For the last 37 years, my husband has referred to himself as a band coach.  This man, who has an undergraduate and a master’s degree in music education and who has taught literally thousands of young people, tends to introduce me as the real educator in the family, but this is not true.  And on this Teacher Appreciation Day, I would like to introduce you to the REAL music educator in the family.

This is a guy who decided at a very early age that he wanted to be a band director and from that point on, all of his energies were pointed in that direction.  A lifelong learner, he has always looked for opportunities to work with other music educators of any level of experience to see what he could pick up.  His ego was never too big to invite someone in to critique what he was doing with his kids and he applied things that he learned and has passed those things on to the next generations.

While going to conferences can be a bit of a social thing, he has always made it a point to find sessions and concerts to go to to learn more about his craft.  He has attended and participated in workshops with some of the finest wind conductors in the country. Even at his level of experience, he is still doing things like participating in webinars to learn something new and different, all of which he takes to his students.  Believe it or not, he has just recently begun to submit sessions of his own for conferences, mainly because he doesn’t believe he has a lot to contribute.  But as amazing as it is that he still works to improve his teaching, the greatest thing he does is to build relationships with young people.

He is still in contact with students he taught during his first year out of college and if he runs into you somewhere, chances are he’ll remember your name and the instrument you play. Even if it’s something like a summer camp, he’ll remember what school you went to.  He makes it a point to get to know kids, finding out about their families, and what they like to do.  He has no problem learning all the latest trends and fads so that he can communicate with them and somehow they never treat him like some old person trying to be cool : )  He joins them in games and dances and games of football during breaks in rehearsals, he does silly things for the big screen in the arena during basketball and teaches the kids the finer points of the game.  It does scare me a little bit when the tuba section picks him up and carries him around on occasion, but he’s having fun, so whatever, right?

He can be a father figure to the students as well, as some will confide in him about issues going on their lives or if they have questions about their future careers.  When away on pep band trips, the small group of students will literally follow him on some of his adventures or invite him to go out to dinner with them.  He has taken kids on trips who have never been on a plane or ever seen the ocean.  He has taken care of sick kids and admonished kids who try to get away with things, not realizing that he too may have tried some of these things before.

He brings wisdom and experience to his student supervision that brings a practicality to to what students learn in the classroom, away from the theoretical and peer teaching.  He shares strategies and different ways of looking at things that encourage those who hope to one day be a music educator as well.

And while not all of his students have made the choice to go into music, those who have have proven to be very successful.  Not that he would say he had anything to do with their success – he gives all the kudos to them and their hard work. However, I believe it says a great deal when those students who did NOT choose to go into music as a career choose to get their kids involved in band because their band experience was so important to them.  So now he has many band “grandkids” as a result of his influence.

This fall, as he begins yet another year of teaching, he will enthusiastically rise at the crack of dawn to stand in the seats of Memorial Stadium and teach marching band drill.  He will continue to mentor students, answer questions from former students, and recruit new students to participate in the magic that is band because, after all – he is a band coach and my favorite teacher on this Teacher Appreciation Day.