WISCONSIN
Raymond Roberts Milwaukee High School of the Arts Milwaukee Years at Current School: 20 Total Years Teaching: 21 Students in Vocal Music Program: 190
22 Choral Director, January 2012
What is your teaching philosophy? My teaching philosophy is based on a maxim attributed to Goethe. It states, “If you treat a person as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” Many of my students have been inundated with others’ low expectations of them as scholars, musicians, and citizens over a long period of time. It takes time, patience, and nurturing to mitigate those negative messages, but it is well worth the effort. Music, particularly singing, is the perfect vehicle to impact my students with the highest expectations imaginable. What is the most important lesson you have learned as an educator? I have learned that my life is enhanced and enriched by virtue of the fact that I know and experience my world through the lens of music on a daily basis. Music is inextricably woven into the fabric of humanity in all cultures and societies. How do you hope to be making a difference in students’ lives? I hope to leave my students with the understanding that someone expected great things from them, was willing to help equip them with the skills and tools to meet those high expectations, and that they should, for the rest of their lives, hold themselves and their children to those same lofty expectations in all of their endeavors.