Influential Teacher Project
James Pinhorn has been a teacher for over two decades, teaching both elementary and senior students. As a classically trained tenor, he has incredible musical skills along with being an exceptional teacher. Being my vocal teacher in a formal school setting for my entire high school career, I have developed a strong bond and immense respect for his work. I had the opportunity to interview him and understand his philosophy on teaching the arts, and his experiences.
Some key things learned about my teacher were that he is able to balance so many aspects of teaching, and is able to look through an unbiased lens. For example, instead of teaching music, he chooses to teach children, which is a strong philosophy to have. When music and perfection are demanded from students, they lose interest and don’t carry on taking the program. Authority can only go so far as a teacher, and the students can step away from the entire subject at any time. By using music as a vehicle to teach life skills, more students were engaged and stayed in the program. Instead of diminishing the quality of the art form, more students of his were able to enjoy themselves and achieve their musical goals.
I appreciate all the years of experience they have in terms of the other side of teaching, not just classroom etiquette. Being able to recharge everyday form a strenuous job can be tiring. Marks, paperwork, always being socially stimulated are on the surface of the complexity of being a teacher. But thankfully, Mr. Pinhorn has found his passion in what he does, and is proud to say that he gets to do what he loves everyday.
As a future music educator, I hoped to learn a lot of new things from our conversation and interview. I hope that one day I could feel the same amount of pride as Mr. Pinhorn. Teaching may seem very easy, but there are a lot of things that I did not consider to be a part of the career. Music is a disciplinary that can often be viewed as participatory, which is unique to the subject. Its hard to get children to participate when your school maybe opposed to the arts. I understand my teacher’s philosophy and empathize with all the hurdles they have passed to reach this point. Since music is not a top priority in schools due to the way test scores for other subjects are treated in school settings. When I think about my future career, and who I might become when I teach, I want to maintain integrity and remain calm when the arts are being attacked. As someone who has been in a regular school, I understand that music programs can be expensive and are usually the first place the school looks at for budget cuts.
I also believe that I learned that I have to work on myself before I become a music educator. Mr. Pinhorn pointed out to me that becoming burnt out is very easy, and having high expectations can really tear you down. As someone who often sets the bar high and is hyper critical of myself, I had doubts at the end of the interview if I could become the teacher that I wanted to be. He believes as a teacher, you must be able to tolerate people, and like the age group you are teaching.
Mr. Pinhorn tied many of his points together during the interview. Developing relationships are the most important thing that will benefit being a teacher, because when you know someone as a person, they come to you as another person, instead of opponents and rivals. Having a strong collegial relationship between other teachers and students creates trust. Overall, the theme of being able to have relationships with all of your choristers, students, and colleges emerged. By nature, teachers are perfectionists, and when children are in a setting with a teacher, the students will treat them differently. The idea of a teacher versus the human behind that image are two very different people. Again, going back to the theme of having strong relationships, when relationships between others are strong, the image of the “perfect teacher” will disappear.
Another theme that arose many times during the interview were that the arts deserve to be defended, just like every other course. There will always be biases in subjects, and as a teacher I believe its important to break stereotypes within and against other subjects. Marks are a subjective way to evaluate intelligence, and in music, its difficult since music and marks are like putting a circle into a square. Mr. Pinhorn told me that having a broad stroke of different types of evaluations can help with making sure that there can be concrete “marks” for music.
Overall, I enjoyed having a conversation and dialogue between my favourite teacher, once I graduated. Understanding and listening to his ideals and stories really gave me a good perspective on teaching now, and teaching in the future. Thank you so much Mr. Pinhorn.