Testimonies

It’s no secret that I like to talk. Yesterday, I met many students at the laundromat and while the clothes were romping around in the dryer, someone asked me a question and off I went. It was as if they put a quarter in my mouth and round I went for 15 minutes. I then warned them that if they put in another quarter, they’d have to listen until the cycle stopped. An apt image.

 

But here’s a surprise confession. I also like to listen. Ask someone a question that requires them to dig into their own stories and authentic truths. And then sit back and feel their words express so eloquently both the things I already value and some I hadn’t considered yet. 

 

So though it might seem like a chore to read the Level III assignment asking their response to reading a chapter from my book (me talking again, but a springboard to their own eloquence), I was so moved by both their perceptions and poetic expression of them. So here, I’ll close my mouth and let their voices fill the space. They’ve come here to consider how to get closer to inspired, effective and dynamic teaching that gives children precisely what they need and want. To discard the ineffectual ways in which they were trained or schooled and do the hard work of “teaching as they have not been taught.” And as the examples below testify, they get it. And are determined to be the teacher their children deserve. Some examples:

 

“The most beautiful scene in my mind is the happy face on each of the students when they are hungry to show others what they have learned in music class. I can feel how much they enjoy the class and feel like my efforts are worthy.”

 

“In one class I taught, I led a lesson in which no part of the activity felt like learning: it was 100% play. Yet, the lesson was packed with educational nutrients— like hiding spinach in a delicious fruit smoothie.”

 

“When I was a Boy Scout, we usually cooked our own food and at the beginning it was awful. Burnt or not cooked enough, with too much or too little salt. We gradually got tips from more experienced cooks, asked our parents for help at home, kept trying out dishes and gradually the taste got better and better. Later I came to understand that it was precisely the mistakes we made that eventually helped us become good cooks.”

 

“We are not children anymore, but every summer in this course we have the chance to remember what it feels like to be surprised, hypnotized and excited by music. It’s like a summer romance, a summer love who you only can meet once a year, but with whom you spend a magic time together. It’s also interesting to notice how important prescision is to keep that romance deep and alive.”

 

“ Today’s teachers are often mandated to write the daily agenda on the board, followed by giving a scripted verbal summary of the day’s activities. All this before the first note is played, sung or felt. The way we do something first here and discuss it later (instead of the other way around) answers my frustrations being a teacher forced to operate in a system of onerous compliance, with little or no consideration for the children who are forced to endure it.”

 

“One of the goals I now have is to make a concerted effort to harness the unexpected.”

 

“ When I began teaching via the Orff approach, I discovered that I love to play. And that the kids love to play. We all love to play together! Music class is super fun and I love teaching. Yes!

 

But I also understand that play can blossom into precision and precision can serve the kids with its own form of power. Shift the attitude towards ‘Look at the wonderful things we can do!” to “See how much more we understand!” Before this course, I felt Precision and Romance as oppositional forces and now I am beginning to understand them as complementary. When Precision enters, Romance doesn’t leave—it gets a cool new dance partner!”

 

“Today in class, time stopped and I suddenly understood that I must walk this path with compassion at my side, accompany my students in their pain and joy, hope and solitude. …I need to make each class a happy place, an imaginative place built meticulously through the details of inspired teaching. I realized that no matter how good the music is, it will only be an ornament if I don’t hold the students in my heart, don’t observe them, listen to them, accompany them, rescue them if necessary. I need to live in polyharmony, where all tension and dissonance can resolve into a powerful major chord. “

 

To all the above, I add only one word. 

 

Amen.