Tag: teacher

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What if?

I actually started crying when I first read this on Facebook. I immediately shared it on my feed but felt to say more about it here.

What first touched my heart was imagining how the world would be if all teachers had this understanding and routinely offered this kind of support to the children in their care.

But then I found myself thinking, what about our workplaces? What about our homes?

If your family is experiencing difficulties at home, I would like to provide additional support at work. I understand that you are not always able to share details and that’s okay. If your wife/husband/adult child is coming to work after a difficult night, morning or weekend, please text me “Handle with Care”. Nothing else will be said or asked. This will let me know that your wife/husband/adult child may need extra time, patience, or help during the day.

OR…

If my wife/husband/adult child is experiencing difficulties at work, I would like to provide additional support at home. I understand that you are not always able to share details and that’s okay. If my wife/husband/adult child is coming home after a difficult day, please text me “Handle with Care”. Nothing else will be said or asked. This will let me know that my wife/husband/adult child may need extra time, patience, or help during the night or over the weekend.

OR EVEN…what about ourselves?

If I am experiencing difficulties at work or at school or at home, I would like to provide myself additional support within. I understand that I may not always be able to deal with details and that’s okay. If I’m trying to cope after a difficult day, night, or weekend, please God, help me remember to “Handle with Care”. Nothing else need be said or asked. This will remind me that I may need extra time, patience, or help.

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Talent: blessing or curse?

My last couple of posts got me thinking more about the whole idea of being “talented” and what a mixed bag that can be!

Looking back I realize I had a certain amount of natural ability and facility with music. Things came pretty easily at the start. Of course, then I felt insecure because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!

That’s the thing, isn’t it? When it all just comes to you naturally, a part of you worries that it could leave just as easily!

The fact is, although I had natural musicality and a beautiful tone, there were lots of other things that I wasn’t doing well at ALL (fixing all my “flute flaws” is where persistence and determination had to make an appearance).

Years later, when I had my own private flute studio, I saw how correcting all those errors in my playing made me a much better teacher. Pretty much anything a student was doing wrong, I had done as well and knew how to go about correcting it.

The only aspect of flute playing that I never felt confident teaching was vibrato. Why? Because when I was in high school the girl who played 1st flute in band did this “thing” with her tone that made her sound better than me. I wasn’t okay with that and determined if she could do it, I could do it. So I did, with absolutely no idea of how. 😄

I received a deeper understanding of all this thanks to a particular flute student. She was in high school, a beautiful and very talented girl who ended up being one of the greatest challenges of my teaching career.

There was simply no way to get her to work. She was quick and bright and had so much natural ability that she could reach a relatively high level with very little effort. So she considered herself an excellent flutist, entitled to praise and adulation, and disregarded most of what I was attempting to teach her.

Finally a light bulb went off for me and I saw how she was a perfect example of the “talented” trap. The truth is that none of us can take credit for any God-given talent that we’ve been blessed with. But what we can take credit for is the energy and effort, the persistence and determination, that we put out to develop our talent.

I’ve seen enough auditions won by seemingly “mediocre” musicians who just kept plugging away to know that if I had to choose, I’d choose persistence, determination, and discipline. Because…nothing is more common than unsuccessful [people] with talent.

On the other hand, when someone has talent and the willingness to work at it, amazing things are possible.