Taking Risks

Before the well polished grand piano, the 16 year old girl with piggy tails knew her crouched back looked terrible, but that was the only way she could convey her expressions in Beethoven Sonata.  The tiny muscles of her fingers were so tight through her arms to her shoulders.  When Beethoven composed this piece, he had felt so miserable over the event that had just happened in his life.  Her job was to translate his music and emotion through her playing of this beautifully curved instrument.  Her fingers cautiously touched some white and black keys... 

"Stop!"  my teacher scolded from another grand piano of his.  "You have never practiced what I asked.  You must express Beethoven's agony right there!"  I put my head down and agonized myself.  "Why?  I am trying to do what you have told me," I screamed in my head.  Japanese students are too obedient to talk back to their teachers.  Instead of talking back, my mind was swirling with billions of question marks while he was complaining about the terrible rehearsal of my piano.  "Why is it so difficult to convey my true feelings?  I am doing my best.  I cannot do any better than that!"

Without finding explainable answers, years have passed.  Perhaps I have withdrawn my effort of convincing people about my opinions or expressing my feelings.  When people around you are happy about something that you don't care for, let go of what you care about.  If you notice your teacher is not happy, change your face like a chameleon.  Don't try something hard because you will fail.  Don't try something new because you will be teased.  These types of attitudes have haunted my life for a long time.  I didn't quite comprehend that I am the one who payed the price.  Although it was so easy to make excuses not to do things, which, at the time, seemed to be okay, they totally limited my possibilities and future choices.  

I wish someone could have told me about it.  Instead, I decide that now I can be the one for the youngsters.  I would like to promote my students to take risks so that they become resilient in their own lives.  I want them to have an attitude, "I will do it even if it's hard,"  then, raise questions,  "Why does it happen?"  Take risks and experience failure in the learning process!  That is when they begin to think about what to do with it.  Convince them with reasons of why they want to achieve their goals.  And ask, "What drives you so hard instead of giving up?"  Meaningful conversations strengthen the critical thinking part of their brains.  Common Core ELA's career preparation intends to help children build life skills at their developmentally appropriate level.  

I daydream about myself being on the piano bench turning my head to my piano teacher.  "Teacher, will you help me improve on this piece?"  I don't have to agonize as much as Beethoven did.  I play piano just because I love it.  I want to be good at it.  There are enough reasons to take risks.