On January 5th, 2011, I wrote my professional goals statement to gain admission into Michigan State University's Master of Arts in Education program. At that time, I had a very specific set of goals, however, they have changed dramatically in the past two years. Two years ago, I had just started teaching out of my new studio, and was loving it. I was loving it so much, in fact, that I planned on teaching there for ten years or more. At the same time, I was working on expanding my educational bird show and reaching more audiences more frequently. I saw the MAED as a way to develop professionally, but I didn't realize what an impact it would have on my personal life, too.
Originally, my plan had been to adopt children as much as ten years down the road, but last summer, I suddenly decided I wanted kids sooner, and I wanted to have my own. This caused me to completely revamp my entire professional career and my outlook on life. Realizing that kids only take more time, I decided to shut down my bird show indefinitely, so I would have time for the other areas of my life. I also decided to move my studio to my house much sooner – at the end of this month, in fact. These changes in my personal life and goals greatly affected what courses I took and what I hoped to get out of them.
Through my participation in the MAED program, I began to realize how ultimately dissatisfied I was with the current educational system. I always figured my kids would attend whatever public school they were supposed to, and that was that. It's what I had done as a kid, and I turned out fine. But over and over again, throughout each of my courses, I learned all the ways my education had been less than ideal, and these really started to stick out to me. As a private music teacher, I hadn't ever paid much attention to public schools, only knowing I didn't want to teach in one. But now, thinking about kids sooner, I began to think about education in terms of what I wanted for my children, and I realized that public schooling was not it. Over the past two years, I decided I wanted to homeschool our children myself.
This new focus on my children as my future students, as well as a greater focus on home rather than work, has given new meaning to the courses I have been taking. I selected courses, not only for their value to me as a music teacher, but also for what I thought they could teach me about homeschooling our children. Within the courses themselves, I focused more on different teaching techniques of a variety of subjects, and engaged with these ideas with my future children in mind. How would I teach them math, reading, writing, science, history? How would this affect them down the road? These are the questions I am now asking, instead of just thinking about how to become a better teacher for my music students and bird show audiences.