At the very end of my hair appointment today, a man walks in for a haircut. He’s wearing tattered shorts, a Sturgis t-shirt and a sweaty baseball cap.  And there it is, in all its glory.  Under that baseball cap is the stringiest, most scraggly mullet I have ever seen.  One of those flat from under the cap mullets where the sweat has matted it down.  I didn’t hear what he asked the stylist to do with it, but she took him to the sink to wash his hair.  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have touched it either without washing it first!  As he laid his head back in the sink, with the hair out of the way,  I could see the potential.  Under the slight growth of beard was a wonderful square jaw and a beautiful straight nose and with that long hair out of the way I could see the makings of a really striking man there.  The problem is, I’ll never know.  My stylist finished my hair, I paid and left, and I’ll never see if the potential freedom from mullet-ness came to fruition!

I am one of those people who loves a good reveal.  TV shows like Fixer Upper are like a drug to me because I want to see where they can take a beat up house and turn it into something beautiful.  Quite frankly, it’s that “reveal” that keeps me cleaning my own  house.  I hate the actual boring, routine work that needs to go into it, but boy do I love seeing the end where everything smells great and looks good.  At least until someone decides to raid the fridge again.  It takes someone with vision to look at something raw and make it into something beautiful or meaningful.

Teaching elementary school is a lot like that for me.  I’m fortunate in that as a music teacher,  I may get to work with students for years and I can see the potential direction they’re heading.  But then they leave for middle school and then high school.  Sometimes the teachers at those secondary levels develop relationships where kids come back and share how meaningful that teacher was in their life or how they helped them reach their potential.  This is not necessarily the case for those of us who teach at the elementary level.  We take them as this wonderful raw material, give them the foundational elements they need and then we send them off, sometimes never seeing if the effort paid off,  if the student ever reached their potential or if we really made a difference.

So where then, does the motivation come from when a teacher does everything they can for a child for a year or so and then they lose track of them?  If we never get to see the reveal, are we doomed to be forever frustrated?  The mark of a great teacher is one who sees beyond the raw material, beyond just teaching the subject matter and behavior management and instead sees character strengths, how the child learns best and what they love.  It’s building intense relationships with those kids for a relatively short period of time. For most teachers, I believe it is enough to have a vision for that child and to have the hope that the efforts we put into building those relationships and foundations of learning will pay off in the end and that that child will reach his/her full potential. That faith in each and every child and in our efforts has to be enough.

I have been teaching long enough that I have had a few opportunities to talk to former elementary students who shared things I said to them when they were younger.  The things they remember are not essential learning outcomes in music or state standards.  They remember feeling included, inspired, and happy.  They remember working hard and accomplishing great things with others.  They made lifelong friends who share their memories and love for music and the arts. They’ve been able to use those skills in their adult lives and sometimes my words have encouraged them to follow their passions.  So even though I wasn’t there for the big reveal, I know my vision for what I hoped their lives would be has happened for them and that in turn gives me hope for the thousands of other students I’ve had the chance to work with.

And the mullet?  Well, I’ll guess I’ll never know.  But I have a vision and I know what my hope is.  Maybe one less mullet in the world?  : )