Stage (pronounced with a long-a) is a tradition in high-end chef apprenticeship. An aspiring chef will take her day off to stage in a restaurant she wants to learn from. The quid pro quo is this: you learn our restaurant-specific skills and techniques, and in return your receive the restaurant received your unpaid labor as a prep cook. This apparently can extend well into the career of a young chef – not just students but cooks with several years in the business might take their off-day to work in a kitchen they admire.
Aside from the actual student-teaching apprenticeship before music educators begin their careers, when do we get to observe and learn from respected peers? We educators can lead isolated lives, bogged down in the responsibilities and commitments of our too-big jobs.
What would it look like if you got the opportunity to stage in a colleague’s classroom? Who would you want to work with? What do you want to learn?