In the archdiocese where I work, most church music directors do not also teach in the parish school. I, personally, had 2 positions where I did not teach in the school and 1 position where I did teach in the school. All of the positions did require playing for school Mass and at least some preparation of Mass music with the children.

With all due deference to Mr. Osborn's tremendous bank of knowledge and considerable intellect, I do take some umbrage with regards to his comments regarding musicians teaching general music in the schools. In my current position, I teach in the school 2 days a week. Those days have enabled me to encourage, invoke and invite more students to sing in the choir programs. We are well on our way to building a choir school, whereas, choirs from the school practice and prepare music as a part of their daily curriculum. My knowledge of music is such that I teach them the history and practice of sacred music. We learn and appreciate solfege, practice hymnody and learn large swaths of the Gradual and the hymnal as a result of my presence in the school. I do not see my work in the school as a direct opposite to that of the parish. In fact, it is a joy to make connections for students to engage the larger picture of sacred music. Only as a sideline, do we make inroads into secular music. But we do visit the opera house, go hear a symphony orchestra and singers regularly visit to show good technique. The ties that bind my work in the school and in the parish are available only because I do both positions. I suppose I wish I had more practice time for my own organ work, but that will come with time and assistance as the program grows. Thus, it is possible to do both situations with joy and competence and for me, the two positions support one another in ways that I did not think possible.

In the Diocese of Cleveland it seems that most music directors play at the school masses but do not teach in the schools.

I am in a slightly different boat -- I am part-time DoM at one parish and teach K-8 music at the school three days a week for another.

At that school, neither I nor the parish's DoM/liturgy director handles the school Masses; someone else (a semi-retired church musician who herself is perfectly competent) does them. I think that's weird and not good. Either I should be doing it, or the DoM should be doing it, but not this third person, as good as she is. I think we should be establishing better continuity between school Masses and Sunday parish Masses (and/or better continuity between music class and school Mass), and this isn't how that happens.

If the DoM job opened up at this parish, I would apply -- asking them to give the liturgy director responsibilities to someone else. (Since the pastor and parish staff know me well, I might be able to finagle this.)

I think there are advantages to being both music director and music teacher. I would love to be able to create continuity between school Masses, parish Masses, and music class, so that what they learn in class gets applied to their Masses. I think having that presence in the parish is also a good thing. I know there are scenarios where this won't work, (especially if the parish is massive), but I do think it's a good idea in at least some cases.

At the Cathedral where I’m DoM we are trying to create an Assistant Director position by hiring a school music teacher with enough church music skills to be AD. That would give us the church/school overlap we are trying to achieve. It is also the only way the pay would ever be good enough at the school for someone talented to take the job.

My position is K-8.

Actually 2-8. I have an assistant who does Pre K, K and 1st. And yes, I am the organist and choirmaster. I adore it. I draw no line between church and school. My general music students learn chant, solfege and harmony. What we sing in the classroom we sing in Church. For instance today, everyone learned the solemn Regina Caeli. We'll sing it on Friday for the Feast of the Visitation BVM.

mmmm - you can not serve God and mammon, either you will . . .

lol - I meant the church school side vs the parish church side. Last time I checked, neither one paid well, on average, compared with the secular world. I once did both jobs and it was exhausting at 60 hours per week with only Saturdays off. The same church and its academy now hires 3 full time to do what I once did.

@ghunter it seems UT-Austin alums think alike in this regard! I don't have a school at my current place, but in my last job, I tried and tried to get that to happen. Would have saved the parish/school money and achieved better, more cohesive results. I think it's a great model.

(It doesn’t help that I don’t have a music classroom; I have to teach in the gym which is awful. I don’t have a piano (but a small 61 key non-weighted keyboard that doesn’t even have built in speakers) and we have no other instruments apart from wood sticks.)

"coming up with curriculæ week in and week out"

This is what I keep hearing as the WORST part about teaching the kiddos. Why not use a standardized curriculum, like Quaver or Gameplan? I haven't used either myself, but I keep hearing good things about them.

Maybe I should sell my curriculum. I have every lesson worked out. The only difference is the repertory.

@kevinf I *am* teaching K-8 this fall and would absolutely be interested in buying it!

@kevinf: Sounds like you've got a customer base :)