The article by Gerber starts off by discussing the certain traits of being a desirable teacher

through the lens of students in a way. It is described that a successful teacher is one that treats every
student as an individual, commits to students who are hard workers and those who are not, create a
healthy, organized, and stimulating environment, and ultimately nice, fun, and fair in the classroom. One
of the major points from the entire article is that someone teaching middle school should want to be
there and enjoy being in that classroom because the students can tell exactly where someone’s feelings
and priorities lie. Next, the article discusses the ideas of attitudes and misbehavior in the classroom. This
section pointed out that the majority of misbehavior and horrible attitudes come from deeper issues
that can be a “manifestation of the heavy psychological baggage that many middle school students bring
to school”. It discusses the heavy issues that a lot of middle schoolers go through distressing times and
can hold onto emotional, psychological, or social trauma that can make them unpredictable and moody
just as they are meant to be while going through their adolescent development.

Gerber then moves on to talk about how restructuring a middle school system to adjust for a
more friendly, more individualized, and group-oriented classroom would allow students to succeed
more. Gerber also points out that school should hire teachers that are prepared, willing, and want to
teach adolescents so when they are paired with students they can be better equipped to succeed. It also
talks about how fine arts is an extremely important part of the core curriculum that a lot of school’s sort
of ignore and disregard because the music educator decides to teach more based on subject instead of
engaging more with the students and their needs and interests. Next, the article addresses the idea of
undergraduate education and the importance of teaching the future generations how to teach and give
them experiences that will allow them to grow to become successful educators. Gerber also points out
that not a lot of undergraduate students want to teach middle school education and only really want to
work towards high school or higher education. This is especially prevalent because it also points out that
a lot of these educators tend to settle for the middle school jobs while they wait for a position in a high
school to open up. Gerber moves on to approach the idea that teachers should focus equally, if not
more, on learning and experiences many different types of music and musical activities instead of
focusing on just performing. While in secondary education, students often only do band, choir, or maybe
orchestra all while they should also be exposed to much more than just those secluded performing
ensembles. General music should be an option that allows them to explore more than just the tiny piece
of musical experience that limits their music literacy.

Gerber expands on this idea by pointing out that students who are in these performing
ensembles all throughout their middle and high school experiences are only being pushed through a
small hole in a much larger net. When they get to college and study music, their musical listening and
curiosity lacks in comparison to other disciplines. He poses the solution by introducing methods courses
and the importance of having those education courses. These courses give future educators more
experiences and develop their teaching skills to further their successes in the future. Lastly, Gerber gives
some advice and declares that students do not usually find the music itself boring, but the way the
information is presented to them. Teachers and music educators especially need to be able to keep the
information engaging and be able to “sell” music to an audience.

I really enjoyed this article because it addresses a lot of issues in the teaching world that might
not be thought about on a day-to-day basis. For example, teachers are much more of a problem when it
comes to how much the students are engaged in the classroom. It is much easier to blow off the
students and say they are the problem instead of thinking about what the issues might really be and
how it could definitely be the teacher themselves who might be unengaging, unenthusiastic, tiring, or
even just unpassionate about the subject they are teaching. Also, I really liked how the article states that
someone should really want to be in a middle school classroom to teach and students will 100 percent
know if you do not want to be there. I know this from experience because I have seen teachers and
student teachers crumble because they cannot deal with the middle school aged kids and they do not
understand the dedication it would take to really dive into teaching a middle school class. In general, I
think it is important for someone to completely want to teach for them to be any type of educator
(especially music educators). This is because education is hard and it really does not pay as much as it
should, so when someone says they want to be a teacher they should not just take that statement
lightly and should truly experience and think about those choices. I have had friends who decided they
want to be teachers and halfway through their student teaching at an elementary or middle school
decide they are not cut out for it. These people are brave for even thinking about teaching, but it also
shows that not everyone is cut out to be an educator, let alone and amazing one. Next, the article also
talks about the behavior issues that can arise during a class. It is hard to judge a situation at face value
sometimes and it can be extremely difficult for a teacher to understand a student and their behavior
issues without knowing who they are or what could be going on outside of the classroom. I think it is
vital for teachers to get to know everyone in the classroom, especially those “knuckleheads” that at first
glance only seem to cause problems. There was a podcast that I listened to called “The Score” and it was
recommended to me by a friend. This podcast has an episode where they talk about misbehaving
students and their approach to dealing with them. It talked a lot about how they are usually just seeking
attention or are having a hard time in other places, so they require a little extra umph and push into a
certain direction. These students want structure, and they want routine, but they do not want to tell you
that. That podcast and the information I have learned from my Ed Psych class made me realize that in
most cases it is never the students fault directly and they are affected by something outside of the
classroom that cannot be seen from the teacher perspective.

I liked the idea presented in the article when Gerber addressed the restructuring of school. He
points out that schools should become more individualized and allow for teacher who actually want to
be there to dive into the content and help smaller groups of students succeed instead of large lecture-
oriented classes. While I was in high school, I was a part of the Project Based Learning curriculum at my
school called New Tech and it was more focused on smaller group-oriented learning that allowed the
student to work together to learn information and work with the community. It was much different form
what I had experienced in middle school and I actually found it to be much easier and more enjoyable
most of the time. I think this would be a little harder for a ensemble music setting but I think would work
great for a general music classroom because it allows the students to get musical experiences with other
people and it could allow them to discuss music in a more informal setting. College music education is
obviously important to me and it is cool to see how the ideas of methods courses were thought of and
how they can be approached. I had not really thought about my methods courses as a way to expand my
musical experiences but as a way to help me find which educational path I would want to take into the
future. However, after reading this article I have found that this is the case and even when taking my
other techniques classes like woodwind tech and percussion tech that I am learning much more than I
would have learned in any ensemble or general music ed course.

Lastly, I want to talk about the part of the article that talks about having music classes become
more than just performance based. I think this is a great idea and could really help push music education
near the top of the curriculum. I grew up through an ensemble-based setting without any general music
course past fifth grade and my high school and middle school did not require someone to take a music
class at all. I live the idea of adding general music into secondary education because music is seen as an
extracurricular and not as a life skill. Music is much more influential in everyone’s lives than most people
realize and that is because people are led to believe that music is only for the classically trained musician
but in fact it is the opposite. Music is more for the average person and the musicians are just trying to
put that out in the world to allow people to hear it. Also, there is so much exclusion and backlash
towards people who do not understand music from the music community. Especially classical music,
because it is seen as this higher order than only the select few can indulge in and it is absurd. Whether it
be classical, jazz, blues, funk, rock, pop, or whatever; music is for all and no one should be excluded from
it because they do not fully understand it.