Happy birthday to me!
46 years, wow! So much has changed, and so little! Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I’m really feeling the love this year. I’ve got more students than I’ve ever dreamed of, and teaching is more effective and more enjoyable than it’s ever been. For me, and for the students, I think! Big thanks to Marilyn Lowe on that. I’m feeling more a part of the community than ever. Last night at Goodberry’s the cashier laughed when I ordered because her coworker told her what I was going to order before I stepped up. I have trained them well.
My two focuses continue to be climate change and piano pedagogy. The second mostly only insofar as we mitigate the first. So much of what we do as teachers is meant to give children useful skills that they can carry into adulthood. It’s really existentially threatening to know that our culture deprives them of opportunities to thrive as fast as teachers can dole them out. Caretakers, including parents, are going to have to consider 80 years down the road as much as they consider the first 18 years of a child’s life.
I keep thinking that even though there’s very little I can do about global heating, there’s a lot that WE can do about it. If we’re vocal about it each and every day then good changes will start to happen quickly. I see reactionary thinking in both climate discussion and piano pedagogy. We can’t imagine how we can make things better, so we can’t look honestly at what’s bad right now.
Practically speaking, I really don’t know what’s proven worse over the last 46 years: Republicans denying it’s happening or Democrats denying that their leaders have been pulling their punches. I really think lots of the deniers are coming from a good place; that they just can’t fathom the kinds of damage predicted. What an affront! Well it is happening, and it is an affront.
So I’m gonna keep talking about it, without apology, and with love. Peace, fellow Sun circlers!