Teacher Appreciation Week #3

The most fun, interesting, enjoyable and fulfilling classes I ever took at any level of education were the choral classes at Tuscola High School conducted by Mr. David C. Traynham . Bar None!

To be fair he had a built-in advantage with the fact that I enjoyed singing and performing. Under that same rule my history teachers had an advantage over my chemistry teachers. But, Mr. T  made full benefit of the opportunity.

He took groups of kids, many of whom had little or no musical background, and turned them into some remarkable, award-winning ensembles. He was a superb musician with a passion for singing and he shared that with his students. I grew up in a small mountain community in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. By traditional standards it wasn't what you would call "cultured". Like anywhere we had our outlets and school music programs were one of them. You never had to prepare an audition piece for Mr. Traynham.  He usually just let you sing My Country Tis of Thee.  I shutter think of the thousands of renditions he suffered through over the years. However, the quality of performances that he encouraged out of a bunch of small town, mountain teenagers always amazed me and still does.

His was a respected name in our house and my family adored the man. When my mother passed away there was no second choice of who to ask to sing at the funeral. I was heart broken when he was unable to sing in my wedding. Unfortunately I was getting married the same time his choirs were competing in a national competition in Florida.  A competition I am pretty sure they won by the way.

Most of his students felt the same way about Mr. T. The guys thought he was cool and wanted to be him. The girls thought he was handsome and  had a crush on him. I know for certain that if he is reading this then he just rolled his eyes and blushed.  His wonderful wife Brenda probably just rolled her eyes as well.

He shunned any spotlight and placed every bit of praise on his students. He was reserved and deliberate with a dry yet sly wit. I remember the time to prove his toughness to the group he chewed 2 aspirin without water. Predictably he started choking and grabbed for a water bottle and got the laugh he had intended all along.

He put his students into positions to be applauded and praised. He gave his students the opportunity to achieve something that most of them never thought they could achieve to begin with or ever have the chance to do again. They got to be on a stage with a spotlight and hear applause for their performances. They got to feel the warmth and pride you only get with a sense of accomplishment.

That is a pretty awesome gift to share with one student much less hundreds if not thousands over the years.

We were lucky he was ours. Thanks for everything MR. T!