I first started teaching in 1990, in a large Comprehensive school in Northern England.  It was a difficult school to teach in, as resources were limited and the kids came from very challenging demographics.  My interview for the job was somewhat strange.  The Head of Music for the school called in sick that day, so one of the members of the panel was the teacher I was hoping to replace.  The Principal of the school was on sabbatical, so the other member of the panel was an Interim Principal.  Therefore, when I turned up to teach my first day, neither of the people I was to report to, the Head of Music nor the Principal, had actually met me, nor had they any idea of what my strengths might be as a music teacher. 

On the day of my interview, naive as I was, I did not ask about what the Music Department owned as regards instruments, nor what money there might be to supply the school with good equipment.  When I was offered the job, I eagerly accepted, and I wasn’t to find out until much later that there were reasons why my predecessor was moving on - the Music Department was in a mess, and all the instruments were very much overdue for repair.  Rhythm instruments were all broken, mallet instruments were missing most of their bars, electronic keyboards worked unreliably and were missing many keys, and there was no equipment to listen to music - no record players, no tape machines.  In fact, the piano in my classroom had only 47 working notes, but how many times do you sit down to check the piano at an interview?

With very little to go on, I asked my Head of Music what I should teach the children, expecting to be handed binders of curriculum and lesson plans, but she smiled at me and said “Teach them whatever you want to.  I don’t care, so long as they’re happy, and they’re creative.”  I will never forget that moment.  As I got to know her, I found out that she was one of the kindest and gentlest people you could ever hope to meet, and I learned more from her joyous approach to teaching music than I ever learned in any college class or student teaching experience.

When the children arrived for their first day, we got out instruments and played.  As the days and weeks moved by we experimented, we made noise, and soon noise turned to music and fears of inadequacy turned to happy enjoyment.  I watched eagerly as the Head of Music’s classes also went through the same process.  As the two of us taught side-by-side in our classrooms, we both reveled in the joy of watching kids be spontaneously creative.  In those two music rooms we had so much fun though we had so little to work with.  It was a challenge every day, but we kept smiling and laughing, and any time either of us seemed stressed by the job, we’d both remind each other “They’re happy, and they’re creative.”

That’s still how I teach twenty years later, though today I am blessed with outstanding resources and great students who come to my classes really wanting to learn every day.  If my students are not happy and creative I’m not satisfied that I’m doing my job.  Nobody will ever convince me that tests or grades or rubrics are more important than the joy of creativity.  Music is a joy to teach, it is a joy to learn.  I hope that we will all continue to keep it so.