FIRST THINGS FIRST

by Mary Gae George

You are important!

You fill a role in your community, a vital link in the nation's educational and cultural climate. You work with students over a period of years on a one-to-one basis, something almost unheard of in today's educational and professional fields. You help shape not only the mental and emotional powers of your students but you also help build their character and their attitudes toward working effectively in sharing and communicating life's fullest measure of beauty and meaning.

'Nuff said?

Yes -- and no. You know this is true, but it is all too easy to lose sight of the big picture as we work to cope with the the daily commitment to our families and to our students.

I commend you for this effort, and I want to help in any way possible. Through this On-Line Forum, we can share ideas and solutions, goals and concerns, we can look hard at what needs to be done and help one another make it happen.

I hope you find this as exciting as I do!

And as challenging. The wisest mortals tell us that anything worth doing will demand a great deal of us. How else can we know that we have made a valuable contribution?

Still with me? Good.

I have been teaching for 54 years; the fact that I still look forward to my daily teaching with keen delight attests to a number of things that will become clear through our association in this Forum. I am grateful to the technology that makes this possible. (After decades of traveling the world to work with teachers, students, and parents, I can now accomplish immediate connection with you through this remarkable device called a computer. And furthermore, I can do it in the middle of the night, a time you might be less than pleased about if we were doing this in person.)

Please read the following brief articles for students and parents (you can simply scroll down to reach them), and then formulate questions and observations about this list of issues (or anything else you want to address):

• Effective communication with parents
• Teaching students how to practice
• Making students aware of how to think, learn, communicate
• Teaching the language of music
• Maintaining effective expectations on the part of teacher, student, and parent
• Staying involved in our own study and performance of music
• Encouraging parents to fill their home with good music on a daily basis.

That should give us enough to make important first steps together. (Incidentally, you can use the e-mail forms below, in this teacher's section, to post your responses.)

Remember, success is our goal. That success must exist for you the teacher, for the student, and for the parent.

We will do it.

response form