We’re exactly one week into a new school year,  which means:

Lots of Reunions:  I love welcoming back students who I haven’t seen since last spring.  It’s one of the best things about the job, because for every Bryan Chung/ Anderson and Behrens that has the nerve to graduate (as those three guys did last May) there is a Zach Wolf,  Andrew Lenox and Ben Kuttler to welcome back with open arms-  and mathematically the returnees outnumber the dearly departed,  which is mighty nice.  I am teaching some really great young men right now and feel very blessed indeed.

Lots of New Introductions:   It is so fun to meet new students-  and especially to meet new voice students, because you know that you will get to know them very well through the course of their lessons.   (Some new students will mostly be a blur in the hallway because I will have little or no meaningful interaction with them.  But I obviously get to know my voice students quite well by the time we’re done.) And I have to say that the new students I have this time around are a most promising lot –  with plenty of talent and what appears to be an exceptional amount of maturity – and I have the distinct feeling that in some cases we will become friends in addition to being teacher/student.   Not that I am out to become their buddy and pal – It’s not easy to yell at your buddy or pal when they’re being lazy.  But I hope that over time we will develop the kind of close rapport that allows for real emotional connection to occur-  and for the very best learning.

Lots of Housecleaning:   I faced a major challenge in getting my office ready for the new year,  because I was the recipient of sizable donations of music from two different people . . . and frankly had not yet properly assimilated the hundreds of scores I inherited from Dr. Sjoerdsma upon his retirement.  So I spent many many hours during the first week of the semester getting my house in order . . . while also figuring out where the heck to put all of the doo-dads and thingamabobs that make it such a uniquely colorful (okay, weird)  room.  I like how it looks – and I especially like how you can now see the floor again!

Lots of Treats:   When I first moved into my current office, JAC 139,  Kate Barrow gave me a neat gift of six brightly colored containers which she suggested that I fill with candy – because she could envision me being the kind of teacher to whose office students would want to stop by just to chat-  as she often did with a favorite college prof who had a drawer full of tootsie rolls for just such occasions.  Well I don’t know how much I’ve managed to fulfill the first part of her equation – but I certainly do have the treats,  and whenever a student does good work in a lesson,  they get to help themselves.   And once in awhile,  when a student really does something spectacular,  I won’t even wait for the end of the lesson . . . I will head right over to the treat containers,  pull out three or four of what I know is their favorite,  and put it in their hands right then and there, in the hopes that it will reinforce for them that whatever they did in that moment,  whether dropping their jaw or really connecting with their breath or finally nailing a troublesome high note-  was really good and something they need to do again and again.   And for me,  candy beats a simple verbal “good job” any day.

I used to practically live on this stuff.  In fact,  when I was growing up in Decorah,  I would stop by Ben Franklin on my way home from school and buy ten candy bars and eat them on the way home.  And it was always ten of the same-  ten Nestle Crunch bars,  or ten Kit Kats, or whatever.  Or I would stop at Hart’s Bakery and buy six white cupcakes- or six pink cupcakes.   And whatever it was,  I would consume them all on my way home.   It is a wonder that I didn’t balloon to 2000 pounds and gain an unfortunate place in the Guiness Book of World Records.   I am now over that obsession,  I’m relieved to say –  but every time I see those miniature Crunch bars staring up at me,  I do think back to those long walks home and the orgy of eating in which I engaged day after day after day. . . and of my miraculous ability to remain skinny as a rail.   One more of life’s mysteries,  I guess.

Funny what you think about as you pour out another assortment of treats,  in preparation for another school year.