For those of you with children, siblings, nieces or nephews, grandchildren, friends who are teenagers, or are a teenager yourself, perhaps you can understand what I mean...
I have been teaching the trumpet since April of 2005, shortly after I got home from my mission. My studio started with just two students and has since grown to have over two dozen high school, junior high, and elementary school-aged kids at any given time. The youngest kid that I have taught had just turned four when he came to me, and the oldest was a fifty-year old man who wanted to learn how to play the bugle he had purchased from the D.I.
Most of my students, however, range from twelve to sixteen and usually are involved in their school band. I've noticed something from getting to know a whole bunch of teenagers that has changed the way I teach and the way I look at their age group. It seems to me that these kids go through much more than I ever did when I was in school. Some of them, I'm talking high school and junior high kids, on top of what I consider an impossible work load in their classes, are involved in very rigorous band programs that keep them at school rehearsing until late in the evening for musicals, marching band competitions, and other performances. When I was in middle school my biggest challenge was to make sure that I had all of
Star Wars and
Monty Python and the Holy Grail memorized so I could keep up with my peers in the necessary "lunch room literature" of the time. For me, and I assume for my classmates, band was viewed as an escape from school and a fun way to spend a period. Preparing for concerts at Mt. Jordan Middle School was stress-free and always exciting. But several of the trumpet students that I teach dread going to band as much as geometry, and worse, they dread their band teacher as much as their geometry or life science teacher.
As sad as I think it is for these guys to not enjoy going to band, and as tough as it sounds like their schooling is, their life struggles go way beyond what I ever had to go through. Let me just list of few of the problems that students have talked to me about:
fear of violent siblings
parent has died
haven't seen father in five years, probably will never see him again
single mom on the verge of bankruptcy
sibling with disease
only friends at school pick on, make fun of and tease mercilessly
dyslexia
ADD/
ADHDdepression
I wish I could say that the students who have the gospel in their lives are immune from these problems, but most of my kids and their families are faithful and active members of the church. Some of the problems in life can't be solved by the restored gospel. Nobody gets a pain-free or struggle-free card when baptized or together with a temple recommend.
As difficult as it is to watch these young kids struggle and fight and, in some cases, get beat up spiritually, I am so impressed by the strength and ability of youth to deal with these situations. Though clearly disturbed and confused at times at what they are called to go through and what they cause themselves to go through, they nevertheless find humor and satisfaction and fun and meaning in their lives. I do everything I can to provide a safe place to come and to show them the joy that comes from living the gospel and pray that they'll be able to hold it together until they can say they are converted to the restored church. But, in reality, I am energized and strengthened by their faith and the way they make choosing to obey the commandments the only option.
I don't think that they will be better apt to deal with the stuff that is coming to them in the near future simply by being able to play the trumpet or read music or know what key the Haydn Trumpet Concerto is in. I do hope, though, that the thirty minutes they spend with me each week will be a time they can grow without worrying about those troubles that they have to deal with all day, every day.
