in question. I remember struggling for weeks, not knowing what to write. But eventually, a comprehensive thought came to me, and I wrote the short essay in one sitting. It was the best college essay I had written, and so it was sent along with all of my applications.

Now it’s many years later. I’ve left public school teaching after an eleven-year tenure. I’ve supervised dozens of student- and preservice-teachers. I’ve talked with dozens of music teachers about why they get into, stay in, and quit the profession. And I’ve read hundreds of cover letters written by young music teachers who were hoping to get a job in the district where I taught. 

After all that, I’ve recognized a common reason many young music teachers give for entering the profession. I’ve also had the chance to compare it to how more experienced teachers reflect on that same decision. And - perhaps it’s not a surprise - there are discrepancies between the two. 

Most young people choose a college major when they are 17 or 18. In the midst of managing expectations from parents, friends, and teachers, they still haven’t had the chance to figure out who they are, what drives their decision-making, and what they want out of life. But regardless of what age we are, with guidance, we can unearth truths about ourselves and use those truths to make more honest and open-handed decisions

And doing so will always make for a more fulfilling career.


What We Say

I taught with a small, five-teacher team of dedicated music educators. We worked hard to produce high-quality performances and provide excellent opportunities for our students. We had a synergy that was uncommon among music faculties.

By my tenth year of teaching, I had sat on the hiring committees to replace all four of my colleagues. I didn’t have hiring power in any of those cases, but I was glad that those who did have that power had decided on my first pick for the job in every case. A younger but equally synergistic team was being built.

As part of the process, I read hundreds of cover letters written by aspiring music teachers. The majority of those letters, especially those written by individuals who were just finishing or had recently finished undergraduate school contained some form the same statement. It was the same statement that sat at the center of my own college essay, “Why I Want to be a Music Educator”. It goes something like this:

I want to be a music teacher so I can share my passion for music with others.  

OR

I want to help others experience the benefits that music has afforded me in my own life.

Could it really be true that almost all young musicians who decide to teach are driven by this same passion to share music with young people?

The answer is, of course, ‘YES!’... and ‘no’.

Let’s Talk About Values

These statements are socialized values. We hear them professed by our own music teachers, we recognize them as noble and good, and we learn to assimilate them into our personal set of values. And there’s nothing wrong with that… until there is… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When it comes to why musicians become music teachers (and why they quit), there are actually two levels of discrepancy we need to look at. The first is internal.

Let’s look at the ubiquitous music teacher cover letter statement: I want to be a music teacher so I can share my passion for music with others. I believe that most music teachers do genuinely feel this way. They love music, they want to keep making music a part of their life, and they enjoy, to varying degrees, working with young people.

The ‘Other’ Reasons

However, this professed passion might not be the top reason for them getting into the profession. In my conversations with school music teachers and former school music teachers, many report one or more of the following three reasons as preceding the desire to impact young people through music education:

  1. They think a career in performance is too uncertain, unstable, or undesirable. The myth of the starving artist is a powerful cultural narrative, possessing much influence over our thinking. All myths contain truth: The life of a professional performer can be hard. But it can also be workable if you build your work-life around your desired lifestyle. Many young musicians, however, will find their way into a music education program as a safer choice or even a more honest choice, if the late-night, on-the-road lifestyle isn’t what they desire (although the necessity to live this way as a performer is changing).

  2. Teaching is the family business. One of my closest teacher friends tells the story of how she decided at a very young age that she would be a teacher. Her mother and father were both teachers, and her sister and brother became teachers, too. She just needed to decide what she would teach - she chose music over math. Not unlike the myth of the starving artist, family culture and familial expectations can play a strong role in what we perceive to be most important as we make decisions.

  3. They are unaware of other options that might be a better fit. Most people are wired to follow the example of others and choose from the options that are presented to them. Young musicians are most familiar with celebrities they see online (thought of by many to have “unrealistic” careers, even though many desire that type of recognition) and their music teachers. Most colleges offer music degrees in just a handful of majors. Without the impetus to explore other careers or the guidance of an industry expert, we can easily allow a lack of better options to make our decisions for us.

These reasons for becoming a music teacher all have something in common: they are focused on physical or emotional needs. In other words, they are focused on survival. On the other hand, flourishing in life requires the fulfillment of spiritual needs. For a person to flourish, they must be living into their core values. If the passion for sharing music with young people - a socialized value - does not resonate closely enough with your core values, then once you find that your survival is no longer at hand, that passion will begin to wane.

For the Love of Teaching

This brings us to one more reason young musicians choose to go into teaching: They love teaching music! The socialized value highlighted above actually sits deep within their core. 

This also brings us to the other, external level of discrepancy:

Schools often make for a challenging environment in which to teach music.   

In 2018, researcher and teacher educator, Doris Santoro, published a book titled Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay. After studying teacher attrition and dissatisfaction for over a decade, she concluded that, just as many teachers go into teaching for moral reasons, they are leaving for moral reasons as well. (Here are links to two of Santoro’s articles on the same topic: LINK and LINK.)

This is a very different narrative from that of teacher burnout, the explanation previously offered for the high rates of teacher attrition experienced across the US. In the case of demoralization, underfunding, over-testing, scripted curricula, and misguided policies are making it difficult for teachers to do their best work.

In short, they feel the system won’t let them do what is right for their students.

So, even the music teacher who chooses to teach not for reasons of survival, but for the genuine love of teaching music, may eventually decide that the external discrepancy - the one that exists between what they love to do with students and what they find themselves able to do within the school system - is more than they wish to battle.

This might start to sound like a criticism of the music teaching profession, but it’s not. Nor is it a critique of those who do choose and love the profession. I am still as passionate about the importance of music education as when I was a zealous young teacher myself (I just found I could live into my core values more easily in other environments).

My critique falls rather on the ways in which our educational institutions hinder genuine vocational mentorship for music students, as well as the system's failure to create an environment in which teachers can do what they do best.

These are the reasons I became a career coach for performing artists. I love helping artists become more attune to their own inner voice and guide them in living their true calling, and I see this work as a genuine need that isn’t being met anywhere else.

If you are considering music education as a profession…

Spend some time examining your motivations. Are you considering a career as a professional artist but nervous about a lack of security? How many other professions have you explored? (If you want to learn about other performing arts careers, check out the ArtsBound Podcast; it’s a library of virtual job shadows!) Talk with your teachers about the joys and challenges of what they do, and ask yourself if the joys excite you enough to get out of bed every morning to face the challenges.

The world needs great music teachers, but what it needs more is YOU, doing what you love most!


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