[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[rwest1 at unl.edu]

On Nov 9, 2007, at 2:24 AM, Richard Brekne wrote:

> As with all things... the better start from a pure educational  
> point of view one has... the shorter the learning path experience  
> yields.

This is at the heart of curriculum development.  Whether we teach the  
piano technician equivalent of Mozart, or whether we teach the piano  
technician equivalent of Gomer Pyle, our methods need to try to  
accommodate various abilities and learning styles and need to include  
lots of repetitions.  Practice makes perfect.

Also, I think our profession demands a little bit of both of the  
educational models described in recent posts.  The democratic model  
aims to educate large numbers of people  without particular regard to  
each separate individual.  Depth of learning sometimes suffers in  
order to be able to spread the education to millions of people.   
That's our current public education system.  The tutorial model aims  
to educate individuals.  Depth of education and individual attention  
is key.  Home schooling represents this trend today.

PTG has to address both.  There are a lot of technicians that need a  
good basic start.  Materials are out there to help with this, but  
more and better materials are needed.  Individual attention is also  
important.  Professional education requires as much hands-on,  
individual attention as possible.  I think each of us can point to an  
individual who was pivotal as a mentor and teacher.

The goals, then, IMHO, are to develop good materials, spread them as  
far and wide as we can so that they reach the grassroots of our  
organization, and help develop individuals who can teach those  
materials one-on-one at the local level.

As far as certification goes, I would be content to see a simple  
certificate of recognition given to technicians who have taken  
required CAUT curriculum courses.  These more-or-less standardized  
courses should be widely available, and narrow in focus.  The  
"endorsement" would consist of a piece of paper that proves a  
technician has been given information about CAUT related work.  More  
stringent requirements/testing could come later.

Richard West 
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