What A Difference!
Our son's school finally has a new music teacher.
The last couple of years, what I have heard about music from our son is that the music teacher never smiled, and music is not fun.
I was not the only music-loving parent who was concerned that my kid was learning that music was not fun. Finally this past summer, we heard that the non-smiling music teacher would not be back in the fall.
But they were still looking for a new music teacher, and just found one three weeks ago, barely in time for a holiday music program.
What a difference.
It's not really a surprise to me how much difference a teacher can make -- I already saw that back in pre-school, when we went from a cheerful, upbeat, smiling teacher, to one with a set of negative expectations. And our son went from dashing out the door to the van for pre-school, to insisting he was NOT going.
Last night we parked in the snowy darkness, and my son dragged me fast by the hand to the handicapped ramp and ran up it to get inside. To his music program.
Wow.
The new music teacher smiles a lot! Instead of standing there with his arms crossed and a mulish look on his face, our son was looking at her and singing the words (when he could remember them).
When I talked to her afterwards, she said things like, "They're just wonderful kids," and "They're so musical."
I had to thank her, because instead of crying all the way home because there's a recital, now I have a son who runs to get to it.
That's a Christmas present right there.
posted by Alwen | 11:32 AM
7 Comments:
I miss the holiday concerts. Now that my 'baby' has graduated, I will have to wait for grandkids. And by the way, someone used the "lost art" comment on me the other day while I was knitting a sock on the train. If it's so lost, why are there over 50,000 of us in North America alone?
People who don't smile shouldn't be allowed to be teachers. Period. Ever. I'm so glad your son is excited about music again.
Of all places, I had a woman in my fiber arts say sock knitting was a lost art!
And the next words out of her mouth were, "Young women don't learn how to do that any more" !
And that's somebody in a fiber arts group. I'm shaking my head, here.
Oh yes - the difference of a teacher who love to teach and loves their subject! So happy!
Oh by the way - I was knitting at some school thing - and 15 kids gathered around to watch me knit a dishcloth -all amazed and yet thinking it was very cool - my daughter - Oh mummy does that all the time!
It's amazing what a difference an attitude makes isn't it - and so important for a teacher, who can be such an influence on so many kids! Yay for smiling teachers!
How wonderful!
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