When I was entering my first year of teaching, I remember being asked countless times, "Are you ready for the first day?" Ready I was! I had my best shirt and tie picked out, a new pair of red Chuck Taylor's to balance out my freshly ironed black dress pants, and I even had a few lessons planned. Of course, I had the room set up, music in folders, lessons planned, etc, but it's fun to think back to getting ready for that first day in a new profession.
This year, as I enter my fifth year as a teacher, I still planned out that new shirt and dress pants but I did not have them planned weeks in advance. This taught me a valuable set of lessons, lesson number 1: try on your outfit. Yes, those wicked cool charcoal colored pants that I bought were mis-marked. I mean, I tried a similar pair on in the store but needed a longer pant length; and those new pants? 4 inches too short and 2 inches too narrow. Damn.
This would have crushed the new teacher in me; just the way it would crush the student's that busily walked the halls of Fridley High School on the first day of school. Their hair: perfectly imperfect; their outfits: predictably unpredictable; and their style: uniformly unique. Yet, I would never be the one to step on their image or their hope of being a new age hipster, because the first day is truly their day. Their day in their way. It's about style, friends, stories, and even a couple of measly class periods that fall before their scrambled table selection during lunch. Little do they know however, this is not their only "day"; every day is their day. Every day belongs to the students at Fridley, and the students at Triton, the students in River Falls and the students in Chicago. We as teachers slyly transform their day from "their day in their way" into their day for future days.
The news has struck again and we are continually reminded that everyone is having difficulty paying the bills; and we're further reminded that the phrase, "difficulty paying the bills" doesn't do an ounce of justice to the worry caused by trying to balance rent, insurance, and food. In reading about the Chicago teacher strike, I am reminded that teachers make, on average, 14% less than professionals with similar education. That it's okay to cut a musician's salary by 28%, and that it is not fair that student's aren't being taught to read by teachers who selfishly refuse to read to the children after dinner following a long day of teaching students to read while in the classroom.
It's the same old story that I'm tired of blogging about. My high school drumline played for a very large medical corporation's United Way kick off this week; during the presentation my students heard 3 things from the keynote speaker:
1- They heard the speaker take time to explain what this crazy idea of "free and reduced lunch" translated to.
2 - That the middle-aged speaker didn't think he would be able to get by when he first got a job and he had to learn how to scrap and save to survive. (His starting salary? $44,000 a year)
3 - That this medical company set an attainable goal for donations amongst their employees. (The goal? $2,500,000)
This was one of the first year's that I didn't buy a new pair of Chuck Taylor's for the school year but these well worn shoes are doing everything they can to take a step forward in education. This year promises new heights in musicianship, music advocacy, mentoring student's who are at risk of not graduating, and pushing for all students of all backgrounds to feel like they can succeed. (Even as musicians or teachers.)
I keep hoping, and I have to keep believing (even in the face of skeptics) that this career path, like those 32" x 30" charcoal pants can turn in to something a bit more… comfortable.
Here's to a new year, a step forward; to great music and to civility.
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