Teaching Philosopy

 

From the back of the classroom, a clarinet squawked its way through the latest concert piece. Note after note, minute by minute, improvement was scarce and the frustration was building. A red-headed middle school girl finally screamed with anger, thrust her clarinet onto her lap, and ducked her head into her stand, letting the tears flow. At that moment, a young gentleman walked into the room. Being the girl’s band director, he headed towards the back of the room to comfort her. He knew all the trials of being a beginning student, and was willing to do whatever it took to get her past this obstacle.

            “What seems to be the problem?” he asked her. She replied, “I can’t play this section!” More tears flowed as the realization hit her; she was convinced she would never get any better. Exhausted, she concluded, “Maybe I should just quit!” Taken aback, her director did the only thing he could think of. “Oh no, my dear, you shouldn’t quit! Never quit!” The girl looked at him in surprise. “But I suck …”

            Her director replied, “Come now, you don’t suck! You’re just trapped by the notes on the page. Listen, what is your absolute favorite thing about yourself?” She paused to think, then replied “Well … I suppose it’s my hair.” He said, “Okay, great! Why?” She replied, “Because my dad always said it reminds him of a sunset.” Gripped by her answer, the young man said, “A sunset? What a gorgeous sunset you are! Now, I want you to think of that sunset, and play this piece. No, no—“ She had reached for her music on the stand—“Without the music. I know you have it memorized; you have been working on it for the last thirty minutes straight. So, close your eyes … and let the music fill you. Paint the sunset with your music.”

Inspired by his words, the girl brought the clarinet to her lips, and filled the clarinet with the music of her sunset. To her astonishment, she played the excerpt splendidly! She was so overjoyed, and her director was filled with pride. As she left, the girl reflected on the recent experience: she pushed through the hard parts to experience the pleasure and excitement that music had to offer; maybe she could apply that to other aspects of her life as well.

          Where a girl deemed a quitter sat two minutes ago, a new girl now took her place: a girl with dreams and a bright future. She only had to pursue them ….

[Credit: Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)]

 

 

One of my friends dreams of being a Disney Imagineer. She has had this dream since she was very young. All her life, she was told she needed to get into a top-notch college, which meant she needed to get a 4.0 GPA in all accelerated classes. So she worked and worked and worked to finish her full International Baccalaureate diploma …

          Except, she never finished.

          She joined the high school drumline in 10th grade, and completely fell in love. When faced with the decision to either continue the full IB education, or continue drumline, she chose to continue her musical education. At the end of her senior year, she graduated with high honors, lacked an IB diploma, but still found herself attending University of Southern California in the fall. In fact, USC wanted her simply because she chose passion over strict academia. She was able to follow her dreams because she let the music inspire her.

 

 

So what do these two stories have in common? In both cases, music education empowered the girls to be the best they could be. This is why I want to teach music: because music education inspires students to reach for the stars, discovering and exploring new limits that may not have existed before. Sure, there are more scientific reasons that school boards use to justify music and arts in the curriculum, but I believe we can take it one step further. Instead of simply stating “music uses both sides of the brain and incorporates all of the four major core subjects,” we can share stories and say “music empowers the next generation!”

        So often we see students who struggle in school but excel in music, probably because music is the one thing they look forward to every day, the one reason some students are even still in school. I can use music to captivate my students, to teach them that there is more to life than notes on a page. I can use music to encourage and inspire my students to test limits and push the boundaries like they’ve never been pushed before. If I can get one student to see life the same way that the little clarinet girl saw her music, I will have done my job.

       Music is more than ink on a page, and life is more than the obstacles we face. I want to teach students to work through the hard parts to come out the other side victorious. So many students give up; but I want to show them that giving up is not an option, and never should be. Music can empower our students to be the best version of themselves. I will never settle for anything less.

 

To see my Teaching Metaphor, click