Ruining a subject

In high school I hated history. It was my least favorite subject. I remember almost all of my history teachers because I disliked how they taught. I disliked how they tested us. I disliked everything about their class. We focused on stuff that, to me, was random and unrelated and boring. We had so much memorizing and lecturing and recalling dates. I was sure that I didn’t like the subject of history.

Now that’s different. I don’t hate history.

I love learning about music history. It’s so interesting to me to hear how different musicians influenced other musicians and how music evolved in different parts of the world.

In college I was required to take two music history classes where we studied European classical music history. I loved those classes. They weren’t easy, but they were enjoyable. Thank you Dennis Leclaire at Berklee College of Music. He taught in a way that was interesting. He lectured and we had to memorize dates like my other history classes, but we listened to music. He explained how styles of music spread to other areas and how musical styles changed. He played examples in class so we could actually hear them. We got to read music in class and analyze music in class.

It became relatable and fun. I got to see how older music developed into modern music and as a fan of modern classical music and film music it was related to something I already knew about.

Since then I’ve been more interested in other historical events because I can imagine what types of music people likely would’ve been hearing at the time. It made learning about different time periods more human and relatable. I listen to music all the time, and if I can imagine what music people would’ve heard in a specific time period I can better imagine what it would’ve been like to live in that time period. It wasn’t the subject that I disliked. It was the teaching methods.

When I was in high school I let this teacher ruin the subject of history for me. I thought the subject was the problem, but it was the teacher.

I just needed to find out what aspects of history were engaging to me. I like to think that’s the case for most people and most subjects. Just find the right area of that subject

ISJ