for those about to rock...

i tried my best to get out of it from the very start. knowing, as i do, exactly how very little i share with teenage boys in terms of musical interests, i didn't think it was a good idea. but the children said i wouldn't have to do anything. they said i'd just have to be there. this is how i, a 40 year old, tone deaf, musically ungifted teacher, ended up being the faculty sponsor for the rock club. woooooo! there are teachers at our school who teach music, who play instruments as part of work. there are others who play guitar just because they are talented. there are teachers with perfect pitch, who can hear and sing everything the way it should be. if i hummed mary had a little lamb, you wouldn't recognize the tune.

so there were meetings. and most of them were chaotic and awful. no instruments. no rock. no roll. i got bored. i started to get difficult. i thought i'd made my point in snarling drama and went on with my life assuming i'd never have to see this bunch of disorganized teenagers again. until today.

i was working with one of my ninth graders on her memoirs when they started showing up. quiet high school boys with guitars slung across their backs. small, moon faced seventh graders with stubby, caseless guitars. one little boy brought a tiny but powerful amp. it is hard to glare at serious little boys with guitars but i did my best. after about ten seconds i gave up, mostly because they were so adorable i could hardly bear it but also because i heard "smoke on the water" stomping out of one of the guitars.

by the time everything settled, there were thirteen boys, five guitars and one amp. those who could play started and those less skilled watched, completely in love. they watched everything, not just the way the fingers sat on the fretboard. these little boys watched the way the player held the guitar, the way he sat forward or leaned back, the expression on his face. because it's all part of being a rock star. cords went from guitar to guitar so that each got a chance to be loud a while but the others, the four who were playing unplugged, never seemed to mind. they helped each other, asked questions. nobody fought for an opportunity to play. the guitars passed around.

i recognized parts of "iron man" and something motorhead. there was an intense discussion about van halen. they were surprisingly good. and although the only thing i had to offer was a slow smile of recognition with each song they resurrected from my youth, they seemed willing to accept that as enough. there will be girls, soon. groupie types who will hang out and squeal. but today they were just themselves, taking each other very seriously. wild teenage boys in their natural habitat.