“The thing about getting old is, you start repeating yourself, you forget things, and you start repeating yourself,” Mr. Taylor cracks some wisdom on his wind ensemble class.

Mr. Taylor has been teaching for more than 30 years as a band director and is approaching retirement and the end of this year.

I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Taylor about his teaching experiences and life events.

How long have you taught for? Did you ever think you would be a teacher for this long? Mr. Taylor: This is my 20th year at Junction City High School and my 36th year all together. When I went to K-State, I got a degree in Engineering or I should say a scholarship in engineering. I didn’t intend to be a band director, I got into music at K-State because you got into games free and that was kinda cool.

Janet: Was it your plan to become a music teacher? How did you decide?

Mr. Taylor: Well, when I went into to the marching band, I realized that whatever I wanna do with my life I want to have a passion about it and music was the thing I had a passion about and not engineering. So, I switched into music at that point and finished my degree in music education and I’ve been doing it since.

Janet: What classes do you teach here, and why do most students choose your class?

Mr. Taylor: I teach marching band, and wind ensemble. I co-teach concert band, I teach jazz band, jazz lab band, and I teach beginning guitar, advanced guitar. I hope our students choose the class because they wanna be a part of an outstanding organization. Those in guitar class, I assume that’s a lifetime skill that they want to continue and play guitar through their lives. All of our students have to have a fine arts credit to graduate high school so that’s an easy way to get that done.

Janet: Should every student participate in a band class?

Mr. Taylor: You know, when I was younger, I used to think that but I realize that one size doesn’t fit all. In addition, some students are better equipped to do vocal, orchestra, piano, or whatever. Some students are better as athletes, some students are better at debate, those kinds of things. So, I think there are some aspects of a music-performing group that build different competencies than other skills like debate and athletics. I would say generally don’t agree to that philosophy anymore, that everybody should be in a band.

Janet: What is your teaching philosophy?

Mr. Taylor: It’s a pretty simple philosophy actually, I challenge students to the do the best they can with whatever skills they have and see if we can improve on that. As long as my students are trying to do the best they can, I can be satisfied with that. I used to be again, younger, I would always want to get the top rating in all those kinds of things and you know, that’s still in the back of my mind, hopefully to accomplish that. I believe that if we have every student in our performance groups do the best that they can, then that can happen. Right now, I’m willing to take even a student with physical disabilities and if they can learn to play a C chord on guitar or piano, you know I see some degree of success. My philosophy is that every student, you start where you are to go as far as we can and do the best you can with whatever skill level you have and whatever we have to go and go with.

Janet: How do you relate to students and their parents?

Mr. Taylor: Well, deep down inside I’m a big kid so, hopefully I can relate to students that way. I act a little goofy and crazy at times and if they see that I’m willing to be myself, then hopefully  we can build a relationship. If they see that I’m trying to work hard and accomplish things, hopefully they’ll follow my example. I try to, as far as students, build relationships through my example and just talking with them and say, “What is it you want to do? Where do you want to go and how can I help you get there?” Now, with parents hopefully, I try to build relationships by noting the positive things that are going on with their students so that when I do have an issue I can say, “Okay, TJ is kinda messing up the day and he’s not normally doing that kind of stuff, how can we address this issue?”

Janet: Has teaching gotten different since you started to now? What has/ hasn’t changed?

Mr. Taylor: Oh yes, it has changed a lot. When I started writing marching band drill, it was paper and pencil, and now its computer assisted drill and the animation goes on with it and I can print a coordinate sheet for each student and now we can do it with a phone app. So that’s just a small example of how things have changed. There’s also been a lot of different responsibilities added to the job since I started; going from discipline to content, curricula, those kinds of things. When I first started teaching I could still paddle a kid for misbehaving, you can’t do that anymore. There’s just a lot more paperwork that goes on as well. It’s changing a lot. For instruments and everything, there’s been a lot of advancement in making instruments a better quality and durability and that’s a major difference. Drum Corp has promoted the health and welfare of students in marching band, for example as well as their concert side of things. They’re always looking for ways to improve and college and high school bands can pull from that.

Janet: What experiences have you taken away from teaching?

Mr. Taylor: It’s a lot of positives. I’ve developed a lot of relationships with students, a lot of friends, certainly there’s been a lot of tremendous experiences with some of the trips that we’ve taken and some of the other experiences we have at local contests. You know, we put in a lot of work for marching band, we go to contest and everybody gets a one and we jump and holler for minutes and seconds and we feel good about it. That’s the most important thing, is the memories that I’ll have of when “You remember when the hangers on my side of the bus moved faster than the front than the hangers on your side of the bus?” and just some of the silly stuff like that. Last year it was pie in the face, because we got 1’s at both competitions. There’s just all those kinds memories that you have and will last forever.

Janet: What is a “golden” teaching moment that you’ve had? (Memorable students, lessons, etc.)

Mr. Taylor: You know, they’ve all been good and I can’t pinpoint any one. I think that probably the year we won the Cotton Bowl Marching Festival would probably be a highlight. I’m pretty sure that was in 2008.

Janet: Would you trade your job for another? Why or why not?

Mr. Taylor: I would not trade this job for another. The job I have is, I enjoy music and I enjoy working with young people and the job I have lets me do both of those things and I get paid for it. You know, I don’t know what other job it would be that I would want to do.

Janet: What do you consider is a major issue in public education today?

Mr. Taylor: I think funding has got to be a major issue. You know the cost of music and the cost of instruments and uniforms and all that stuff just continues to go up. The cost of operating this facility continues to go up and I know there’s talk of a new high school building and there’s that possibility. Again, it all comes back to funding, whether that’s plausible or not, you can’t do it. You can’t build a new school without the money; we can’t operate without the money. I go back to my philosophy, do the best you can with what we’ve got. It’s not that we always have to have brand new stuff and everything but we can pull music out that we’ve played from years back. We will make our instruments work and patch them up the best that we can and just keep on going. It’s nice to be able to replace some of the stuff that’s just not working anymore.

Janet: What are some of your hobbies and interests?

Mr. Taylor: I’m a sports fan, football, baseball and basketball, probably in that order. College and professional both, so that’s one thing that I do. I’m a fan of Drum Corp. I like to go around and see Drum Corp shows through the summer and that’s kinda how I feed off of that.

Janet: Tell me about 2 people or an event that may have influenced you as a teacher or even just in life.

Mr. Taylor: The person would be my Dad, he was a band director, and it was really kinda because of him I didn’t want to be a band director. But, it was because of that I am a band director. He’s a role model, a very patient man, a very patient person. The other person that I would say had a major influence on my career is Phil Hewitt. He was the band director at K-State when I went there. He was just totally a crazy guy full of school spirit and that sort of thing and that rubbed off onto me. Event wise, I think when I got married, was a major event. My wife is my lifetime partner and supporter and I couldn’t do things without her. She gets very little recognition, if any. I know what she does behind the scenes but, no one else really does. She’s an important part of that. I have a degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was called into the Ministry and that was a major event for me because, how I ended after 16 years of teaching, I thought I was done with being a band director. I was gonna do full time ministry and the principle of Junction City High School called and said “I’ve got a band job open, are you interested? And I said, “if I think of anyone, I’ll call you.” The next thing I know, I’m here twenty years.

Janet: How would a colleague describe you?

Mr. Taylor: I don’t know. I would hope they say that I am a professional. I would hope that they say I am friendly. I’d hope they say I work hard at what I do. I don’t know, like you said, that is a difficult question to answer. I just try to do what I do with the best I can and hopefully, that’s enough.

Janet: Lastly, do you have any advice for students entering or leaving high school and choosing a musical career?

Mr. Taylor: I tell them to follow their heart and not their head. I was chasing money when I graduated high school. That’s why I went into engineering, because my Dad as a band director, a teacher; we didn’t have a lot of money. I saw other kids with all kinds of stuff and I thought, “I don’t want to put my family through that and I want to have a lot of money to provide for my family.” I mean, that was my thoughts, until I got into the music side of it and realized this is where my passion is. I was at K-State and I went to Holtz Hall, which is the counseling building. I walked into this ladies office, I sat down and said, “I’m in engineering but, I think I want to switch to music and I need someone to help my figure out what’s going on.” She said, “first of all, this is the pregnancy counseling office and what you want is the career counseling office down the hall.” So, I kind of ducked my head and walked out of her office and found the career counseling office, which was a whole bunch of tests to tell me what I like and don’t like, can do, can’t do, want to do, don’t want to do, I mean everything. Which, they came out, the results of those two tests was a science and an art, or engineering and music. That’s what I knew when I walked in, thanks for not telling me anything. Through that process, I discovered that whatever I want to do, I wanna follow my heart, and I want to have a passion for it. Obviously, there’s been a few times through 30-some 40 years that you know; I would have liked to have a little bit of money! But, again the good Lord has always provided for that and I’ve never been in a situation where I just thought it was totally desperate and not gonna happen. It may not always be in my time frame when those provisions come along but, the good Lord has his own time frame for supplying those needs and taking care of us. As long as I try to keep my focus on all of that I think it’s good. So, my advice to a student is, find out what your passion is and go for it, because you’ll do better at it. When you want to do something, you’ll be better at it than doing something just for putting the time in and getting a paycheck. Money is nice to have but, it’s not gonna make you happy, down the line. That’s my advice, figure out what you wanna do and what you have a passion about and go for it. Whether it’s in music or whatever it may be, you know, people like to say, “Hi welcome to Wal-Mart”, and be totally happy.

Mr. Taylor is an outstanding band director. He cares greatly about his students and music. His classes are guaranteed to never be flat. Mr. Taylor has the passion that every teacher should have and being in his classes are fun and enjoyable. Congratulations on your retirement Mr.  Taylor; you will be missed!