The Master Teacher
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
-- Henry Brooks Adams
I am writing this on my deck, on a mild but cloudy Sunday afternoon. The emergency vehicle sirens cry in the distance, sometimes in tandem. I have been wondering lately if it was always this way and I just wasn’t paying attention, or if this is a new sign of the times. After another long week of mixed news, I have decided to pick a less intense topic for this post. One of my not-so-fun-but-way-overdue quarantine tasks has been to comb through and organize my rapidly expanding Google drive. In doing so, I ran across a list I had made of the qualities that many master teachers and coaches have in common. I wrote it shortly after reading Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. This book may be one of the most important I have read in my life, and one of the few that inspired me to buy a half a dozen more books to dig deeper. The whole book is revelatory, but the thread I started pulling at immediately was the emerging portrait of the Master Teacher.
The master music teachers were certainly of great interest to me, but I also ordered a biography of the great basketball coach John Wooden. This inspiring leader fascinated me; by all accounts he remained humble and true to his guiding moral principles regardless of the amount of fame and success he achieved throughout his lifetime. I was also intrigued by how much his coaching philosophies could be applied to music, and potentially help me in my own teaching. Looking for connections, I dove head first into researching some of the famous instrumental pedagogues. I had already done a fair amount of reading about the aptly called ‘Father of American Wind Playing,’ Marcel Tabuteau, so I gathered those resources together. I read my colleague Denise Gainey’s biography of her great clarinet teacher Kalman Opperman cover to cover, started researching the unrivaled violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian, and took notes on my husband Ryan’s interview with his legendary trumpet teacher Barbara Butler. It didn’t take long to see the similarities emerge, and the list came together with little effort. In Coyle’s book, he argues that master coaching is one leg of the tripod upon which greatness is built. As a result, a sizable chunk of the book is dedicated to unraveling the mystery surrounding great teaching. For organizational purposes I will include my initial list below, and then I will explore the “four virtues” extolled by Coyle in more depth.
Qualities and Traits of Master Teachers and Coaches
They demonstrate a true dedication to both the craft and to their students.
They possess a constant, ongoing curiosity and commitment to personal growth.
They are great diagnosticians: They understand the mechanics of the instrument and how the body works with the instrument (or equivalent if we are talking about a sport.)
They teach to the individual student, recognizing their individual personalities and challenges.
While working, they tend to deliver a great deal of pure information, not necessarily in the form of criticism or praise.
They teach or coach with straightforward honesty.
Their students depart motivated to work.
They prize and emphasize integrity of work ethic.
They foster competitive but collaborative environments.
They frequently suffered some hardship in formative early years, such as growing up in poverty or losing a parent, which seems to not only drive their personal career, but also cause them to understand lack of comfort as a part of constant improvement and/or pursuit of excellence.
They often maintain lifetime relationships with their students.
The Four Virtues of Master Coaching
#1: The Matrix
The first virtue that Daniel Coyle lays out in his book is something he calls “the Matrix.” I tried to order my list above with the category it would most likely fall into here, and the first three probably fit best into the Matrix -- but the Matrix as Coyle defines it encompases a far bigger concept. The author notes that most of the master coaches he interviewed and watched at work were older, most had spent decades refining the art of teaching. Thus the Matrix is a complex grid of information accumulated over time, “a mysterious amalgam of technical knowledge, strategy, experience, and practiced instinct ready to be put to instant use to locate and understand where the students are and where they need to go (Coyle, p. 179).” He goes on to describe these masters as near obsessive observers and students of their craft; faithful analysts of the great performers or athletes of their field, they are always looking for ways to translate that information for their students. I would go one step further here from my own reading and say that many of these masters saw teaching as their true calling -- more so than their own performing careers or athletic careers, although many were exceptional in those capacities as well.
#2: Perceptiveness
As any parent knows, learning how to parent to each individual child while maintaining fairness is an incredibly challenging task. With teaching this challenge may not be quite as extreme, but the ability to read and really get to know a student in order to understand what they need takes great effort and interest. In the music field, my experience has shown me that many teachers are didactical with their ideas and methods. Whether or not it is the true intention of the teacher, the teaching style and manner reveal a primary objective to recreate the student in their own image, and the task becomes disproportionately weighted towards supporting their own ego. Master teachers however, will see the unique potential greatness in each student, and endeavor to guide the student in tapping this potential -- to help the student to find their own voice, and teach them to eventually understand how to teach themselves. My research revealed that these great teachers possess a kind of reverence for their role, an understanding of the gravity of their responsibility as a mentor. They see it as a gift and a privilege to teach, guide, and inspire; a gift to be a part of shaping another human being into the best version of themselves.
# 3: The GPS Reflex
Coyle uses the analogy of the GPS reflex to describe a task-saturated, often fast-paced information delivery style. They correct and redirect where necessary, and then layer on another level of finesse or sophistication once the initial direction is met. Repetition is key, but it is never mindless repetition. Much earlier in the book the author illustrates what an optimal practice mode looks like (this topic could definitely be an entire separate blog post -- let me know if you think this would be interesting!) Whatever the student is working on, it must challenge them; not so much so that they fail, but the task can’t be so easy as to foster boredom. This is sometimes called ‘flow state’ or ‘the zone’, and it creates the perfect breeding ground for growth and progress. The master teacher with their vast knowledge and experience added to this equation provides the bridge for the student to get to the next level. The student is constantly shown through clear, decisive instruction where they need to go next. And a great teacher will constantly check in with the student to make sure they understand before moving on.
# 4: Theatrical Honesty
This last one surprised me upon first reading. Apparently many of the master teachers and coaches the author witnessed had a dramatic flair, or real character to their appearance and/or demeanor -- not just individuality, but also a certain mystique or charisma. Their style enhanced their ability to engage their students or their team, and ultimately revealed their sincere bid for connection. In spite of the dramatic facade, all of them communicated with straightforward honesty. They would expect integrity and an ethic of hard work, but never without demonstrating it first themselves.
This transitions well to the last few on my list, even though they are not explicitly discussed by Coyle in the book. It all points to quality of character as an essential ingredient for reaching master teacher status. For some, the seeds of adversity in youth contributed to building character that would serve their teaching in the future. Fostering competitive but collaborative environments creates space for developing respect for others while asking more of oneself -- contributing to character building in the students. Moral integrity, willingness to empathize, and detaching of one’s own ego to the outcome builds trust and confidence in the relationship between student and teacher, and eventually builds self-confidence and self-trust in the student. I think this may be the primary reason master teachers are able to form lifetime bonds with many of their students.
As we begin this final week of homeschooling, I am humbled by re-reading all this research. Teaching my kids for the past two months has been challenging, as has ‘the great teaching over zoom experiment’ so many of us have been taking part in. Learning more about these legendary teachers and their dedication is truly inspiring. I find the idea that it took most of them decades to become true masters very comforting -- it gives me renewed energy to keep seeking and striving, and to be patient with the progress and growth of both myself and the students in my life.