Kevin J Miller, band director at Schaumburg (Ill.) High School, will retire at the end of this school year, which began Thursday, after a 33-year teaching career, the Daily Herald reports.
Mr Miller graduated in 1976 from Conant High School, which, like Schaumburg High School, is in District 211, and received his bachelor’s degree at Northern Illinois University. He began his teaching career as a student teacher at Fremd High School, which, not surprisingly, is also in District 211.
Conant drum major salutes the marching unit from Schaumburg in Sept 2012 (Mike Miley/Flickr)
“I blinked and a career was over,” the paper quoted him as saying. “I think when I started teaching I had this really hard-core approach, that these bands were going to be the next Chicago Symphony. I think as I’ve gotten older, you just get more realistic, and I think more student-oriented. Most of the kids aren’t going to be music majors … I’ve just become more focused on the total student.”
And while it’s true that thousands of teachers will retire this year in every state, Mr Miller stands out for a few reasons: first, because he earns more than $100,000 a year as a public school teacher, a number that ruffles more than a few people’s feathers; and second, because the true delight he has passed down to the next generation—through his love for his students, of teaching, of music, and of learning in general—has made that investment in public education worth every last penny.
One particularly obnoxious and persistent commenter on the article writes, “Can you believe that this clown was/is being paid over … per year as a freaking music teacher? No wonder our real estate taxes are so freaking high!” My response to comments like this is always, How much do you think we should pay music teachers who hold down a job with the same employer for more than 30 years? How much is a teacher actually worth?
Complaints about the pension system, which in Illinois is wanting, also surface nowadays. The thing is, teachers make decisions about their personal finances on the basis of contracts that were signed by duly appointed or elected representatives of the people. Where were the complaints when those contracts were signed? That would have been the time to raise objections, not 33 years later.
Another thing: music teachers, especially ensemble directors, touch kids’ lives usually much more than a math, reading, science, or any other teacher. Music is personal and gives our lives a soundtrack, a background, a basis for existence and a relief from the stress of our days. I’m sure comments will roll in about how Mr Miller has inspired one student after another, stories of events that may look ordinary to complainers and whiners, especially to those who worry about tax rates, but which are actually stories of heroics and life-altering learning experiences, given to students by a man so dedicated to them that he put up with the whiners and complainers for his entire life so far.
In that sense, the money doesn’t even come close to being worth it. “This man and the program that he runs is the reason why most of the students woke up and looked forward to going to school,” one former student commented. “Mr Miller has put his heart and soul into the students that have walked into his classroom. But he doesn’t show up just when school starts and leave at the end of the day—he’s there in the summers and during football and basketball. He’s there Friday and Saturday night.”
“I have developed over time a real inclusive approach,” Mr Miller told the Daily Herald. “Everybody should be in the band, and everybody should be able to participate. Band is like a metaphor for life, because it has team-building, leadership skills, discipline, and goals, and all those things kids are going to use the rest of their lives, whether they go into music or not. … That whole band thing really develops people into being successful people, no matter what you do.”
