go get in your arena..
One of my very favorite bits of writing comes from the famous speech made by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 commonly entitled “Man in the Arena.”
Although this speech was about citizenship and Roosevelt’s charge directly to common people to go out and make the world a better place, its ideas and most famously known quote applies, for me, to education, music, teaching, pedagogy and my purpose as an artist in this life.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~Theodore Roosevelt
As much as I am a horn player, I am a teacher...
...whose greatest responsibility is to help the path of my students become more clear and obvious. I strive to live the above quote by example and philosophy. I am the teacher who dives into the trenches of my students’ paths to find empathy and solutions. I am the teacher who encourages my students to live the above quote in their own way, through effort, failure, and ultimate success in their own way.
The point of departure for my teaching strategy, i.e. getting “in the arena”, with every student is two-fold. The first “must” is to view the person playing the horn, not the horn being played by the student. The horn is the, sometimes complicated, vehicle through which I seek to help each person develop his or her sense of musical self. It is important for me to allow the personality of each person to become central to our time together. That is to say, I become a chameleon of sorts to allow for the needs of the individual to be foremost.
This is the greatest risk I take, and the greatest effort I make as a teacher...
The other ruling idea for all students during every encounter, therefore making it all encompassing, is the 'fundamentals'. This is the greatest risk I take, and the greatest effort I make as a teacher. It is a risk because no two students are the same, ergo the first point of my teaching. It is also a risk because fundamentals consist of the most basic elements of our craft, but also often the most complicated and tenuous ones. I must simplify while honoring the complex nature of a single issue creating a non-intimidating learning environment that teaches the student and speaks and connects to the person. My trench, or arena, is the student’s mind and creative effort, and I do this with great enthusiasm.
Sometimes I fall short. But I am spending myself in the worthiest of causes, as Roosevelt intimates.
The greatest external contribution of myself that I can give to the future of my students, is to serve as a resource and a channel through which they may develop and grow, explore music and it's culture. My responsibility is to establish, develop and nurture professional relationships locally, regionally, nationally and beyond as a life-long artist and pedagogue of the horn.
The greatest, and absolutely most honorable contribution, however, is internal –
- the outward direction of my internal passion towards the people that I teach, and to those in the future that may be touched by the passion of my students.
