Poll for parents of elementary kids

[sonrisa]

I’m on the board for a kid’s performance nonprofit. The artistic director doesn’t like the current lower division teacher (who is beloved by the kids and has decades of elementary music teaching experience) and wants to hire a replacement. The leading contender has impressive subject matter experience, but it is all with adults and college students. The classes are k-3. I think that is completely inappropriate and unqualified.

If you enrolled your kindergarten age kid in a class and then found out the teacher was an older man who had never worked with kids (so his vocal range isn’t even the same notes as the kids) would you love his ‘impressive experience’ or feel like he was a poor fit?

As you can tell, I think he sounds like the ultimate dunning Kruger candidate.

UPDATE: I had sent the board a message basically saying "kindergarteners are *not* college students. This morning I got an email that the primary candidate is now someone completely new. lol.  We do need a second teacher because we are adding classes and the primary teacher wants to cut back from 3 days a week to 2. Apparently, I put my bad energy out into the universe (here and elsewhere) and it worked. 

[charlatti]

Does the artistic director have reason to think this guy would be good with younger kids? Like informal experience with kids that’s not on the resume or he did a practice session during the interview or something like that?

[af1212]

I don’t think that being a college teacher necessarily precludes him from being great with younger kids but it doesn’t guarantee it either.

I think this is a matter of personality and skills rather than what you see on paper.

But I wouldn’t worry about the teacher’s vocal range. Lots of choir teachers that my daughter has had don’t have the same vocal range as her. Some are even terrible singers (to their own admission) and they are still successful at teaching her.

[Jalapeñomel]

As someone who ran a youth theater for almost a decade, this is a terrible idea.

[cherryvalance]

If this doesn't sum up education, I don't know what does.

Qualified and beloved woman ousted for random man because, obvs, anyone can teach little kids.

[AdaraMarie]

Terrible! I even cross my fingers every year that we don't get a fresh out of school teacher because we had such a bad experience with a beginning teacher when dd1 was in first grade.

[sonrisa]

Aug 28, 2022 7:55:34 GMT -5 af1212 said:

I don’t think that being a college teacher necessarily precludes him from being great with younger kids but it doesn’t guarantee it either.

I think this is a matter of personality and skills rather than what you see on paper.

But I wouldn’t worry about the teacher’s vocal range. Lots of choir teachers that my daughter has had don’t have the same vocal range as her. Some are even terrible singers (to their own admission) and they are still successful at teaching her.

Of course it doesn't preclude it - just like some people are good violin players and a good trumpet players. But I wouldn't hire someone to teach one of those instruments if they could only show experience with the other. 

It's specifically a little girls activity - not co-ed - and is branded as empowering for girls. which makes this fact he doesn't even have the vocal range these kids have (for a singing centric class) extra galling. He hasn't taught little kids before. He can't model what he is asking these little kids to do. And he hasn't even been a little girl before.

[cherryvalance]

The update makes it even worse! So it's a program designed to empower little girls and they're firing a great female role model to hire a man?!

Now, if she were leaving or whatever, I wouldn't say he's a terrible candidate. But to replace a woman who's doing a great job with a man in an empowerment program is just...yeesh.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

As a college professor of 16 years, I can say that teaching kindergarteners sounds TERRIFYING. I don’t think my experience is at all transferable to a traditional classroom setting at all (MOTHER and all other well-meaning relatives and friends who suggest I just get a classroom job).

[sonrisa]

Aug 28, 2022 10:53:28 GMT -5 cherryvalance said:

The update makes it even worse! So it's a program designed to empower little girls and they're firing a great female role model to hire a man?!

Now, if she were leaving or whatever, I wouldn't say he's a terrible candidate. But to replace a woman who's doing a great job with a man in an empowerment program is just...yeesh.

She's not leaving, just cutting back her days because her other job has gotten busier while we have also expanded. They are hiring a second person who will be taking on more than half the young students.

Her tension with the AD means/meant I'm afraid he'll end up favoring the new hire over the long term and she'll get side lined. But now it looks like the new hire will be another woman with experience teaching young kids. our existing teacher also knows her so it's not someone coming in completely from the outside. After today's email I have much higher hopes that the two of them will make a good team and things will stabilize without her being pushed out. 

[W.T.Faulkner]

Hire this person for comedic effect.