B. F. Skinner stated, “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” And that, my friends, really frames what we do, and more importantly, why we do it. As music teachers, we pass along so much information, teach so many skills, share so many techniques, provide so much material, and practice so many things. We train, we reinforce, we praise, we model, we drill, we hone, we invigorate, we motivate, we inspire, and so many, many other things. But at the end of the day – the end of the year – Skinner is right. The essence of the education we give our students rests with who they are, as much as what they know at the end of their journey with us. It is just as much about how we taught them, as what they learned. How we treated them, as what they can do. How we made them feel as what they can remember. Put simply, it is as much about the path we took as the destination to which we arrived. And that is why you are so vitally important in the lives of all those you teach.

Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America

About the Author

Dr. Boonshaft, Director of Education for KHS America, is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.” Dr. Boonshaft was selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he is Professor Emeritus of Music.