Over reading week, I interviewed an influential teacher from my high school, Mr. Travis Nixon. Mr. Nixon was one of the many music teachers I had in high school and I chose to interview him due to the connections that I had made with him throughout the years. I wanted to learn more about his personal journey with music and why he chose the path that he did and found himself as a high school band teacher.
I learned that Mr. Nixon, like many other musicians, had started learning piano at a very young age. He had gone out of his way to convince his parents to let him learn the piano and had continued that for a very long time. Eventually, in his high school, Mr.Nixon picked up the french horn and began to learn the very complex instrument and had fun challenging himself to learn it. Eventually, Mr. Nixon had strayed away from music when he went into university but he found himself missing music and in his own ways began to go out seeking for ways to keep it a part of his life. He started to watch the band at his university rehearse and eventually was noticed by the conductor who encouraged him to join if he was interested. This is when Mr. Nixon began to reconsider his major and decided to teach music and make it his profession. He’s been working as the head of the music department at my old high school now for at least 10 years and still pursues what he loves today.
I found it interesting that Mr. Nixon was encouraged by a conductor to pursue music because in a way I was encouraged by him to join the school band even though I was a vocalist in the same way. When he had seen me lurking around the band practices he had asked me if I’d like to join. In many ways that moment influenced Mr. Nixon to find and encourage students who weren’t a part of the music program at our high school to join and experiment with their interests.
When asked about why he chose to teach music, Mr.Nixon talked about wanting to help students grow and wanting to encourage students to learn music. In certain regions of Ontario, music programs can, unfortunately, be underfunded and not well established. Mr. Nixon, as the head of the department always looks for ways to get more people in the community involved in music and inspire more people to find something for themselves in the creative process of music making as he did. Even if they don’t pursue music further, he wants to encourage them to make music a larger part of their lives and explore their interest as he did.
When asked about the rewards of teaching, and how he felt after teaching for 10 years Mr. Nixon said that it was always rewarding to share what he had learned with others and to watch his students grow into musicians, especially because most students come to the high school with very basic knowledge of music and their instrument and a whole lot of passion that is in Mr.Nixon’s opinion always rewarding to cultivate. He also said that althoug it wasn’t always his main goal, it’s always rewarding to have a student pursue music further.
I also asked about any difficulties that Mr. Nixon faced as a teacher and any advice that he would want to give to future music teachers. Mr. Nixon said that at the moment he was having trouble with having to teach a class of student from grades 9 to 12. Having a class with such a diverse group of students, all at very different levels of learning is difficult because it’s difficult to figure out a lesson plan that everyone can get something out of. These classes with a very diverse group of levels are due to the fact that we don't have enough students in each grade who want to take music and due to this, the school sticks everyone in one class.
Mr. Nixon wanted to tell future teachers to try and advocate for music to be more of a priority in schooling and to know that in certain areas in Ontario, more teachers and music programs are always needed. He encourages us to go out and try to start up programs and fight for better funding for public school and high school music programs in these areas.