Even teachers sometimes forget that we are more than teachers. Spending our days primarily in the company of students and seeing our colleagues as--well, as just colleagues--we forget the breadth of talent and passion represented in a typical school.
Which brings me to my own recent revelation. One morning in December, after my class left, I found under a desk a phone left by a student. My next period was a planning period, and I had to venture to the office to check on an ongoing project anyway, so I decided to deliver the phone to the student in his current class on the way.
Which explains why I walked in, unannounced and unheralded, to Steve Kalke's choir class that morning. Kalke was demonstrating or exhibiting a vocal line to the students, I suppose. I strolled in as a half-dozen boys were listening intently to his vocal gymnastics as he accompanied himself on the piano.
I was instantly gobsmacked by the purity, clarity, and emotion of his 30-second burst.
Looking up at me over the piano, he arched an eyebrow; "Can I help you?" Holding the phone up, I mumbled something inconsequential in reply. Then blurted out, like a gee-whiz schoolboy-"Wow, I didn't realize you were THAT good."
Kalke gestured to the cluster around his piano to sit down, waved me into a seat in the front of the room, and proceeded to serenade--regale--astound me.
He soared, he belted, he crooned; he crescendoed, then came back down without his voice cracking, which the interweb tells me is called---figures--descrescendo.
Whatever a glissando is, I am pretty sure he did that, too. The whole enchilada.
I do not know whether I sat there for five minutes or for thirty as he put on a one-man demonstration of just what the voice can do, but I do remember thinking
Why did I not know of his stupendous talent before now?
and
Why do I live in ignorance of what others under the very same roof can DO?
Here I was thinking that he was a teacher (which carries a connotation of JUST a teacher), and oh my gracious, he is a MUSICIAN who TEACHES. Some serious chops, that one has.
So I wonder how many other of my fellows has an astounding talent?
I do know that among our ranks we have many first-rate musicians, artists, writers, cooks, and athletes. I do know that we are not limited by our profession to just getting by, but that most of the teachers I know are here due to a fierce devotion to kids.
My Fair Lady--err, Pygmalion--notwithstanding, I am more inclined towards Aristotle's viewpoint than towards Shaw's.
Aristotle it was that pointed out that "Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach."
Thanks to Steve Kalke for showing me that we are a group of overachievers....
