Prodigy

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

After my first Precalc class, my brain felt like mush. The teacher continued to remind us that the material in the first three chapters were all review from Algebra II, but for the life of me, I just couldn't remember any of the stuff the teacher was throwing our way. Thankfully, all of my general classes were done for the day. I didn't know how normal people did it. I walked back to the music building and the moment I opened the doors and I was hit by the air conditioning, the tension I didn't know I had building up inside of me was released.

According to my schedule, I had piano pedagogy with Mr. Miner next block. He was also my private school instructor. Mr. Miner was a nice enough guy. He worked at the local music school in town and taught a wide range of student's piano. He studied at decent music school, Florida State University, and had taught locally up there for a little while after getting his degree. Now that he was getting older (he was in his early fifties) he had retired from major instruction and had come down to our small town to teach the community. He had been a frequent judge at small local competitions I had been a part of in the earlier stages of my career. And although I had never taken from him in a private, serious matter like I did with Maestro Amelin, I did like receiving his input every once in a while. But, after Christmas break of junior year, he kinda gave up on the whole instructing me thing and had opted instead to listen to my pieces I had been going over with Maestro Amelin and go over any messy spots I had trouble with. Then once we went over that (it usually didn't take too long) we would talk about schools, music, my future, life, anything. He was like a younger, more modern grandparent.

For those of you who aren't too familiar with piano or the courses involved in studying piano, pedagogy is the art of learning how to teach others. It's being taught how to become a teacher. Every music student is supposed to learn how to teach others so when our careers are over, if they ever actually happen, we can teach privately. To teach at most public institutions, schools usually required that you obtain a degree in music education, and possibly a doctorate in that degree if you wanted to teach past the high school level. Of course, Mr. Miner didn't have an education degree or even a PHD, but I guess the school had overlooked that. Prodigy perks.

Just as I was about to step into the smaller piano lab room to work one on one with Mr. Miner on pedagogy, his voice at the other end of the hall stopped me. He rushed to my side, several papers flying out of his arms in the process. I chuckled as he frantically gathered his things and approached me as calmly as he could. "I forgot to tell you over the summer, but you no longer will be studying Pedagogy IV with me." I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Out of all the music teachers in the building, he was the most qualified to teach me piano pedagogy. Mr. Miner seemed to notice my confusion and quickly explained. "I thought that since it's your final year of piano pedagogy, what's a better way to spend it than teaching basic piano and theory skills to beginners? Congratulations! You'll be taking over as the beginner keyboard teacher. Two of my Piano I students actually requested to move up to Piano II. Isn't that great? The program is expanding! And I bet it's no doubt after they heard about all the great things you did this summer." He put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm looking forward to hearing about how the class is going during our lessons!" He handed me several copies of what looked to be a syllabus along with a diagram of a little kid sitting on a piano bench with his hands properly placed over the keys. I lifted my eyebrows in amusement.

"Did you get this from your studio?" I asked. A sheepish grin appeared on Mr. Miner's face and we both laughed as the warning bell rang.

"Well, we best be on our way. I'll be printing all the material you'll be using in the course, so don't worry about having to provide any materials." We both turned to go into our separate classrooms. "Oh, and Addison, don't worry, the students won't be touching your piano." I grinned and he flashed me a sweet smile, closing the door behind him.