Music teachers’ role enhanced

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 41

Music teachers’ role enhanced

PA Dunedin Music teachers are no longer the Cinderellas of the teaching profession, says Mrs Mary Grodd, director of the Nelson School of Music. A new emphasis on training music tutors was liberating the art, said Mrs Grodd, who has been attending the Institute of Registered Music Teachers’ annual conference in Dunedin. “It’s moving into quite a new realm and I think music teachers are now becoming really proud of their profession,” she said. Mrs Grodd emigrated from Germany two years ago where the training of

teachers was an important aspect of music. In New Zealand, the instrumental teacher was the “Cinderella of the teaching profession,” she said. Now, however, a range of courses was available. “It brings us up in line with other countries in the world.” She said the developments should reflect in the quality of instrumental music within two years, and already the signs were there. Mrs Grodd said many gifted children in rural areas did not have access to music teachers but this would improve through the new emphasis on training.