Samuel D. Miller

Career Counseling in Music Education.

Before the 1970s, the supply of public school teachers could not meet the demand. The shortage of certified teachers was critical, and many school systems were forced to hire uncertified teachers on an emergency basis. This situation was reversed, however, in the past decade and now many of us wonder what the 1980s will bring in regard to opportunities for school music teachers. In a nation as large and complex as the United States, factors relevant to the job market are bound to be variable according to specific locales, economic conditions, and employment opportunities in general. Several of our large cities, for example-cities that are presently plagued with collapsed budgets or massive teacher strikes-undoubtedly will not provide opportunities indicative of national norms. Yet, certain overall music trends seem to be materializing. Students considering a career in music education should seek help from their teachers in studying employment opportunities in locations they find acceptable. Despite the general oversupply of teachers that materialized, music educators have done well. A recent national survey of campus placement agencies, conducted by William Matlis, showed that seventy-seven per-

Opera Made Elementary.

adults. There are several reasons often cited to justify this belief: (1) opera plots are frequently violent and adult in nature; (2) operas are lengthy and require an enormous amount of class time if they are to be studied with any degree of thoroughness; (3) children must be older and more mature in order to possess the needed attention span, especially since operas presented in the classroom are usually only heard, not seen and heard; and (4) operatic voices, being so different in quality from the child voice or the commonly heard adult voice, are hard for younger children to appreciate. Notwithstanding these points, there are many reasons for presenting opera to young children, even to those who are in kindergarten and the lower elementary grades. Opera is drama, a form of artistic excitement involving many elements especially well-loved by children and natural to them-including music, costumes, acting, dancing, scenery, and, above all, the use of the imagination. If, for various reasons, children can not attend a live performance of an opera-or a portion of one the wise teacher will call into play the childrens powers of imaginative visualization.

Shifting the Emphasis from Entrance to Exit.

Competency-based teacher education programs are receiving increased attention. The basis of these programs is a plan whereby the competencies a student is expected to acquire and demonstrate and the criteria by which these competencies will be evaluated are stated explicitly at the outset of the program. The student is then held accountable for meeting these criteria, which may be designed to measure or gauge his cognitive understanding or knowledge, to assess and evaluate his teaching behaviors, or to evaluate the effectiveness of his teaching by sampling and measuring the growth demonstrated by his pupils. Such programs differ significantly from traditional ones in that tasks and expectations are clearly defined at the outset. Students are allowed to set their own paces and spend whatever time they find necessary for gaining the various competencies. Students may skip whole segments of a program The author is professor and chairman of music education at the University of Houston, Texas. by taking tests that demonstrate their ability to meet the required criteria; thus the length of time required for completion of the program is a highly individual matter. According to proponents of the theory, achievement is held constant (students display competencies or they do not) and the time varies, whereas in traditional programs, time (which includes credit hours, a rigid schedule of subjects, proper prerequisites, and a host of other typically formal academic procedures) remains constant and achievement varies.