Growth◆ The Joy of a Music Teacher's Life
- Director, Kayukawa Clinic, Yuhei Kayukawa, M.D.
- Jul 21
- 2 min read
Chunichi Shimbun, Morning Edition, October 13, 2006
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995, United States)
From time to time, I meet teachers whose eyes light up as they say, “Teaching is the greatest job in the world.” They may face endless demands from boards of education, principals, and parents, and the stress can be considerable. Yet nothing compares to the privilege of witnessing children grow and develop right before their eyes.
The protagonist of Mr. Holland's Opus, Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss), is a young composer. Hoping to secure enough time to write a symphony, he accepts a position as the music teacher at a newly established high school. Once he steps into the classroom, however, he finds his students unmotivated and the school orchestra hopelessly out of tune. At first, Holland is constantly frustrated. Gradually, though, he realizes that a few creative changes in his teaching can completely transform his students' attitudes.
One of his most memorable lessons is given to a girl who struggles to improve her clarinet playing despite her best efforts.
“What do you like most about yourself?”
“My hair. My father always says it looks like the sunset.”
“Then picture that sunset in your heart as you play.”
As Holland becomes a beloved teacher, he and his wife welcome their first son. They name him Cole after the jazz legend John Coltrane. Their joy is tempered by the discovery that Cole is born profoundly deaf. Holland learns sign language, and Cole grows into a young man capable of expressing a rich range of emotions. Yet the relationship between father and son becomes strained because Holland, absorbed in his work, never becomes as fluent in sign language as he wishes. Ultimately, it is music that helps bridge the gap. During a concert, Holland dedicates a song to his son, expressing its lyrics through sign language.
Against the backdrop of modern American history—including the Vietnam War and the assassination of John Lennon—the film warmly portrays the life of an ordinary teacher.
At the age of sixty, Holland is forced into retirement. On his final day at school, students from the past thirty years gather in the auditorium. It is then that he realizes that, although he never achieved fame as a composer, he has spent his life creating something far more enduring: generations of young people whose lives he helped shape.
One can only hope that many teachers in today's Japan will be able to retire with the same profound sense of fulfillment that Mr. Holland discovers at the end of his remarkable career.
