I can tell you exactly why I don’t teach music lessons anymore (except just for fun).
It’s the same reason that I chose to teach music lessons instead of pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter: I get more out of it.
I am putting my energy and effort where it has the most leverage. If I put an hour into helping small businesses, I get a much higher return on investment than I do putting that same hour into music education.
Read MoreAn aspiring entrepreneur made a poignant comment in a recent conversation.
“I can only do it,” he said, “if I know it’s going to be successful.”
My first reaction to this was amusement. If course we don’t know that a new venture is going to be successful. Nobody can tell the future. But then, when I reflected on this idea more deeply, I came away with a different view.
Read MoreAdmissions season for the upcoming school year has begun. I’m hearing from a few proactive, on-top-of-it people who are already looking at options for their children.
They’re asking questions about The Little Middle School, and it’s an interesting mix of past and future.
“Do you still have the same teachers you had two years ago when we first visited? Which teachers will you have next year?”
“What kind of diversity will you have?”
Read MoreI have at least two complete drum sets in the basement of a house that I haven’t been able to set foot into in more than four months.
I miss playing drums. I miss playing music with other people in the first place. I don’t foresee a time or location in the near future when I’ll be able to play those drums. Maybe I can play others. But I don’t know. You can’t have drums in an apartment, right? So when we sell the house that the drums are in, do we sell them because we’ll never be able to play them again? Or do we put them in storage for someday?
Read MoreI’ve written in the past about “the real world” rhetoric and the fact that many teachers feel it’s their job to prepare their students for a mythical future boss who won’t let you do any work over again or negotiate a deadline. Who are these bosses that act like fifth-grade teachers? Let’s all steer clear of them.
Beyond the silly notion that the teacher’s job is to prepare students for some mythical future job where a boss cares more about deadlines than the actual work product (“Nope! It’s a day late! I don’t even want to look at it,”) is the dark truth that these teachers are doing that very thing under the guise of “teaching accountability.”
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