The Piano Lesson

After dinner yesterday, the kids all lined up to return to their classrooms.
They seemed particularly excited. “They want to see the library!” Ms. Wang (王老师) told me, “But I don’t have the key!”. “I want to see it too!” I said, “But, Lily told me it’s not open for another 30 days.” “No!” Ms. Wang replied, “It opens tomorrow!” Oh, exciting! We walked back towards the classrooms, taking an unusual detour. I chatted with one of the new student-teachers, the whole time hoping that Ms. Wang would magically produce or borrow a key to the library. Instead, she led the kids to the Music room. I hung around in the doorway to see what would happen next.

When the kids were all seated on the colored blocks that the Music room uses for chairs, she asked them in English, “What’s in this room?” The kids threw up a few guesses: lamps, a blackboard, even “Miss Mehoke!” when I was spotted in the doorway, but none were the answer. She asked again, “What is in this room that only this room has?” I was thinking the colored blocks, but the kids got it: “a piano!”. To their hushed dismay, Ms. Wang calmly lifted the sacred velvet curtain from the piano. “Lily,” she called a girl from the 2nd grade, “Come play something.” A number of other students tried to join her, but eventually Lily sat alone and seemed to not be able to recall any songs. “Who can play the piano?” Ms Wang asked. A few brave kids put up their hands, and several third graders approached the piano to either succumb to stage-fright memory-loss or plunk out short tunes like Mary had a Little Lamb and Are you sleeping, are you sleeping…

“Shall I play?,” she asked them, and received a loud cheer. She sat down and played the opening bars of Für Elise. We all applauded. “没想到！Mei2 xiang3 dao4!” (It never occurred to me!) I exclaimed, choosing the phrase used by 2nd grader David when he discovered I could play soccer. “How about you?,” she asked. I’d been secretly wanting to play, but also trying to remember if I still knew anything playable. I sat down and got through the right hand of the opening of Drei Stücklein (#3) by Schumann. In late highschool and college, I used to love pouring that music out of my fingers. Now I forget the left hand when other people look at me. At least the kids still liked it!

Did you like that? She asked the students. The rest was all in Chinese so I only got some of it, but effectively she was saying something like, Isn’t it nice how some people can play the piano very well? And what about drawing? Have you seen how Miss Mehoke draws? What about learning English? You gain these abilities by long and diligent practice. Do you want to have skills and talents someday? Do you want people to cheer for you? Then begin practicing now.

Of course, the actual speech as it was delivered was much more dramatic and motivating. Wang老师 is an excellent speaker. She had the kids spellbound and all individually vowing to themselves to practice and become stars at a skill of their choice. You could see their future stardom glittering in their eyes and transforming the idea of diligent practice into a sort of glory. She even got them walking out of the classroom just as the music signifying the end of a passing period began to play over the loudspeakers.

Wang老师 is one of those brilliant and seasoned educators who can conjure a solid and memorable educational moment out of thin air. It was a very good piano lesson.