paulbailey.us

balance

teach, grade, eat, sleep is about all I do these days.

this summer it looked like I was going to be seriously underemployed so I am very grateful and lucky to even have the option of paying my bills. things are better now and i’m glad the sky didn’t completely fall in.

last spring i knew things were going to be bad when i heard that california was immediately starting a hiring freeze because of lower than expected tax receipts. then came word that the california state university system (my employer) was to immediately cut 10% from the fall 08 budget. in past years these cuts and might have been restored after a budget was passed, but the way things were going we would be lucky if the cuts stopped only at 10%.

to make a long story short, three days before school started i also got a call from a local community college who needed somebody to teach two classes the saturday before school started. since then its been a radical change of pace to be more than fully employed (19 units) and teaching many new classes (early childhood music and music appreciation, but this new schedule has reinforced my ongoing quest for the proper balance between time and money.

it’s great knowing that I can pay the bills for at least 5 more months, but with the way the economy is going I have to really wonder how much freelance teaching work will be available next spring or fall. of course at the end of the day this is all fair (and i guess somewhat expected) in the life of an adjunct faculty member. I have no tenure, but lots of flexibility to perform and compose compared to the my previous jobs as a secondary school band director (5-12). this summer (while waiting too see what my schedule would be in the fall) it really brought home the reality that i have a quite low paying job (a full-time adjunct faculty member makes 1/3 of the pay of a tenured professor) with little job security I quickly realized how this job becomes far more stressful in an economic downturn and is making me seriously reconsider my employment options.

right now i’m kind of living in the moment, day by day and lecture by lecture. i’m really enjoying teaching high school kids again (even if it is music appreciation) and could see and have contemplated going back into the secondary classroom for a much more stable and higher paying job. after getting a taste of the 40+ hour work-week i have been reintroduced to that endless cycle of teaching, grading and sleeping that leaves little room for anything else. tonight i’m grading music music theory and going over my lesson plans and lectures before tomorrow. i like it quite a bit, teaching a good class is almost as invigorating as playing a great show, though right now it would be nice to have time for both.

is this balance possible? well at least probably not teaching as an adjunct professor at a 4 year college. although adjunct faculty are notoriously treated like shit (since i don’t have a terminal degree and i expect it from my “peers”), teaching music fundamentals, music theory and music education classes have been very stimulating, but unless i’m willing to pursue a PHD and frequently relocate around the country to start my “career”, i’m keeping myself in the lowest caste of academia with no chance of financial advancement (or job security)

in august i was seriously considering heading back to be a full time “band director”, its a great job, but already i know that if i have the responsibility of teaching 5 classes a day that i can’t possibly have enough time for writing and performing. although the money is good (a tenured professor and a public school teacher make about the same pay), but running back to the safety of a full time job in secondary education isn’t going to give me any balance.

right now i’m not exactly sure what my solution is, but i guess our little financial crisis is helping motivate me to move on to the next thing. i’m not quite sure what that is yet, but my gut tells me that staying in place hoping things will work out isn’t such a good idea.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized and tagged with charter schools, community college, free, music appreciation, music education, music theory, teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.