In the United States of America, issues related to music teacher recruitment and retention have persisted for decades (Madsen & Hancock, 2002). Additionally, as a nationwide teacher shortage continues to plague the American education system (Natanson, 2022), those in historically underfunded or undersupported fields, such as the arts, may experience increased difficulty both recruiting and retaining quality teachers. To address these issues, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) identified several barriers that affected the recruitment of new music educators (NAfME, 2023a). One such barrier was a generally negative perception of the teaching profession. While previous efforts to understand perceptions of the teaching profession have included in-service educators, college music majors, or faculty within teacher education programs (Kos, 2018; Madsen & Kelly, 2002; Mateos-Moreno, 2022), few investigations have included the perceptions of middle school and high school students. Understanding how the music teaching profession is viewed by secondary school students may benefit those interested in music teacher recruitment, education, and retention. Addressing students’ concerns may not only lead to increased enrollment in music teacher education programs, but doing so may help mitigate teacher attrition and improve public perception of the music teaching profession. The purpose of this study was to determine secondary school students’ perceptions of the music teaching profession. A questionnaire that incorporated the FIT-Choice Scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007) was completed by middle and high school students (N = 672) attending a summer music camp in the Southeastern United States. Among the four beliefs about music teaching measured by the scale, participants rated expertise highest (M = 5.95, SD = 0.92), followed by difficulty (M = 5.89, SD = 0.95), social status (M = 4.17, SD = 1.05), and salary (M = 2.65, SD = 1.27). Slightly more than one third of participants (38.1%) indicated they were considering a career in music teaching, whereas 61.9% indicated no desire to pursue such a career. We conducted a binomial logistic regression analysis to determine the degree to which beliefs about music teaching predicted students’ desire to consider music teaching as a profession (yes vs. no). Results indicated a statistically significant model, c2(2) = 9.84, p = .007, Nagelkerke R2 = .02. Perceptions of difficulty (p = .012) and salary (p = .018) were significant predictors of whether participants would consider music teaching as a career. Additional findings and implications for the music teaching profession are discussed.