Posted by Leonard Mathews on February 14, 2002 at 16:26:46:
I don’t know what to think about my college career. Originally, when I’ve first started, I was trying to major in business. Even though I really wanted to major in music education, I was afraid to major in it because I thought that I would have problems finding a job and making enough money to do the things that I wanted to do in my life after graduating.
Hearing about how music educators are treated, for example, when a school is having budget problems, the one of the first things that the administrators look at to cut out is the music program. The fact that there are many people in society; students, other teachers, and administrators alike, that do not value music education as much as they do English, Math, Science, and History had given me second thoughts as the philosophy is that “first the most important things for life are reading, writing, and math. Music should be a hobby.”
Also, why is it that when I look at the classified section of the newspaper or any other job ad, I barely ever see many music teacher jobs posted. In there, the most that I’ve seen is about two at the most. It would seem that competition would be stiffer to get such jobs than it would be to get a job as an accountant or financer.
However, during the time that I was majoring in business, I’ve started to hear the opposite from music professors, advisors, etc. “Oh yeah, you can get a job,” was what they kept telling me. But notice, again these are mostly people who were music majors. There were some people outside of the music program that were telling me the same thing though. So, hearing this enough and being convinced, I’ve went ahead, and switched my major to music education.
Now, in the middle of my major, I’ve thought that all was going well. I was like “I’m going to get a great job as a music teacher or band director for some school after I graduate. Gradually, slowly but surely on the other hand, I’ve begun to again hear the opposite of what those music professors, advisors, and students said above from other music professors, advisors, etc. I’ve started to hear how music educators are treated, how hard it is to find a good job, etc. and now am hearing it a lot more than I was hearing when the other group had told me the opposite. Even some of the people that I’ve talked to prior to this had begun to change their tune giving me the impression that “hey, it may not be a good idea to major in music after all.” So, now I can’t help but wonder if I’ve made a big mistake majoring in Music? Now, I’m wondering should I have stuck with Business?
It has been said that I should major in something that I like. But, my thing is that there may be consequences for doing so. I feel weird going up to people and saying that I am majoring in music knowing that they may know and I know that music is not a priority for most jobs. Also, what if I do get a music teaching job but it turns out that it is not a good job or something doesn’t work out? Where would I go then? I’m going to need to pay the bills someday, and my parents are eventually going to depart from this life. I’ve had hopes and dreams to not only live in here in the U.S but I may want to move to Canada, Japan, or Korea (my girlfriend is from Korea). What opportunities would I have had in those countries as opposed to what I would have had with my business degree? Would I be able to find a job in those countries? Is it that the people that encouraged me to Majoring in Music didn't realize that there is a harsh reality to what they've encouraged me to do?
I’m sorry for going on about this, but this is an issue for me and hopefully this could be a topic that could help not only myself, but someone else as well.
Thank you,
Leonard Mathews