Reverend Conehead
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I feel fortunate to have gone to such a good high school. It was a small school and you had the sense that teachers genuinely cared about you and your success. My music teacher/history teacher was an eccentric gentleman named Mr. Katt. He sported the same crew cut he had had in the Navy and had quirky ways of talking. He had some kind of skin condition that made him itchy all the time. He would enter a classroom and say, “Okay, gang” and scratch his face and scalp. They would have had a field day if they had satirized him on SNL. However, he was a brilliant teacher.
I had a study hall in the lunch room where Mr. Katt was helping three students, one boy and two girls, to sing a song. They sounded awful. I remember feeling annoyed that I had to listen to them. The guy was way too loud and his two female backup vocalists kept going off-key. I remember thinking, “Why are you bothering, Mr. Katt? They're awful.” However, he worked with the girls on improving their pitch. There were really only a couple of sour notes that had been hitting, and he was able to get them to adjust them until they were on key. Then he worked with the guy in adjusting his volume down and bringing the girls' volume up. They went over it a bunch of times and by the time they were done, they were sounding pretty good.
He put just as much effort into helping not very talented students as he did very gifted students. No matter what level of natural ability a student had, Mr. Katt could always help them to be better. I played in rock'n'roll bands in high school, and my musical taste was completely different from Mr. Katt's, who liked big band music. However, he never judged me for my different tastes and always worked with me to help me understand music theory better.
Mr. Katt died a few years back. He'll certainly be missed. I was lucky to have had such a good teacher. He helped me to be better at music, but also to be a better person. I learned by his example working with kids to not give up on people. Today I work with foreigners to help them improve their English. I know from observing Mr. Katt that someone might be lousy at something (like music or English) but be able to get a lot better with persistence. Also, people who are less talented deserve help just as much as more talented ones, and likely need it more.
That was one of my outstanding teachers. Your turn. Post about a good teacher you've had.
I had a study hall in the lunch room where Mr. Katt was helping three students, one boy and two girls, to sing a song. They sounded awful. I remember feeling annoyed that I had to listen to them. The guy was way too loud and his two female backup vocalists kept going off-key. I remember thinking, “Why are you bothering, Mr. Katt? They're awful.” However, he worked with the girls on improving their pitch. There were really only a couple of sour notes that had been hitting, and he was able to get them to adjust them until they were on key. Then he worked with the guy in adjusting his volume down and bringing the girls' volume up. They went over it a bunch of times and by the time they were done, they were sounding pretty good.
He put just as much effort into helping not very talented students as he did very gifted students. No matter what level of natural ability a student had, Mr. Katt could always help them to be better. I played in rock'n'roll bands in high school, and my musical taste was completely different from Mr. Katt's, who liked big band music. However, he never judged me for my different tastes and always worked with me to help me understand music theory better.
Mr. Katt died a few years back. He'll certainly be missed. I was lucky to have had such a good teacher. He helped me to be better at music, but also to be a better person. I learned by his example working with kids to not give up on people. Today I work with foreigners to help them improve their English. I know from observing Mr. Katt that someone might be lousy at something (like music or English) but be able to get a lot better with persistence. Also, people who are less talented deserve help just as much as more talented ones, and likely need it more.
That was one of my outstanding teachers. Your turn. Post about a good teacher you've had.
