The Not-Too-Professional High School Musical: A Thought on Transitioning from High School to College and Global Competition

In fact, ’tis not a musical but choir performance, but oh well…

Three and a half years ago, I was looking for another job just to make myself busy.  I searched online at the student job website and noticed a family looking for a math tutor for their son.  I applied, got a phone call from the dad of the family, and went for an interview at the house.  My first impression of the parents were that they were nice folks and professional due to their career, and the family was quite large with three children.  The eldest son, who was a freshman in high school by then, looked scrawny with a poker face…and he was the tutee-to-be since he was struggling with Algebra I.  After talking to the family about my background, my graduate school career, and my teaching experience, I left the house and was hired!

So that was how I met Duncan.  He and I have known each other for three and a half years now.  At the beginning, math would be tough for him due to the lack of great resources in a public high school setting.  There were times when he would be really tired or confused, but then the winds changed his fate.  He improved bit by bit with my guidance, and eventually got an A in his Algebra I course.  After then, I thought that my duties were fulfilled, but I was kept by the family to go through geometry, some algebra II material, ACT and SAT math, and eventually precalculus and calculus.  I got to know everyone in the family really well, and they have been welcoming by encouraging me to dine with them, especially on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Time flies.  Duncan is a senior now, and he took his SAT I and SAT II in October and November.  After going through the materials since his sophomore year, he did really well on those exams and I am pleased.  He is a smart guy, and I hope and pray that he will get into a great college too.  I thought that my duties were done in late November when Duncan got his scores, but he actually would like to meet once every three weeks instead of every week to go over some items in calculus and et cetera.  This means that I am still in contact with him and his family, and I was notified during my visit on Thanksgiving of Duncan’s choir concert that took place tonight.  I scheduled it into my agenda since I have been hearing about Duncan’s involvement and love for singing since I met him, and I eventually went tonight.

Stepping back to high school was actually awkward for me.  Passing by the lockers, you see those brats who think they are the coolest folks in the world, and high school is filled with popularity contest.  You feel that you as a twenty-five year old have aged so much when seeing a horde of folks going through puberty or singing songs that might not be too pleasing.  Wait…did I just hear someone singing Rebecca Black’s Friday?!?!?  I did feel a disconnect after being in college and graduate school, but ’twas fun to feel young again.

The choir concert was held by five main staff of seven different choirs, with four I somewhat know: the director of choir being a popular pianist who sings with his wife in musicals and in the piano bar, the student teacher who is a student in Madison, the piano accompanist being someone I have seen online before, and another choir director being a graduate of an a capella group from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The organization was lacking and quite messy, and there were moments when I felt that a main part of the choir had gone off-tune.  Duncan’s choirs, being two of the higher level ones, sounded lovely.  He stood out in both choirs due to his height, and I could hear his voice from where I was sitting too.  The pieces by the second choir he was in were really amazing with great balance.  However, I could see that many of the parents and I were shocked when folks on stage started singing songs by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, David Guetta, and Rebecca Black.  Sure, singing is supposed to be fun and entertaining, but I wonder what the parents around me were thinking when I saw their eyes bulging and their jaws agape during that performance.  However, I am really glad to hear pieces from the Concert Choir, the Popular Vocal Styles singing songs by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, and choirs singing music in different languages (Russian, German, English, and African).  There was a choir that sang songs from Ghana with African instruments, and that was a delight.

I did enjoy the evening since I used to perform on stage in high school in Taiwan and even in college.  My parents never attended any of my concert performances (and needless to say, college and Master’s graduation) since they have been busy working.  ‘Twas until when my brother became a famous saxophonist in high school that my parents would invest in those concerts.  However, I learned to be professional from wind ensemble and orchestra.  I learned that each performance is an evaluation, that you are satisfying the ears of the audience.  I learned to practice my French horn quite constantly so that I would not embarrASS myself.  Never would anyone from my high school joke around with the conductor personally on stage, or burst into laughter by random.  That was quite different tonight though, where things just seem a bit too laid back.

If high school students in the United States were similar to the ones I see tonight, how would they be able to do well in college?  For many of my students, transitioning to college during their first year was tough since college and high school hold different standards.  The weed-out courses in a university certainly does not help a student, and a student would often struggle with studying for exams and writing papers.  Perhaps ’tis a change in lifestyle, but what exactly is different between high school and college?  Perhaps in high school from what I have seen, students could get good grades easily and memorize things for exams.  Students do not need to study too much to do well, and they are not challenged.  In college, students should be able to apply what they have learned in class and think critically of those.  Yeah, ’tis true that a six hundred person lecture could be intimidating and that multiple choice exams are not the best tools to test whether a student understands the materials or not…but people need to overcome these fears and show their logical reasoning and understanding in order to do well in the real world.  Perhaps the educational system yearns for students to learn things the hard way during the transition…but why learn those this late?  Why not start teaching students about the real world experience and professionalism in high school?  Why not challenge their brain cells during puberty?  Why not allow students to explore beyond concepts?

I do not mean for all educators to be serious with everything as if a classroom setting is a German boot camp, but we have to remember that we are competing with members of other countries as well.  Although I do joke about this, I think that ’tis true that folks from Asia–especially mainland China–will take over the world one day, and the United States will just be somewhere unimportant.  If we cannot compete diligently and smartly with folks from other places, how will we be able to survive?  How will the United States be an attraction for people to come to work and study?  Why are we outsourcing so many things to India, Brazil, and China when unemployment is increasing in the United States?  Will the American dream become a Chinese version?

As a teaching assistant, I do want my students to do well.  ‘Tis true that my quizzes can be tough and challenging since I do not ask students to recite things they memorize but to show understanding and application.  ‘Tis true that I have high expectations, but it always saddens me to see a student being unmotivated in a classroom setting, not to mention work.  Especially in the biosciences, folks have to use their brains to create wonders and make discoveries instead of repeating the same ol’ crap again and again!  Even if collaboration is stressed, we need to have our own skills and talent so that we can attract others to work with us.  Although the US still has many Nobel laureates, I do wonder if the majority of the prize would be taken by a different country.  I just hope and pray that things will become better in the United States, and that people will be able to work hard, work smart, and be persistent to overcome failure.

After the two-hour choir concert, I left quickly to avoid squeezing through the crowd in the hallway as a sardine.  I bumped into Duncan’s mom outside of the high school, and ’twas nice to catch up with her.  I then started riding my bike and came back to my place.  I sent Duncan an email congratulating him with the performance and attached some pictures I took…and I hope that he is proud of his performance too.