The Times They Are A Changin'

Ok... Here's a confession for all of you... In high school, I was not the best Social Studies/History student in the world. I was OK. I did my homework, did well on tests and such, but was much more interested in my music classes.

Go figure.

So now, here I am a music teacher with the opportunity to share these incredible international experiences with students. I've made music and worked with our students in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, and France. And each and everytime, as cliche as it may sound, those old high school history books come to life. The bus and walking tours are taking us through all those imporant places that we've read about and learned about in school, that for me at least are kind of still in my brain but the details are a bit foggy.

I remember taking those history courses and thinking, "wow, this stuff happened SO long ago." Now, a bit older and a bit wiser (hopefully?) I'm figuring out that things like the Second World War and the Cold War happened pretty recently, all things considered. What's more, I grew up during some really important events in our world history.

To see Dresden coming back to life so gracefully and beautfully - Using the most modern of technology to reconstruct some of the oldest and most ornate buildings I've ever seen. Conciously constructing new buildings in an old style to maintain the integrity of thier historic community. And most of this work has happened in the last 10 years!

To drive through Berlin and see only remenants of the Berlin wall, and again seeing renewal and growth everywhere we go. And in Berlin, just as in Dresden, modern architecture and art is married to the past with incredible results.

The last World War did not simply end and get put away in the history books. We are ALL still living with the results of that tragic and often horrific conflict. The good news is that there are incredible stories of rebirth to be shared world wide! And we can all still be a part of it. Being a part of something like the re-opening of a theater in Wittenberg or encouraging the development of an arts program at the English School in Prague seem small and insignificant right now, but where will those two programs be in five, ten, twenty years and beyond? How many lives will be touched by the simple gesture of sharing our love of music?

I have the pleasure of teaching a popular music history course at North. I've found myself teaching them that the most important thing to learn is not all the specific song titles, artists, dates, and so on. What's much more important is what does it all mean? How does this all connect? How does this affect our music today? And then I realize that I missed the main idea back in those history classes!

Our tour experiences have encouraged me to go back to the library to fill in the gaps in my mental "history" file cabinet. I want all these things to make more sense to me the next time I come back, so I can continue to offer some more insights to our students... and because I'm simply facinated by the the wonderful people and places we've experienced on this journey!

To our families and our students' teachers and North and South - Our students "get it". They asked the right kinds of questions, paid attention to what was around them and always conducted themselves with class and pride in representing themselves, the District 99 community, our state and our nation. Thanks for sharing them with us the last two weeks!

My first post for the blog was sent five minutes before midnight on the day we left. We're getting up in two hours now for our journey home. At least I'm consistent!

Thanks for keeping up with the blog. Looking forward to seeing many of you upon our return in not-too-many hours...

Oh yeah... more pics and video when we get home... and I take a nap. :)