Fun, Fun, Fun

After my usual non-verbal 30 minutes of starting a workshop with music and dance, I talked a bit about the purpose of gathering together to some 45 teachers in Macau. Some were music teachers, some classroom teachers, some worked with preschool, some with elementary. I suggested that the primary thing I had to offer besides great material and enticing ways to develop it further was giving them all permission to have fun. I told them if they’re not having fun, it could be for some of the following reasons and gave simple suggestions to solve each one.

1. You don’t know what you’re doing. Train yourself.

2. You don’t like the age kids you’re working with. Change to another age.

3. You love music, but you don’t love teaching. Perform.

4. You love teaching, but you don’t love music. Switch subjects.

5. You love teaching, but you hate what the school makes you do. Change schools. Or-

6. You love teaching, but you hate what the school makes you do. Shut the door after the kids come in, stay under the radar and “be the change you want to see in the world.”

7. You love teaching, but you don’t love kids. Change professions. Or your attitude.

8. You love kids, but you don’t love this particular class. Stop blaming them or wishing they were different. Meet them where they are and figure out how to reach them, to help them, to love them. 

9.  You love to have fun, but have drunk the Kool-Aid that tells you that teaching is a series of pre-programmed steps meeting all National Standards. Don’t listen to them. I’m here to tell you that you better have fun with it all or it will eat you up and spit you out exhausted, dispirited and burnt-out. You will not only hurt yourself, but harm innocent children. 

And then we returned to two days of non-stop fun.