MUSIC TEACHER | FOND MEMORIES
Teacher Memories
Retired teachers have a huge collection of memorable experiences.
Teacher memories span many emotions, too. When I was a child there was a poem that hung on the principal’s wall in my elementary school called, Children Learn What They Live by Dorothy Lewe Nolte, (1924–2005).
The last line says,
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship he learns to find love in the world.
I kept a copy of this poem with me throughout my teaching years. As a teacher, I wholeheartedly believe that children must find acceptance and their own place in the world. That is more important than teaching the 3Rs or any subject. Of course, we all have good days and bad days. We teachers are not perfect role models ourselves, and we also remember the wrongs that happened to us in life. I was not a perfect teacher each day.
I remember one particular successful experience in teaching that I wanted to share. I taught elementary music for many years. One of my duties was to prepare holiday programs. One year I had a fourth-grade student with a beautiful clear soprano voice. He had no experience performing, and I don’t believe his parents even came to the school programs.
