{"id":1271,"date":"2009-03-13T08:44:14","date_gmt":"2009-03-13T15:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2009\/03\/is_a_conservatory_a_profession\/"},"modified":"2009-03-13T08:44:14","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T15:44:14","slug":"is_a_conservatory_a_profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/is_a_conservatory_a_profession.php","title":{"rendered":"Is a conservatory a professional school?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Tribune<\/i> tells us<\/a> that, in this time of economic uncertainty and job-market transformation, there’s one area of higher education that’s booming more than others:<\/p>\n

Applications are soaring at music schools across the country, often mirroring the overall rise in college enrollment but in many cases surpassing the interest in other disciplines. Never mind that the chances of landing a paying job in a decent-size symphony orchestra have diminished, with many ensembles going out of business in recent years. Never mind that jazz clubs are becoming an endangered species.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to wonder out loud why such an impractical career choice should be acceptable to parents and students, when prospects for any job are shaky, at best. There’s also the expected spin about music study providing essential life and professional skills that employers want, even if the student isn’t able to connect on their musical career.<\/p>\n

But the deeper question is this one: are students enrolling in music school with professional aspirations? Is a conservatory perceived just as any other professional school on campus — medicine, business, engineering — as a path to a career in that domain? Or is the intensive study of music something else, entirely?<\/p>\n

When all bets and assumptions are off about what constitutes a ‘practical’ education, perhaps students are just choosing to following what they’re passionate about, whether or not it translates easily into a corresponding career. <\/p>\n

Evidence suggests we can’t see that career path anyway, given the rapid change in business and work. According to quotes in this article<\/a>, uncertainty is the new normal for education, particularly professional education:<\/p>\n

Educator Karl Fisch sums up the challenge: “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented yet, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” According to former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 may not have existed in 2004.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, why not<\/i> study music? It’s as good a guess as any. And if you don’t want to guess, you might as well follow your passion to see where it takes you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Tribune tells us that, in this time of economic uncertainty and job-market transformation, there’s one area of higher education that’s booming more than others: Applications are soaring at music schools across the country, often mirroring the overall rise in college enrollment but in many cases surpassing the interest in other disciplines. Never mind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}