Building a Lasting Lineage Through MENTORSHIP

While it's imperative not to break a student's spirit, learning is optimized when they have an accurate sense of reality and perspective. More than two decades after graduation, I still try to grab a drink with my middle and high school jazz band director Dick Rabideau when I'm back home in Plattsburgh, New York. More than the first-place finishes and outstanding musicianship awards, the gold medals, or the spots in District and All-State ensembles my students earned, it was going to be the student-teacher and peer relationships that truly held lasting meaning and significance. At Pentucket Regional High School in West Newbury, Massachusetts, where I direct the jazz program, these relationships have been key to perpetuate a cycle of mentorship: a method of learning long admired in the jazz tradition, but sometimes overlooked in the hyper-academic settings into which jazz education has been assimilated. Reflecting on his high school festival experiences he says, "I remember... asking the adjudicators for feedback after we would perform and I would always get the same phrase thrown back at me: 'Keep doing what you're doing... it often left me confused and empty" Creating Independent Learners Student ownership of the learning process is key.