Recently a colleague-who-used-to-be-a-student (there has to be less cumbersome descriptor) contacted me to share that she had taken a new job as an assistant principal. Bless her heart, she was concerned that I would be disappointed that she had stepped off the podium. Quite the contrary, I couldn’t be prouder of her. She is moving into a position to influence a whole building full of students, not just those who sing.
Katherine Kouns seems to underscore that sentiment, in her article, “What Do You Teach? . . . I Teach Kids!” (Western Division Tactus, Vol.31, No.2, Winter 2006). While Ms. Kouns, like every choral conductor, is dedicated to developing a good choral sound with her choirs, she has learned to see, as she puts it, “the bigger picture.”
Katherine states, “I have learned over the years that I am more satisfied as a teacher and less resentful of the long hours and low pay when I focus more on developing my students’ moral character and helping mold them into decent, [high] quality human beings than on how many of them understand and use solfege well.
Choral conductors are driven to produce better sounds. We agonize over the smallest details, we lose sleep over repertoire selections, we hammer away at our choirs to turn ever more well-crafted phrases. We can’t help it – it’s in our bones.
But today . . . pause. Remember that those are human beings in your care. And care for them we must.
(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit ChorTeach.)
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