I passed my motorcycle test!

Ok, this has nothing (and everything) to do with creative design.  My motorcycle instructors were organized, focussed and demanding. During the course I was engaged mentally and physically virtually the whole time.  Learning a skill which has an element of "edge" to it, where you have to push yourself harder than you think possible,  and keep trying and push past less than perfect attempts at exercises......this where schools need to learn how how to engage and motivate students.

I did not have a perfect score on the test.  There was an exercise in which I got stuck in neutral and didn't complete in the time zone for full points.  I lost points here and there for other little things, but I had enough to pass, and that felt huge!  The course challenged me more than I expected, and made me respect how much I still have to learn, and how much a new world has been cracked open for me.  I think it might not be a bad idea for all teachers to take some sort of beginner course each year, to remind them of the feeling of  beginner buzz: that sense of accomplishment from doing something slightly out of the comfort zone.

In designing my course for next year, I think I will try to incorporate some opportunities for being a beginner by letting students trade instruments now and then, to see what is transferrable, and what is not.  It is something they love to fool around with when they are just hanging out in the music room.