TMEA--Touching Lives

My recent trip to San Antonio was revealing and special in many different ways. This amazing convention affords musicians an unusual opportunity to experience music education in the broadest sense of term. In a narrow view, music education refers to the process of educating children in music from an early age to adulthood. It usually includes specific methodologies and is often separated at some point into either vocal or instrumental music education. But in a broader sense, music education refers to all music endeavors for all ages including performing, listening, learning, moving, and creating. Texas Music Educator's Association convention is a golden opportunity for all types of music education from sophisticated and advanced performance to elementary music methodology.

There is something for everyone. Even the uneducated musician can find great aesthetic pleasure in the many great performances and concerts. For the music teacher, the convention is a gold mine of information including exhibits representing the finest music businesses throughout the country. For me, as a consummate and infatuated musician and lover of all types of music, it is a rich opportunity to ingest as much musical experiences as possible. The abundance of band, choral, jazz, elementary, church, classical, and popular music gives the musician an infinite supply of musical energy and inspiration that can be applied both individually and collectively. Regardless of whether the attendee is looking for jewelry or t-shirts for his ensemble or seeking for academic information on Mahler Symphonies or looking for children's games, it can all be found in this marvelous institution known as TMEA.

But my recent TMEA trip was not really about the music. I found the concerts to be gloriously uplifting and the opportunity to purchase new music and Cd's to be thorough and exciting, but what meant the most to me was the people. Seeing the friends and acquaintances from my eclectic musical career touched me more than any musical experience I have had. Friends with whom I have performed on recitals and in orchestra concerts, teachers I have judged with, directors for whom I have done clinics or composed music, alumni from my institution, my former horn teachers and theory teachers, and most importantly my own former students. Four former students currently teaching in schools throughout Texas made special effort to find me and thank me. They mentioned the inspiration I provided, the effort I demanded from them, and the encouragement I never stopped giving.

I was moved by their gratitude and touched by their intensity and need to say thank you. The tears welled up in me as I saw their sincerity and reflected on their own successes. I realized then and now that teaching and being a musician is about expression, communication, and about the people. What I ineffectively tried to explain to these particular students and what I want to tell all my students is that being a teacher is being a student. For to teach is to learn and it is from my students that I have learned the most.

Can a student vivify the ability of a teacher to the point of satiety and ultimately force the instructor to embrace a conspectus of musical knowledge? The answer is of course unequivocally yes. Due to the complex process of learning, a successful teacher can not maunder nor dissimulate in imparting of knowledge. To do so is to fail. The remarkable and often times overwhelming responsibility that a teacher has to help students learn is only recognized when we discover the tractable personalities of our students. They are malleable and woe to the teacher who molds them wrongly.

We teach and we learn and we touch lives in a multitude of ways. To my students I say thank you. You have taught me to love my life as a music educator and you have made the positive memories last. It is you to whom I owe my successes not vice verse. My gratitude goes to you; and thank you to TMEA for providing those opportunities for a deeper examination of why we do what we do. I will continue to learn and to grow as a musician. This will happen because I have students. My life is enriched by my students. I, the teacher, am the student and I would not want it any other way.