Music teacher disagree with principal
I am an elementary music teacher at a performing arts school. My principal wants me to teach musical theatre instead of music. I could understand if I was teaching both music and musical theatre (though I still don’t want to do that) but the principal actually wants me to shift towards musical theatre- completely.
Our enrollment is really low (under 100 students in k-5) so it already feels near impossible to put on a large production. This shift in curriculum is *supposed* to make it easier to put on the musical. I feel that it will be difficult no matter what.
I know I’m no principal, but I’ve never heard of getting rid of music and instead doing musical theatre. I’ve always seen musical theatre as more of a supplement. Our school is focused on performing arts, so my principal believes that if I shift towards a musical theatre curriculum, then the students will be able to perform more often. We already perform a minimum of 8 times throughout the school year.
Most music educators would agree on a few things
- Elementary students need an actual music foundation.
- More performances ultimately means less instructional time, and I will be force-feeding them information every time we have to perform
- This type of education doesn’t foster independent learning, which makes my job extremely difficult. I will have to retract things every time it shows back up in the music. The students won’t retain much.
- We used to have a drama teacher, but no longer can afford a drama program. I think it’s unfair for my job description to and responsibilities to change, but my pay and title stay the same.
Even after explaining these points, my principal still expects me to fulfill their expectations if I plan to keep my job. I can’t even further explain myself because I’ve been deemed “argumentative” and was told “it seems like I don’t want to do ANYTHING.”
I feel like I will be doing my students a disservice. I have no musical theatre experience- I’m not even a vocalist, I’m an instrumental girly. I’m WAY out of my comfort zone.
What makes matters worse, is that students and parents keep asking about the things that I SHOULD be doing and asking why I, a music teacher, am teaching them how to perform a monologue. I feel like a failure of an educator. Any tips for navigating this situation?