Life’s worthwhile arcs often last a lifetime. There are deadlines, due dates, smaller projects that come and go – but the overall arc is never-ending.
Contrast that with the impression we often give students over 13 years of compulsory schooling: that knowledge is discrete; that every unit comes with a hard deadline and is then left behind; that our personal performance is of the utmost importance…never mind those around us.
It might take a long time to get past these oft-reinforced lessons.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. There are ways to avoid these lessons in any curriculum. And best of all, a good choir class avoids them all by its very nature.
The knowledge you gain in choir isn’t discrete: besides specific notes and rhythms, everything you do will come back and be used again. Every skill is connected.
Deadlines aren’t in hard: (Okay, concert dates are set in stone, but…) a good choir teacher communicates that the most musically accurate performance of a piece of music is rarely the one at the concert. A piece of music will continue to grow, and improve for as long as a choir spends on it, and the finest performance they give will always be in the future.
Personal performance is not utmost: it is by working together that the choir gets anywhere. Personal growth should be valued, but more valuable to a choir is the chorister who lifts up, helps, guides, or otherwise leads the one next to her.
In the end, it’s hard work to unlearn some of these lessons. Thank goodness that we’re giving choir students a head start on understanding the neverending nature of a life well-lived.