Greatness Defined

I would like to be a great conductor. No, I do not mean a train conductor, but a music conductor. This might sound funny, coming from one who writes articles in newspapers, has twelve children and lives in small town in Idaho, but it's true. I love conducting music. I love it more than I love eating; more than I love sleeping. So how did I get to this point of wanting, even needing to be a conductor, yet living in such a place as to make this dream something like a joke.

When I was just beginning my musical education, i.e. starting band, I had a wonderful band director, Mr. Sheets. He was famous in our little community for getting some of the most amazing music out of Jr. High and High School music students. He won awards, put on shows, concerts and productions and inspired the children to perform at levels previously unheard-of. When it was finally my turn to be a part of the band, I couldn't wait. I wanted to impress him and I wanted to show him what I could do. So, before the first day of class, I had already obtained my instrument as well as an instruction book. I worked almost constantly from then until the first day of class to learn the notes and play my instrument. When the first day of class arrived, I was super-prepared. I played a chromatic scale, two octaves up and down and could play any song in the book, as well as play the highest note on my note chart. When I finished showing him what I could do, he was indeed impressed and encouraged me to keep practicing.

From then on, I felt a keen desire to continue learning and getting better at what I did. Mr. Sheets always thought it was wonderful and he always listened and encouraged me. Then, after two more years, some rotten school politics and a mountain of misunderstandings, Mr. Sheets was fired. That summer, he was killed in a painting accident. That year, I decided that I wanted to be a great conductor.

I began learning all I could about music, in spite of some of the difficult music teachers I had to suffer through after Mr. Sheets died. I obtained a degree in music education, believing that this would best equip me for my chosen vocation. At the end of all that, I sat in a class of Jr. High band students as a substitute teacher and asked myself: What in the world were you thinking? You can't do this!

The rest of the questions I asked myself went something like this: How did he do it? How did Mr. Sheets inspire everyone around him to such great heights? How did he get such a wonderful music program? How did he take a Jr. High classroom from complacency and disobedience to anxious wonder and excitement? Essentially, I was wondering what it was he had that I seemed to lack.

I did not have the opportunity to spend many years in the Jr. High classroom finding out. Instead, I had my own children. I have had twenty-five years and twelve children to help me figure out what Mr. Sheets had and how to get it.

What I learned was this: First, he believed in people. He believed that whatever they wanted to accomplish they could accomplish, without question. Second, he wasn't in it for himself. He seemed to care more about everyone else's dreams and aspirations than his own. But, amazingly, he DID have dreams of his own and he often shared them with his students. Some of those dreams had to do with his students. That helped as well. Third, he wasn't trying to save his skin by being politically correct. He simply followed his heart even if it meant braking a few rules. Fourth, he never MADE anyone do anything, he LET them. In his class, it was a privilege to work hard, accomplish and excel. What teacher wouldn't give their right arm for a class like that?

So, I want to be a conductor; a GREAT conductor like Mr. Sheets. But the last thing he taught me was that you don't have to be in a big city conducting a famous orchestra to accomplish that goal. He changed my life by simply being an audacious band director in a very small town. One life changed IS great. One child inspired to fulfill his dreams is all the success he ever seemed to expect, but after seeing hundreds of children rise to his challenge I know that it was just the beginning of what he would receive. THAT is great.