I was filled with joy as I watched the beautiful CBS Morning segment on the new Grammy Educator of the Year, Dr. Jeffery Redding. (I got to watch him work in 2008 when we had a group of students sing under his baton in Carnegie Hall; he is truly outstanding.)
And what moved me most, watching the segment?
That he is one of us. He is exemplary – certainly a gold standard of high school choral music educators. But while he may be different in degree, he is not different in kind. He speaks to the same values that so many of my colleagues speak to. He works in the same way, with the same goals, as so many of my colleagues. And his students speak of his impact in the same ways that my colleagues’ students reflect their teacher’s impact.
In short: Jeffery Redding is unbelievably deserving of this tribute, and when he receives his recognition at the Grammys, he has thousands and thousands of music educators behind him.