Is it really that simple when teachers teach their students music? Is it merely about getting the notes out in a beautiful manner?
Now that I attempt to see the whole big picture, it's really about teaching them how to understand themselves through music and more importantly, to respect our fellow human beings as well. It isn't simply about getting the rhythm and notes right but about respecting what the composer had written down. It isn't about showing off your achievement to people who listen to you but to affect them in a spiritual and emotional manner, to touch them in the most special way before they know it, and even to help your listeners search for themselves in this lifetime on earth as well.
Now that I think of teachers, not just of music of course, it really is such a sacred job... If only all teachers in the world could know just how important they truly are...
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i think teaching is truly a gift...one can be good at something but unable to teach it well. somehow i think no set of theories can "make" a teacher. and that makes it special =)
for lit and history, i strive to inculcate a passion in the subject. considering the natures of most students here, that's not an easy task. but when one of them comes up to me and says "i thought history/lit was boring. after you taught me, i love it" i would know that i have gotten somewhere.
i don't exactly have a passion for english, but for that i try to get my students past the perception that english is technical, dry, and all about compos and compres. it is not something you have to pass to go to the next level; it is something you can use to compose a poem or passage, to offer the right words to a friend in that time of need.
i agree with you about teaching...i think the arts in general is about coming closer to self awareness and sensitivity to the feelings of others...just like knowing Jesus...knowing the beauty of literature and music changes your whole life...once you find it you can never turn back...it's not always an easy road, but the moments of epiphany come. and then you feel like you can touch it with your fingertips, this glimpse of eternity...
it is a sacred job. i like to think that somewhere down the line a soul was touched by loveliness when i explained a poem, or told a story about the Greeks. more than that, i hope that at the end of my life, to at least one person i have given the gift of sensitivity...a sensitivity that fills one with love for all other people and things.
i am still learning; i don't think my journey with literature will ever end. but even now i know how much it has transformed my life.
oh my...you two make me feel so stupid. haha. i think maybe i'm not meant to teach. i think i had something in mind but i guess you've said it all. smart people you two...
and if all the world knew how important teachers are...
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