Nowadays,one could easily find persons with ear/headphones, caught up in their ownworld, listening to music thru the gadgets of their choice. Music. It's as familiaras mobile phones, and now as portable! If it wasn't that important, why elsedid the mobile phone manufacturers think of integrating music players on theirproducts! So who will argue that music is not interesting? But music classes,that's another story.

Duringprimary and secondary education, learning music is not exactly given muchattention by most of the students. It is but one of those ?filler? subjects.But for a few more artistically-inclined people, this serves as a foundationfor their future interest, or even way of living. And when one does decide toenter schools of music, one would know for sure that it is a passion, adedication.

Itis during these formative years that music teachers play their pivotal roles asfuture musicians? mentors, even inspirations. Music teaching is indeed a nobleprofession, more so a vocation. Yes, it is far from teaching math, or science.Said subjects are purely academic subjects that entail a teacher's thoroughknowledge. Teaching music, on the other hand, necessitates both knowledge andaptitude?and, probably even more importantly, passion.

Musicteaching possibly started as a way of passing on a community's tradition. Indiahas in their ancient scriptures references to Indian classical music. The"Great Book of Music" or Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir was writtenby the Arab scholar al-Farabi in the 9th century.

Inthe Western world, music teaching may have started from the church, withcleric/monks teaching their hymns to those next in line, or to the religious.In fact, in the U.S.A., thefirst singing school was created by Reverend Thomas Symmes in 1717 in Boston, Massachusettsfor ?the purposes of improving singing and music reading in the church?. Withthe continued popularity of music and its commercialization, organized musicteaching evolved and schools of music sprung forth around the world.

Albeitthe acclaim of many musicians who graduated from these music schools, musiceducation does not seem to receive the recognition it deserves. Thus, anorganization, the International Society for Music Education, was formed in 1953in a conference convened by UNESCO. It aims ?to stimulate music education as anintegral part of general education?. It is now considered to be ?a worldwideservice platform for music educators? for their works to be recognized. It nowhas affiliations with national music education organizations of differentcountries to promote music and music teaching to as many people as possible, ifnot to all.

Musicteaching has evolved thru time, in tune with the evolution of music. It alsohas changed, along with the changes of the times, of the people. Somehow, musicteachers, of all levels, are now given the commendation they are rightfullydue. More importantly, music teaching is slowly but surely winning the respect,it has earned. For what is, the worth of music if it is not taught, hence,shared.