In this episode of Band Director Boot Camp, Lesley Moffat welcomes Kate Fitzpatrick Harnish and Bridget Sweet, co-authors of Motherhood in the Music Education Academy, for an honest conversation about parenting, caregiving, and the realities of building a music education career while raising children.

Kate and Bridget share the personal and professional experiences that led them to write this book, including navigating demanding teaching roles, tenure-track expectations, pregnancy, miscarriage, child loss, and the isolation that can come from trying to do meaningful work in systems that were not built with mothers in mind. They talk about how silence around these issues can be harmful, and why visibility matters so much for current and future music educators.

This conversation also explores the gap between being expe ...