I’m sitting in MADCAP coffee waiting for my Americano. I began what I expect is a lifelong journey with tea last week, but when one finds themselves in a city (Grand Rapids) with no tea options and excellent coffee one takes a seat at the best coffee shop in town. It’s the only responsible thing to do.

Today I’m allowing myself to think about the college education experience, especially as it relates to being a Suzuki violin teacher.

People go to college for credidation.

Sure, part of going to college is learning skills you will need professionally. But those skills, in many cases, can be learned outside of academic institutions. People go to college so they have proof, a piece of paper, that says that they learned skills.

A problem that arises, of course, is that one could get a piece of paper without learning skills. Or, even worse, one could learn and receive credit for skills that are now completely irrelevant in their line of work.

Another issue? Academic institutions don’t have the resources to tailor their degree programs to your unique needs. You might find yourself unfortunately situated between the scope of two different degrees or hoping to dive deep in a program that is so broad you only scratch the surface. [Read more…]

I started becoming a teacher the day I was born. From the earliest moments I (and you, for that matter) started collecting ideas, memories, skills, frameworks, that influence the way I (we) will teach forever.

But I didn’t make the decision to be a teacher until the summer after freshman year in high school.

That summer, I attended Bravo! Summer Music Camp at the University of Minnesota. We spent all of our waking hours doing music related things and hanging out with music related people. Practice, rehearsals, lessons, technique classes, master classes, and recitals all swirled together into a beautiful wash of effort and reward. I think I grew more in that month than I had in all of my work in violin put together.

One of my favorite activities while at Bravo! was attending master classes, which we were required to do every afternoon. I had a red spiral-bound notebook in which I would write down my observations of a student’s playing, the teachers response, and the resulting change in the student’s playing. At the time I think I thought I was taking notes in order to apply it to my own playing, but what I was really studying was teaching.

I knew, in that summer when the entirety of my day to day work aligned, that I wanted to pursue violin as a profession. And I knew that the way I felt most rewarded in my relationship with music was not in performing, or even practicing, but in teaching. [Read more…]