Most Important Profession

I spent three days in Mannheim last week at a convention talking to music teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education in Germany.

I regret every single bad word I’ve said about teachers, ever.

The people I met were incredibly motivated. They really want to do a good job teaching music to their students. They were interested in modernizing their curriculum and learning about how to integrate new technologies in their class. Yes, they were sometimes behind trends. And they were also sometimes overwhelmed. Some of them had come up with wonderful projects. All of them want to move things.

But they can’t.

The means the 16 German federal states puts at their disposal are appalling. The government earmarked 5 billion Euros as part of the “Digitalpakt” for IT investments in schools, and classes are indeed being equipped with digital whiteboards and iPads, which is better than nothing. However, there is no vision, no direction, and everything is made difficult for schools and teachers.

The money is for buying equipment, but not for hiring the IT professionals they require. They have to write elaborate concept papers to access the funds, which they don’t have time to do because of all their other duties.

And things are dire. Several teachers told me how they had to go out into the hallway with their iPads to have Wi-Fi. Some don’t even have Wi-Fi. Many didn’t have access to working computers. In our school, they want to renew old laptops bought in 2012, but can’t, because the “Digitalpakt” mandates that they first get their school connected to the internet through fibre, which they don’t need right now because they already have good internet. So no new laptops.

One teacher told me they had to pay for the convention and the trip herself. (Hi!, if you read this.)

Children are the future. Our young are why we do everything. It is sad that Germany doesn’t invest more and better.

I, for my part, left the convention with a renewed sense of respect for this most important profession.