Passion

For this particular blog entry, I'd like to deviate a little bit from the questions that we were given. I firmly believe that there are two major passions that any effective teacher MUST have: a passion for teaching, and a passion for the subject that they are teaching. Without either of these passions, I believe that prospective teachers have the moral obligation to themselves and to their would be students to choose another career.

I'd like, now, to embellish on this seemingly harsh statement. I'll start with a passion for what a person teaches. I firmly believe and often say that, "Notes devoid of passion is not music." What I mean by that is this: When one makes music, they give the piece life through their interpretation. In the case of a piece that is centuries old even, it is not enough to say that you are playing a Mozart sonata. You also need to feel the piece, live the piece, and learn to love the piece. In that case, with all of these met as well as a certain degree of technical preparation and accuracy, that sonata becomes more than just notes on a page. It becomes art, it becomes the music that extends beyond a simple question of how many notes you got right. It is this that makes me want to be a musician. I truly want to take pieces that are centuries old and breath new life into them. This is, in terms of music (in my opinion) passion. I am reminded of a quotation of James Levine, the current musical director and head conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, in which he discusses why musicians choose to keep trying in vain for the perfect performance, "We have a constant drive for perfection, yes, but not for physical perfection. Perfection in the sense that the composer had an idea in his imagination of what this piece should sound like, of what this piece should communicate, and what we are on the eternal search for, there is no doubt about it. That’s why we get up in the morning, trying to get a little closer." This passion does extend, of course, in to all disciplines in different ways. I could not describe as vividly for any other subject what it means to be passionate as I can for music. It truly takes a passionate person in the subject to describe what passion means to them. This is the first type of essential passion that any effective teacher must possess.

The second type of passion is one that I unfortunately cannot elaborate so heavily on. It is a passion for teaching. An effective teacher must know that they are 100% devoted to being a teacher, that there is nothing that they'd rather do. This passion entails many things such as a genuine desire to see the kids you teach succeed, a genuine desire to help them learn, and an immense patience. It is in this area of passion that I am lacking.