This is why I teach...

I have just finished my fifth week teaching Junior High School Choir and had one of the neatest things happen today. Working with Junior High guys' voices can be a challenge since most of them are going through a voice change and virtually all of their voices are in different changing stages. Along the way, their singing range gets pretty small and you really have to select music carefully, easing them all along during the voice change. I spent the last three school days listening to students audition for an after-school ensemble and when I was done with that, I heard the guys sing privately to evaluate their current voice ranges.

One of the young guys is pretty active and has had trouble settling down during my class. A frequent need for my direction and attention, this young man has a history of behavior problems; his previous choir teachers have even prepared me for the coming difficulty. At one point, I considered asking his counselor to move him to another class but there was just this tugging down in my heart that I might be able to "reach" him if we hang in there.

When it was his turn to sing for me today, he was really resistant! I could see his body get all tense as he followed me to the piano; sadly, it was a little like a lamb to the slaughter. At first I just asked him to hum with me and we had a little humming contest. After he was comfortable with that, I asked him to sing those same things on "ooh," which he did. As I encouraged him, he relaxed and finally was able to sing, "mah" for me. He has the sweetest, purest tone I have heard in a long time. As I coached and praised him, I could just see his little chest puff up and see a little pride-ish glow envelope him. This is a kid that would hardly open his mouth during class and here he was singing full voice. I could have cried, both for him and for me.

His class behavior demonstrates that there are "issues" somewhere in his life. I hope that his 50 minutes in my class each day can be a place of success for him because he's obviously gifted. I'm thrilled to report that we made the start of what I believe will be a breakthrough for him. Hopefully, in June, I will be able to write that he turned the rest of his school behavior around over the course of this year as he experienced success in my class...today was the first day of that turn around and I hope that Monday will be the second day!

This is why I teach and I'm so happy I went to work today!