#memorablemomentsineducation #18:
I’m a day late, but I have a recent moment to share. Our daughter and I have taken up music lessons this year (hers on the ukulele and mine on the harmonica), and I’m realizing I missed out on a whole part of my education by never really pursuing music until now. Music teachers are this rare breed of people who genuinely love every minute of what they do. My daughter’s teacher shows up for every lesson with a huge smile and real excitement about what they’re going to accomplish today. I think it probably has something to do with the fact music students can personify their learning almost immediately. The shift from not being able to play that note or riff to mastery happens quick enough and seems tangible enough to make teaching and learning such a reward in the moment.
My harmonica teacher is in his 20s, and he’s already a blues master. We spent our last class watching him overcome with giddiness as he found harp legends on YouTube and talked passionately about what he’d learned from them. He showed off his own skills by imitating what he’d heard. Then he asked us to improvise as he backed us on the guitar. He implored us to take some risks, just try something even if it doesn’t work, and we did because he was so damned excited about it. How liberating to have a teacher who’ll let you fly, even when it sounds like crap. That’s the gift of music teachers, even for those of us who work to be aficionados more than pros.
We spend so much energy justifying teaching the arts by tying it to reading or math. Can’t we do it just ‘cause?