GOOD OLD HAPPY DAYS
Teachers used the device above to draw lines on the blackboard which sometimes actually used to be green. The handwriting would always be straight and neat. Music teachers used this device as well to make staffs on the board for their classes. The device was very practical for teaching the musical notes.
My music teacher is unforgettable. Her name was Mrs. Carrol and she was totally different from all my other teachers who were mostly nuns and middle-aged married women or widows. Mrs. Carrol was the most extravagant woman I had ever met as a child. Like most Music and Art teachers, Mrs. Carrol was trendy and always wore fashionable hats just like the Negro women who sing gospel at church on Sundays. Even though she had some kind of disability in one of her legs she never showed any sign of being frustrated or unhappy about it. She motivated me so much that I entered the school choir when I was in second grade. It was great having choir practice especially at the end of the year when we performed at school for all the students and school staff and then on Christmas Eve when all the students, their families and neighbors gathered for Baby Jesus´ coming. Practice was always fun and meant we got excused from our last two classes every Friday so we could practice the Christmas hymns and carols. Oh! I forgot to mention that the choir was made up of both boys and girls from second to eighth grades and that meant lots of fun and bonding with the opposite gender and the teens.
Nowadays, fewer and fewer schools have choirs and real music classes. How unfortunate of today´s kids who grow up without singing and playing musical instruments in school.
Music classes teach us how to enhance our ear for choosing good music. Music bonds us to others and lifts our spirits whenever we are sad and blue. We see the world through eyes of wonder when we sing. We believe in the lyrics that make us smile. We shine. We cry.
How lucky of me to have had Mrs. Carrol in my life! And music!
How about you? Did you?
My music teacher is unforgettable. Her name was Mrs. Carrol and she was totally different from all my other teachers who were mostly nuns and middle-aged married women or widows. Mrs. Carrol was the most extravagant woman I had ever met as a child. Like most Music and Art teachers, Mrs. Carrol was trendy and always wore fashionable hats just like the Negro women who sing gospel at church on Sundays. Even though she had some kind of disability in one of her legs she never showed any sign of being frustrated or unhappy about it. She motivated me so much that I entered the school choir when I was in second grade. It was great having choir practice especially at the end of the year when we performed at school for all the students and school staff and then on Christmas Eve when all the students, their families and neighbors gathered for Baby Jesus´ coming. Practice was always fun and meant we got excused from our last two classes every Friday so we could practice the Christmas hymns and carols. Oh! I forgot to mention that the choir was made up of both boys and girls from second to eighth grades and that meant lots of fun and bonding with the opposite gender and the teens.
Nowadays, fewer and fewer schools have choirs and real music classes. How unfortunate of today´s kids who grow up without singing and playing musical instruments in school.
Music classes teach us how to enhance our ear for choosing good music. Music bonds us to others and lifts our spirits whenever we are sad and blue. We see the world through eyes of wonder when we sing. We believe in the lyrics that make us smile. We shine. We cry.
How lucky of me to have had Mrs. Carrol in my life! And music!
How about you? Did you?