On Teaching: "Listening to Beethoven, Thinking about Teaching"

This morning, while listening to Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and enjoying the absolutely beautiful interplay among the various instruments (especially the soloists), my thoughts drifted to my English classes. The music was lovely beyond comparison, and a similar kind of beauty, I realized, exists in my classes. Just as the violin echoes and augments the cello in a harmonious way, so do my students echo, and build upon, each other as we discuss a novel or a poem. Beethoven’s music flows like a melodic river, and so do some of my classes. Needless to say, I don’t mean to suggest that my classes always go according to plan, or that there’s never discordance or unpleasantness in my classroom. On countless occasions over the years, I would have been embarrassed to have visitors observing my classes, but I might compare those classes to an orchestra’s rehearsal times. At rehearsal, the orchestra’s harmonies may be a bit off, just as in some of my classes the students and I are engaged in working out the discords of our relationships so that our next class – the “live performance”, so to speak – can be a harmonious success. Perhaps I should think more often about this analogy – English class as an orchestra. Perhaps I should accept the fact that classes, like orchestras, need rehearsal time in order to polish their skills. Maybe Monday and Tuesdays could be thought of as rehearsals for Wednesday’s performance, and Thursdays could be short rehearsals for Friday’s grand, week-ending concert. I’ve always thought it would be fun to be an orchestra conductor, and now’s my chance!