Posted by js on May 03, 2003 at 01:12:11:
I was thinking about the unfortunate gentleman (spoken of very highly by many here) who lost his tuba teaching job at a major university.
That type of action, particularly when one has been employed for a number of years, is quite bad form. I have no idea what motivated that cruel action nor the future plans of those who carried out those unfortunate deeds. That being said, (and Mr. Dave Zerkel jumps in most every time I bring up this topic, so I expect his possibly-opposing-and-well-reasoned input again) from the view of the taxpayers how "efficient" is it for dozens upon dozens upon dozens of state universities across the countryside to hire full time "tuba professors"?
There are quite a few of these tuba professors who stay quite busy with extremely heavy loads of students, a brass methods class, perhaps a "B" concert band or jazz band, a freshman theory class, and more (so obviously these folks' full time positions are quite well justified), but there are others who seem to be occupying space in an office with a handful of students and possibly a music appreciation class twice a week...
Having been involved in the university tuba teaching biz two or three times in my life, the first question asked is "Does she/he have a Master's/Doctorate?". Of course they're going to ask this because if colleges and universities load up on very many faculty members who are not members of these M/Dr. "clubs", these institutions of higher learning will have to admit that folks can actually learn things outside the crystal dome of academia - something never to be considered possible.
Again, as taxpayers looking for value and excellence would not it be best if as many as possible (except for those with extremely heavy loads of studio teaching) of the studio faculty at universities' music departments be "adjunct"? Wouldn't this help the survival of some of these struggling R.O.P.A. level symphony orchestras? Is it forever too much for universities to admit that some folks can be accomplished musicians and be superb top-level instructors without being members of the elite M/Dr. club? After all, when it is the goal of someone to eventually perform in a symphony orchestra and also teach, if that person happens to be extraordinarily good enough at performing to secure a job in a symphony orchestra prior to even finishing their Bachelor of Music degree, are they to be considered "uneducated"? I believe, in the world of academia, these incredibly talented (hard-working) perform-for-a-living folk are fairly consistently quite looked down upon.
Though I certainly can't pretend that my teaching methods should have been videotaped and saved for posterity in the Museum of Tuba-Teachin', I effectively laid out clear achievable expectations, encouraged, demonstrated, discussed, re-encouraged, bent over backwards, forgave when appropriate, explained in many different ways, demonstrated again, and finally accurately judged the progress of my students when it was my duty - all of this with a mere Bachelor's degree (once as a graduate student and once by a university hiring me as an "adjunct" that actually overlooked [as I'm suggesting all might consider doing] my lack of degrees in favor of their perception of my qualifications.)
When I've taken my second-oldest kid (approaching 17 - OUCH!) around to a few colleges' and universities' music departments and interviewed their faculty, conversations come up at some of the smaller colleges and universities (since I know quite a few musicians) about various faculty vacancies in their teaching studios and who might be available to fill them. I'll mention some people to them and of course, they ask the "Do they have a Master's Degree?" question. My answer sometimes is (and you may know me - not particularly delicate), "Oh no. They were good enough to get a job playing way before that could have ever happened." and I can, along with hearing the stammering, see the steam coming up out of their shirt collars.
It seems curious that nearly all of the colleges' and universities' music schools across the countryside have this "club membership" (M/Dr.) policy for their faculty...EXCEPT absolutely the MOST elite music schools - which simply utilize the local symphony orchestra principals as their studio faculty.
Again, THOUGH we ARE tuba/euphonium players and LOVE ANYTHING to do with or ANYTHING that promotes the tuba, etc., are there too many full-time tuba professors?