Overworked and Underpaid? Take Action!

By Beth Gigante Klingenstein, NCTM | American Music Teacher, April/May 1997
Fri, 08 Aug 2025 15:49:12 -0800

Let's profile the typical independent music teacher. She started music lessons at the age of seven, studied piano for eleven years before college, earned a degree in music and has taught for thirty years. She devotes herself completely to her fifty-six students during their weekly lessons, but she does much more than teach lessons. She plays for church on Sundays, accompanies the musicals at the high school, and gives theory and performance classes every Saturday. She teaches three students every morning before school, starting at 7:00 &lt;span&gt;a.m.&lt;/span&gt;, and finishes with the last adult students at 10:00 &lt;span&gt;p.m.&lt;/span&gt; She practices daily and accompanies all the brass students in the high school solo and ensemble festival each year. She reviews new repertoire, goes to workshops and conventions, chairs committees, adjudicates, holds an office in her local MTA, and prepares her students for festivals, competitions and recitals. In other words, she is overworked!