I Sing Because...

In the Months of February and March, I offered students a chance to express their opinions and ideas about singing using a low-tech version of an online bulletin board - an actual bulletin board with paper stapled to it.

I posted one question and invitingly left a wall of blank paper with a couple of pens dangling nearby. Knowing teenagers, and how they oddly love anatomically correct stick figure drawings and the like, I was prepared to take it down within seconds of finding anything off-color. However, weeks went by, and slowly the sheets of paper began to have life. Students began contributing, drawing, and pondering the question.

"I sing because..."

Answers ran the gamut, from lighthearted admissions that singing is simply fun, coupled with confessions of how positive-peer pressure influenced students to join a choir, to deeper, whole-hearted responses. There were many references to music's ability to help express things which cannot be put into "normal words," as Drew Finley put it.

There were even a few half-quotes of the lyrics to His Eye is on the Sparrow - one of my favorite gospel tunes. And then there was Annie Zheng's response, which offered that music gives her inspiration when she is depressed, as well as happy. Annie poignantly added that she hopes she can "follow the music, and be with music until forever." Simple words, scratched on a wall...

Following a recent Men's Chorale rehearsal, I noticed a few new etchings - small, and hastily written, which curtly said, "I hate it," and "For the art credit." This was not surprising to me. I know there are students in my choirs who do not always want to be there. I also know that there are some students who have little to no interest in any art classes, and mine just happened to be the class that had more of that particular student's friends.

Knowing this about some of my classes does make it more difficult, as a passionate teacher of the arts. But, I find it a challenge worth facing, to still make a good experience possible for those who want and love to sing. I do not always succeed, but it's an opportunity to represent something much larger to my students.

Tolerance means accepting those who see the world how you see it, and accepting those who do not. There will be many times in the lives of my students where they will have to create amongst nay-sayers. There will be times when even their own internal negative dialogue mustn't keep them from being a positive contributor in their job, church, family or volunteer opportunities. Demonstrating a positive focus is good for them, and good practice for me.

I'm happy to report that 13 students had something beautiful to say in response to my question. I choose to focus on that.