Confessions of a Traveling Music Teacher

Reflections teaching Orff workshops around the world.

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Two futures. Your choice.

Doug Goodkin: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” (E.B. White). Early on in my adult life, I was convinced that the world is a mess that needs fixing. But I also sensed that life is short, that miracles and beauty abound and that we would do well to pay attention to them. In a stroke of good fortune, I stumbled on a life that allowed both to happen at once. Teaching music for 45 years at The San Francisco School with children between three and 14 years old guaranteed a fair share of miracles and beauty. The sense that happy children playing, imagining, thinking and creating might help a bit with that improving-the-world side of things made it easy to plan my day. Alongside a half-century of teaching children is a parallel life of traveling and teaching the Orff approach to music education—some 50 countries to date banging on xylophones and slapping our bodies. This blog now in its fifteenth year sharing these experiences. Settle back in your armchair and enjoy!

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