They like me... They like me not...

What makes kids like you? When I say kids, I mean the middle school to high school age kids. Do you have to bribe them? Or perhaps try so hard to be cool that you come of looking like an older person who is just trying to hard...

I remember my high school music teacher. We loved him, not because he was cool-really he was the farthest from cool that you could get- we loved him because he loved us. Seriously. He was the most caring man in the world, if I got a terrible score at a performance, he would be right there offering comfort.

When my Grandfather died, I was in college. SH and I were dating, so he was with me when I got the phone call. After I cried on his shoulder, I had to go get excused from some rehearsals in order to go home for the funeral. I no sooner knocked on my professor's door than he ushered me into his office, sat me in his big comfortable chair, and proceeded to ask me all about my Grandpa. Man did I do a lot of slobbering in that office.

I have tried to be like them. When I teach private lessons, or even in the little elementary school orchestra I handle, I think about that man and any other teachers that ever influenced my life- then I try to teach the kids in the same way, showing that same amount of compassion, love, and plain interest in the lives of each student.

My students seem to enjoy the time they spend with me. One student in particular has really latched on, seeking my approval all the time, but my thoughts really turn to another teacher in town. You see, she is moving away. She decided that she has had enough, and wants to leave. From my students, I hear nothing but negative feelings about her. While I don't agree with everything she says to them in class, I know that I was not there. I could not possibly hope to know the context of the feelings. I do know that many of her students have quit because of her personality.

I have to wonder. Do they really like me? Those minds that I am trying to teach. Those very students that brighten my day, do they go home and tell their parents how horrible I am? Does this other teacher have any idea what is being said about her behind closed doors? Should I even care? Questions bouncing around in my head this evening, hopefully making some sort of sense.

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