Subject: Lesson Plans: Learning to teach in a complicated world.

http://lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/totems-of-respect/

Quote from the article: "We all want our students to be intelligent, so we should honor their intelligence, and encourage them to apply it in contexts that have real meaning for them."

Also, from the article......."something of great value that schools also have to offer — membership in a community. Schools are people, too."

What made me post this here in the piano teacher's forum was that my thoughts on what a piano studio is that it is also: a community of people with something in common, music study, piano specific, and that we are givers of private lessons, chiefly, with some offering group activities.

What I would like to examine is the idea that we are intertwined in many ways and don't usually see each other except at piano recitals. I think it would be great to generate a family of musicians who meet together to communicate about music and finding musical meaning in their lives, as well as to share the sound of music we are making.

You have to read the article in order to get the "between the lines" points as it would apply to piano teachers and their students.

This story, about a different subject, and being an educational issue has me thinking along these lines as being a desirable thing in our teaching.

I think a piano studio (even if it's your livingroom) is about the collection of students as much as it is about the music. When we share music through common purposes and help create them, we are developing and bonding as people in the arts - and as people.

I enjoyed reading this story in New York Times very much. It is making me ask myself what else belongs in the intentions of a piano teacher? For me, that would be to support communication and connection to others in music as a shared experience.

Betty