An educational "ohm"

I know, after a promise to return, I go and disappear again.  The road to hell and all that.  My schedule has some opportunities for writing in the coming weeks, so I'm hoping to get back to a regular production schedule and stockpile some posts.  My fingers are crossed.

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Great teaching still exists, you just have to look for it in places outside an American school classroom.

Trevor Wye is an English flautist and teacher.  What sets him apart from other famous pedagogues is his six-volume series of books on how to practice the flute.  Mr. Wye has taken the time to methodically explain the purpose of his exercises, sometimes going far from the practical field to give the reader enough background information to make sense of the music skills he will be learning.  His books are unlike anything I've ever come across in my private practice, in such a good way that I have adapted his teachings to other woodwind instruments.

Mr. Wye has a mantra found throughout his books that should be written in every English speaking classroom in the world.  "It is a matter of time, patience, and intelligent work."

Time. Learning takes time; how much time depends on the individual. Learning does not happen on a schedule, despite what administrators and educational gurus claim. Students are not widgets, you cannot program them on a nine month production schedule. Suzy may take six months to learn multiplication, and Johnny may take 18 months. Giving students the time to learn is a must.

Patience. Learning to do anything is a complex mental process. Real teachers, unlike educational gurus and administrators, know that there will be set backs. Progress will be uneven, or sometimes not at all apparent. But instead demanding instant positive results "or else," real teachers stick with what they know what works, even if the student does not succeed the first time (or the first 117 times).

Intelligent Work. Good teaching takes analysis. The teacher must know where the student is going wrong, where the student has it right, how to improve the former, and how to capitalize on the latter. This takes a lot of knowledge on the part of the teacher, particularly of the subject matter to be taught. What the teacher knows is massively important; they must know which work will be intelligent for their students. Real teachers also know that learning is work. They know that continuous, consistent practice is a positive requirement, not the undesirable option as administrators and educational gurus claim.

Learning is a matter of time, patience, and intelligent work.  Chant it quietly to yourself as you sit through the training for the third reading program your school has adopted in three years.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

I think I'm back.

It was my intention to blog over the summer, and write about things like the school interview process and other forms of institutional insanity. But then I housesat the happiest cucumber plant in the whole city along with the happiest peach tree, a herd of tomatoes, and well, you get the picture. I ended up canning 80+ pints of pickles and peaches and tomatoes and other assorted vegetables. Keeping up with produce left ate up a considerable chunk of time.

The other enormous chunk of time got used redesigning the curriculum I use. My employer - the WalMart of music education - provides a curriculum for their instructors. I've mentioned it before: It sucks. Sucks like a Dyson vacuum. Supposedly it is Kodaly-based. Yeah, right. Kodaly recommended preparing a concept weeks before presenting it to a class, not 10 minutes. Lesson 3 in second grade introduces singing rounds, not with something easy and familiar like "Frere Jacques" or "Row Row Row Your Boat," but with a 16 measure piece in triple meter. ("Frere Jacques" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" are both half as long and in the much more accessible duple meter.) I tried teaching it my first year, the only result was 28 frustrated and confused second graders.

I got tired of teaching garbage, and tried a few of my own experimental lessons at the end of last year. They went waaaaay better than the pre-printed refuse. The kids loved them, and so did I. That gave me the impetus to go whole hog and wrote all my own lessons, preschool through fifth. Granted I've designed curricula for other schools I've worked at, so it wasn't like I had to create anything from scratch.  Third grade music is basically the same no matter where you are.  But writing 216 lessons takes a fair amount of time.

That's where I've been.  With a little luck, the writing groove and timely posts are back too.