MTNA responds to your needs. (In Unison).(Music Teachers National Association)

American Music Teacher: We've been hearing a lot about a new program. What is the name of this program and what's it about?

Dr. R. Wayne Gibson: First of all, the name: At this point, six months into the new biennium, the program remains nameless! We've considered a number of names. "Music for Everyone" and "Music for One and All" were considered. Another consideration was "The Twenty-First-Century Student." Yet another was "The Every-Day Student," and someone suggested that we consider "The Mainstream Student." A number of other names were considered as well, and each captured a part of the idea, but none seemed adequately to explain the purpose of the program without the addition of several qualifiers. So at this point, the name of the program is still on hold. Perhaps the reason we can't seem to name the program is because it's not truly a program!

Maybe I should just explain what it's about. Perhaps it's just a new effort or a newly emphasized effort, and that effort is being put into place to serve--in a more comprehensive and more visible way--that large portion of our membership who rarely or perhaps never teaches the kind of student whom we see and hear in our own MTNA competitions. Did you know that those of us who enter students in the MTNA competitions represent fewer than 5% of the membership? (I am certainly aware that whether or not we personally enter students in the competitions, we all take pride in the competition students and their teachers because they showcase to the wider public the quality of work of which MTNA is capable.) Many of us aspire to place students in the MTNA competitions, but if that were our only goal or even our principal goal, we would, indeed, be frustrated and totally unfulfilled as teachers of music. We all know that music teachers answer a much broader and deeper calling than that of preparing the super-talented students for competitive performance.

AMT: Just what will MTNA be doing for this large segment of the membership?

RWG: We are involved in developing a number of initiatives that we hope will help that teacher who, all day, everyday, teaches those students possessing perhaps only marginal ability or interest. One initiative is announced on the page facing this page. This is a program to recognize students simply for continuing music study. It is designed to offer encouragement--from a national music association--to students who study for as much as two years. We want students of all stripes to know that MTNA places great value on music study. We are not interested in only the elite; rather, we believe that music study should be for everyone, and we want to underline that belief by making available to teachers, at cost, certificates of recognition to encourage those students to continue with music study.

AMT: Aside from helping teachers keep their studios full, are their other reasons the leadership feel that it is important to recognize these students you seem to be describing as basically undistinguished music makers?

RWG: Yes, indeed! The leadership feels these students are anything but "undistinguished." While these students are likely not bound for careers in music, they are the future core of the volunteer choir, the town band and the community orchestra. As I said recently to the MTNA leadership at Summit 2001, "It is these students who are the audience for the next generations musical artists and who will become the heart of the nation's arts boards and the patrons of our art.... I believe that it is these students who assure a place for music as we know it for the generations yet to come. To encourage these students and their teachers is, I believe, essential if we want our profession to continue."