Six years ago during a slow-down in my career as a television and movie writer I began to teach music on a volunteer basis at Third Street School, the Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school my daughters attend. Music has always been a passion of mine.


In 2006 I started a general music program at Third Street, and last year I expanded that program to include all 36 classrooms in all grade levels at the school. Along the way I have discovered another passion – teaching. In 20 years in Hollywood I found many opportunities to make money but very few to make a difference. One thing I can already say for certain about teaching is that you make a tangible and immediate difference every day.

I believe that experiential education is a better way for children to learn -- one of the hallmarks of my music program is that my students make their own instruments. The amount of learning they retain even a year later leads me to conclude that an experiential approach makes a deeper and more lasting impression. And I see no reason why the principle shouldn’t apply in any curriculum.

A systematic standards-based approach produces better test scores but does not engender retention or lifelong learning – test scores are up in many schools but the price has been a relentless and superficial focus on two or three curricular areas at the expense of real understanding. Assessment is important, but schools need to also ask what kind of thinkers and contributors do they want to produce?

It is the small moments of human connectedness between teachers and students that can make all the difference. When I think about my own public school experiences, it is these moments, not anything curricular, that stand out. I vividly recall the day my elementary music teacher Gary Smith, having noticed my interest in the school piano, gave me a recorder to try. Years later when it was suggested that I consider going to a trade school (my grades were terrible), I remember what it meant to me when my advisor and English teacher, Joe Addochio, said “He’s going to college.”

Would I have gone to college or developed my love of music without Mr. Addochio or Mr. Smith? Maybe. Thanks to their interest and insight, I didn’t have to find another way. That's the sort of teacher I want to be.

Richard Lawton.