Training teachers. (Dear Reader).

This issue of American Music Teacher contains several articles of a pedagogical nature. From the "unsung heroines" of American piano pedagogy to memories of the Curtis Institute and its great pedagogues to an interview with Frances Clark Center Chair Louise Goss and MTNA Executive Director Dr. Gary L. Ingle, there is something for all music teachers in this AMT.

As we examine the art of training future teachers, an emerging concern for some is: "Are we focusing our doctoral level work on training piano teachers, or are we training teachers how to train teachers?"

Most pedagogy programs in colleges and universities require a student teaching experience of some duration, and part of the evaluation of this experience usually involves video, or at least audio, taping of a number of private (and perhaps group) lessons. It then falls to the pedagogy professor to wade through these tapes and provide feedback and suggestions about the teaching. Sometimes they are pretty average, sometimes disappointing, sometimes they show the promise of an outstanding teacher in the making, and every once in a while they are hilarious.

One of the most difficult areas of reviewing and evaluating the tapes (aside from the enormous amount of time it takes) is to differentiate between poor teaching and different teaching.

Sometimes the pedagogy student will clearly need help correcting faulty teaching approaches--often they will talk too much, taking the simplest concept to the depth of a graduate course. Or the intern may begin correcting minute details in phrasing when there are glaring errors in accurate ...