My Path to Teaching

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear; when the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.” Lao Tzu

I am an avid student today, but that hasn’t always been the case. To begin with, I was pretty shy and anti-social in the first 20 years of my life. I was not “too cool for school”; I also didn’t think I “knew everything.” The more appropriate explanation is that I simply thought I was “too dumb to learn”—so why try? My resulting 12-year GPA of 2.0 is “proof” of how dumb I was, right? Don’t school grades mean everything?

The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this essay (but I have a few working theories…). The important thing is that as I have advanced through life, I have gradually learned that I am anything but “dumb”; that alone has led me to where I am today. The driving force behind today’s intense desire to learn is the deep belief that I have a lot of catching up to do…making up for my childhood sandbagging.

Today, I honestly believe that I am “too smart NOT to learn.” I feel a deep-seated personal responsibility to maximize my knowledge while I still can, now that I understand how capable I am of learning and how much unused space there is up there in my brain. I am simply a late-bloomer; realizing that this activity will extend the life of my brain adds incentive. “Use it or lose it, baby!” I’m so glad I got past my “I’m too dumb for that” personal script before it was too late! Do you still find yourself saying that? I have a few suggestions, beginning with “as you think, so shall you be.”

Now I can add to the opening quote and get to my point: “When the teacher is ready, the student will appear.”

I have always found teaching to be a great learning motivator. I simply wasn’t ready to teach early in life; what would I have taught if I believed I was too dumb to learn and was so anti-social?

I was an avid fisherman in my teens (and an avid reader of fishing magazines). I used to fantasize that I was a fishing guide. I had an intimate knowledge of the “river of my youth,” and of how to get a Sea-run Cutthroat Trout to bite. So, I would pretend that I was guiding a newbie to do the same thing: “Yep; put that spinner right there, and you’ll get one!” I’ve always had a need to mansplain things! I did lead quite an active fantasy life (and I probably talked to myself a lot), that being much easier than actually dealing with other people. My idea of a day well spent was to be knee-deep in my river, and to not see another human all day.

My first actual experience with teaching was as a professional ski instructor. I didn’t start skiing myself until the age of 18. I was hooked from day 1! I was quite an athlete (despite having never played any of the usual teen sports—too social for my taste), and it was easy for me to learn.

When I decided to get out of the Air Force after my four-year tour, my life’s ambition was to be a ski bum in Sun Valley, Idaho. I was going to get a dish-washing job and just ski all day. I wouldn’t have lasted a day! I knew it then, and I certainly know it today.

So, I did the next best thing: I went to college to become a ski instructor (yes, you read that right!). I actually have an Associate of Applied Arts degree in ski instruction. This led to a 6-year career as a professional instructor. Toward the end of that era, I re-discovered music, which became and remains my true calling in life. Meeting Buddy Wachter at the age of 28 woke me up to what I had been missing in life and the banjo.

I soon realized that my real reason for teaching was that I enjoyed the life-advice I got from students (who were mostly successful people, ‘cause who else can afford skiing and lessons at an expensive resort?). I’m actually still a bit embarrassed about how I used them to figure myself out.

Oh, that teenage “sandbagging” I mentioned before? Yeah, about that; it’s been a bit of a problem. Humans are much more pliable and able to learn when young. Everything is new, and it’s easy to get caught up in it when you don’t have anything else to do! This is also where most people form their “first impressions” of you, which is something else I’ve had to battle; I feel I’ve had to prove to them and myself that I am more than capable. How I wish I could go back to the age of 12, but with the self-knowledge and confidence I now have.

Anyway, my first inkling of a future of teaching music came at the Boise “Circle the Wagons” banjo convention when I first got back into music. Somebody asked me “how do you tremolo?” After a bit of thought, the only answer I could come up with was “Pick down, pick up, and repeat if necessary!” It certainly got me thinking, and I met Buddy shortly after that.

A year or so later, I found myself at the Seattle Banjo Convention; I was asked if I would teach a workshop on plectrum banjo technique (Sandy Riner taught a tenor workshop, and Don Van Palta was there, but apparently didn’t want to teach a workshop). I reluctantly agreed (“what would I teach?”) and then had a ball! My mother was there and told me “That’s where you belong.” And the rest is history (most of it good, I hope!).

This kicked off my incessant desire to improve and learn more. On Buddy’s advice, I went back to college to get a degree in music education. I discovered that I am not a disciplinarian; my high-school kids ran circles around poor Mr. H.! No wonder I had been so anti-social in high school! So, I settled on a career as an Army bandsman, traveling the world and playing the clarinet—and then earning a great retirement. What a tough job!

In retirement, as I’ve gotten more and more students over the years, I have had to learn more and more just to keep up and have something to teach! I am aware that some of my early lessons and convention workshops made a lot of banjoists scratch their heads, but I have gradually figured out what’s important and why. If you took a few lessons a while back and didn’t like my teaching, please give me another chance.

More than anything else, I have come to believe that when a student doesn’t “get” something, it’s my fault, not theirs. I don’t believe that anyone is “too dumb” to get it (despite what they may think; I do have personal experience with that!). It’s just that I have to figure out where the disconnect is and fix it. Some of my most valuable lessons have come when I’ve had to figure out 15 ways to explain or demonstrate something to show how easy it actually is.

So, am I a “student,” or a “teacher?” Excellent question: my best answer is that I am both, and it depends on the situation which I am more of at that moment. As I’ve gained experience and confidence, I’ve become more of a teacher, but that has made me double down to not forget that I will always be a student. At any rate, I’m not afraid to switch back and forth during a lesson. My best advice? If you want to become a good student, become a teacher.

Or is it the other way around?