The Impossible Profession

This article proposes the following thesis: If teaching is an impossible profession, music education is a really impossible profession. In music class, the discussion argues, four tensions inherent in the modern school appear: Tensions between liberal and vocational aims in education; "high" and "low" culture; the teacher's inner musician and her inner pedagogue; and practices and institutions. The article traces the sources and consequences of these dilemmas, exploring how each shapes the world of the music educator, making an impossible profession even more difficult.