The RHS Bearcat Band of Pride performs at competitions and countless concerts. They lead the way down the halls and at the pep rally on Bearcat Fridays and fire up the fans at night at every game. The band does so much more than that, and thanks to superb mentorship and leadership, they are able to do what that they do and make it looks easy – the mentorship and leadership provided by RHS director of bands – Walter Moss.
“I didn’t come from a background of educators,” said Moss, “rather I thought that it would be a fun job and decided that I wanted to teach an appreciation of music to future generations. One of my main missions in teaching is to give young people a chance to be responsible and accountable and enjoy the success from their hard work.”
With multiple students and instruments, Moss doesn’t have the time to teach each student everything that must be learned. Rather, Moss explains that his basic principles for teaching students and ensuring they learn is, “Through routines and procedures, students are held accountable to self- diagnose and fix individual problems. It sounds like I make the students figure it out on their own, but this is not the case. It usually takes two to three years of instruction to the individual student before they have learned the tools and techniques required for this level of problem solving. Students appreciate the steered guidance rather than me just doing everything for them. The byproduct of this is that students are going to be more independent and self-accountable later in life.”
Moss said he sees the positive result of his teaching are the student’s ability to grow in understanding how everyone fits into the “big machine” and that students come to understand how each part plays a role in the result. He believes that he best serves by helping students grow into more mature individuals who are more dependent upon themselves to solve their problems.
“Too many people are quick to blame others for their problems rather than just take the steps to solve the problems,” he said.
Moss’s advice to students would be to always be kind to others and never back down from a challenge. To parents, he advises, “Be involved and cherish every moment. They will go from diapers to leaving for college before you know it.”
For others considering his profession, Moss said, “Be patient, listen to others’ opinions, don’t be afraid to teach outside the box when needed (be adaptive).”
Moss ended his thoughts in true Moss fashion, less the red jacket, but straightforward, with “I use my subject material (music) as an angle or catalyst to help grow young people into adults. This should be true for any subject matter. Teaching is not as much about the material presented but the value of using that material later in life to be more successful.”
