Northern Section Update

Tanner Johns Northern Section President

Warmest Greetings from the Northern Section!

For this issues Northern Section Update, please enjoy the following article by Jane Brown about the challenges of teaching in rural communities. Jane Brown grew up in Chester, a small rural community in Northern California, and has taught in several Title I and small rural schools in Northeastern California and Northern Nevada. She recently completed her doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is the conductor of the Reno Pops Orchestra and the Northern Nevada String Serenade, and loves teaching music in the schools of Greenville and Chester, California.

Back when music programs were consistently well-funded and rural economies were more robust, there were many strong small school programs in Northern California. Top-notch music teachers were known to head to the mountains straight out of college, looking for small mountain or coastal communities where they could enjoy the beauties of nature, raise families, and have fulfilling careers teaching music—literally inspiring generations of young people. These legendary music educators not only had large and very successful programs—especially given the size of their schools—they also set the highest musical standards for themselves and their programs, had an indefatigable commitment to their students and communities, and showed constancy and dedication to their colleagues and their beloved profession.

As the sole providers of music education in these small towns, they educated and won over administrators who often came from sports or other non-arts backgrounds, and gave countless hours of private and group instruction, both inside and outside regular school hours. They also instructed the members of their communities on the value of music, including scraping together funding, year after year, so they could continue to offer great musical experiences to their students.

Today, these types of challenges are still a daily reality for most small school music teachers. However, we experience many additional challenges as well. Some of these difficulties are germane to that which all music teachers are experiencing, including how to restart our programs following COVID with students who have missed two years of musical development—many of whom have social, emotional, and behavioral challenges and are lacking in maturity, confidence, and requisite academic and personal skills. In addition, today’s teachers in small rural communities also have to contend with the effects of devastating wildfires and ongoing economic hardships on their communities and students’ families, as well as longstanding music teacher shortages and difficulty retaining talented teachers in their small, rural districts.

Another longstanding challenge for those teaching in remote areas is isolation. On the positive side, isolation in these rural communities can be a lovely thing—coming home to a quiet night sky filled with millions of stars and the fresh smell of the breeze coming through the trees. Other joys include the friendly feeling of belonging when you know shopkeepers and fellow customers on a first-name basis, getting hugs from a kindergarten music student in the grocery aisle or gaining the trust of your trombonist’s parents during a chat in the coffee shop and later being able to help them find their son or daughter a new trombone for Christmas. However, when you are quite possibly the only person who knows how to read music and teach the various instruments in the community where you teach, and you are hours away from the nearest interesting cultural event, the isolation can become overwhelming. Living in these places, you also have to go the extra mile in order to spend time with colleagues and sharpen your own musical saw. Early in my career, a veteran music teacher and I used to drive two hours each way on Monday nights to play in Daniel Hiestand’s Monday Night Band at Chico State. During one of our trips, this wonderful colleague explained to me, a brand-new teacher, that the exhaustion from the late-night drive was well worth it because we were getting the opportunity to hone our musical skills, hang out with some great music educators, and rekindle our passion for music, weekly. This lesson was a vital one for me as a young teacher. Another dear colleague would encourage me to come along to CMEA and CBDA conferences and would introduce me to a wonderful network of fine teachers and friends. Now, after 30+ years of teaching, I still drive two hours each way every week to meet with great musicians and educators in a community orchestra, where we make wonderful personal and professional connections and enjoy some great musical moments, together. I also relish opportunities to learn and grow, including those found at conferences and workshops. By taking part in these types of experiences, we rural directors are able to keep our musical passion alive and our skills in the best possible shape. In more recent years, the bounteous opportunities for instruction and connection found through the internet are an absolute Godsend for all teachers—but especially for those in remote areas.

In recent years, small school districts have had some other tough challenges. In the county where I teach, we have experienced many years of declining enrollments. We have also found it increasingly difficult to fill open music positions, partly due to a shortage of music teachers, state wide. In living memory, our small district boasted large, successful music programs that were highly valued by each community. Lately, however, some of these music programs have had to go without a regular music teacher for years, fading the memory of decades-old legacies and traditions until the doors eventually close. In one school where I teach, they basically gave up: the band room was remodeled into a wrestling room and sadly, the grand piano was given away. Even more tragically, though, several classes of students never had the chance to take a music class. Good news, though—the room where so much music took place is now finally a band room again and a former music parent even donated a piano.

The teacher shortage and declining enrollments have also impacted the other schools in my district, causing devastating shrinkage in both the number of music students and the quantity of music course offerings, district-wide. These impacts, combined