…and most poor suckers are starving to death.” This quote from the
movie Auntie Mame has been a favorite of mine since the first time
that I watched the movie when I was a teenager. There are so many
things around us that we don’t fully appreciate and I believe that as
an educator, it should be a goal to not only teach for knowledge, but
to teach for appreciation and beauty. In an age of advancing
technology and personalized “everything”, we many times forget to
communicate and to experience together and bringing students back to
communal experiences is what I work to achieve in my classes.
Teaching and learning should be a continuous process for both the
student and the teacher. There needs to be mutual respect between the
students and the teacher to allow a positive learning environment to
occur. Because music is such a personal and emotional study, there
also needs to be respect to allow students to feel as if they can be
open with their opinions and expression about the music.
There is such a wealth and variety of flavors at our banquets each
day. We need to be able to take the time to not only acknowledge them,
but to understand them and, most importantly, savor them.
