It's all your business towards a higher definition of professionalism.(Professional Resources)

We owe a great deal to Beth Klingenstein for the many business columns she has written for the AMT. Her knowledge, research, and insights have contributed greatly to our profession. Thanks, Beth! In her last column (April/May 2007), Beth provided a list of essential elements of a professional studio. If you haven't read it, I urge you to do so. It is an excellent summary of professional tasks that we should embrace, and then revise and enhance as we start a new year of teaching. All are equally important; this column will explore only the first one, "Professional Attitude."

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit."

This quote is posted on a studio door down the hallway from my office. When thinking about our profession and our studios, I find it useful to substitute the word professionalism for excellence. Professionalism is something we need to practice every day. It is something we should live and breathe, and it is as vital to our business as our studio policies and documents, credentials and teaching materials. A high degree of professionalism requires careful thought, self-assessment and awareness and disciplined practice.

Professionalism is a topic that young teachers find hard to define; experienced teachers may take it for granted. Parents can't always define it either, but they know when something bothers them. Within the past three years, I have had parents of transfer students cite reasons for leaving the previous teacher that reflected solely on the professionalism of the teacher rather than the teacher's credentials or quality of teaching. Reasons included: interrupting the lesson to check on dinner cooking in the next room (yes, really, this still happens?), changing the scheduled lesson time too frequently, always running late and chatting too much during the lesson about nonmusical topics.

The Simple Things

At the beginning of each school year I hold an orientation/training session for the 50-plus teaching fellows that I supervise. These are college students who are teaching in the Butler Community Arts School; they have education (pedagogy classes), knowledge (of their instrument), and some teaching experience. What they often lack is an understanding of what it means to be a professional teacher. Many things that contribute to a professional attitude are not complex, time consuming or expensive, so the substance of my orientation focuses on "the simple things." Here are some examples:

* Start and end the lesson on time. Parents of over-scheduled children, which are many of the parents we now deal with, expect and need us to stay on schedule.