Thursday, April 19, 2007
The "Point", After All....
....is growth....the point of all we go through, all we endure, both on a large scale or a small, is our own intimate, personal, spiritual, artisitic and practical growth...so that we can say we have travelled from Point A to Point B, or maybe even all the way to Point Z....but not only be able to say we have travelled, but that we are now a different person, somehow, from the one that started the journey. A stronger, more passionate, compassionate, more communicative human being....
At Steinhardt Program Meeting yesterday (the entire Music School divides its student body into weekly gatherings , a brilliant idea, really) and topics are discussed, classes present work,etc, and it's a chance for the entire body to feel part of something. I love these Wednesday Program Meetings. I love watching the students confront their fears, when they are required to perform, and above all i love watching their obvious, though often puzzling, road to growth...puzzling because true growth is most often not in a straight line....the road curves, dips ,takes detours and sometimes seem to abruptly stop! Weather conditions vary along this road, and there are times when stopping to take shelter is necessary.....and that is when we see the student revert back to habitual behaviors...sometimes i think teachers take that as a sign of the students' stubborn-ness or recalcitrance...or even,at times, lack of talent...NOT TRUE...
It's the student tracking their own progress the only way they can do....so i have come to appreciate even the smallest increment of progress: one inch for one student can equal a mile for another....yesterday, I watched practically every single one of my students pushed forward, showed something they had never shown before,dared to be brave and attempt new things...took a deep breath and plunged....I was, as ever, proud of them. And grateful.
Introducing what we were about to perform for them, I asked that we take a minute of silence and breathe a prayer for the Virginia Tech students, alive and not. It felt important to the gathered body of kids and faculty for us to do so. I know I simply had to. And I am glad I did, because it made me feel better. Turns out this poor messed-up guy, this young killer, was a boy filled with demons that had been plaguing him for years and years....no one sufficiently understood this along the way, (after all, who among us really wants to take the time to face Evil, gird for the battle and go into it?) and so this is a boy we all lost to the very Darkest of the Dark. He fell young, and no one was able to catch him.
We must strive to develop stronger arms.
At Steinhardt Program Meeting yesterday (the entire Music School divides its student body into weekly gatherings , a brilliant idea, really) and topics are discussed, classes present work,etc, and it's a chance for the entire body to feel part of something. I love these Wednesday Program Meetings. I love watching the students confront their fears, when they are required to perform, and above all i love watching their obvious, though often puzzling, road to growth...puzzling because true growth is most often not in a straight line....the road curves, dips ,takes detours and sometimes seem to abruptly stop! Weather conditions vary along this road, and there are times when stopping to take shelter is necessary.....and that is when we see the student revert back to habitual behaviors...sometimes i think teachers take that as a sign of the students' stubborn-ness or recalcitrance...or even,at times, lack of talent...NOT TRUE...
It's the student tracking their own progress the only way they can do....so i have come to appreciate even the smallest increment of progress: one inch for one student can equal a mile for another....yesterday, I watched practically every single one of my students pushed forward, showed something they had never shown before,dared to be brave and attempt new things...took a deep breath and plunged....I was, as ever, proud of them. And grateful.
Introducing what we were about to perform for them, I asked that we take a minute of silence and breathe a prayer for the Virginia Tech students, alive and not. It felt important to the gathered body of kids and faculty for us to do so. I know I simply had to. And I am glad I did, because it made me feel better. Turns out this poor messed-up guy, this young killer, was a boy filled with demons that had been plaguing him for years and years....no one sufficiently understood this along the way, (after all, who among us really wants to take the time to face Evil, gird for the battle and go into it?) and so this is a boy we all lost to the very Darkest of the Dark. He fell young, and no one was able to catch him.
We must strive to develop stronger arms.
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