Retired Members Report

by Norm Dea, CMEA Retired Members Representative

Greetings Retirees!

What a year and a half it’s been, certainly one that we’ll never forget! This was probably the most challenging time for music education in recent memory. Music is about rehearsing in a group setting, collaborating, listening, watching, adjusting, and performing with passion from the heart. It’s also about socialization. These are difficult things to do through your computer. The worldwide pandemic has been detrimental to music programs and music making. Many teachers have lost a good number of students due to distance learning. Hopefully, with the new and amazing vaccines readily available, COVID-19 is on the wane, and live inperson music education can resume this August.

As a retiree who is still active, I can empathize with my colleagues working full time in the field, the task they were given, and more times than not, with very limited direction and resources. I can attest to you the enormous difficulty with this charge. I personally experienced the frustrations of remote teaching this past school year. I was at Saratoga High School this past fall teaching two periods of Orchestra, covering for a colleague for the semester. I also supervised student teachers and interns through California State University East Bay. I did both these jobs while sitting in front of my iMac computer utilizing apps like Zoom, GoReact, Google Classroom, Upbeat, and many other online tools. Think about it, rehearsing orchestra virtually on Zoom at Saratoga, and observing student teachers and interns teaching on Zoom, while watching them teach their students on Zoom. Doesn’t this sound like something out of the Twilight Zone? I was thinking back over a year ago when this all started, retirement never looked so good.

I saw many teachers during the pandemic generously helping each other and sharing repertoire that works, technology expertise, and generally supporting each other. You take for granted the sheer convenience of in-person teaching, as it literally takes 200% more effort to do the most mundane tasks. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. There were also teachers who were utterly frustrated with remote teaching, and some of them retired early at the cost of a lower pension. Who can blame them? After this, I’ll certainly not take anything for granted anymore as we move on

Norm Dea and Camp Director Jim Mazzaferro at Cazadero Music Camp

Dr. Mallory Thompson and Norm Dea at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago