September 28th is Teachers’ Day in Taiwan, and since this seems to be a Very Good Thing I am appropriating it for my own purposes.

My Dad was a teacher for over 40 years. he originally trained as a secondary school teacher of maths and music, but about halfway through his career he switched to primary and was the headteacher at 3 different schools.; Ellastone near Ashbourne, Camms in Eckington near Sheffield, and Christ Church in Chesterfield. He often taught the music even when he was a non-teaching head of a larger school and wrote an original Christmas play every year.

After he and Mum retired they bought a new piano, and he went back to playing the organ at the local church. He never went back to composing, as he had when he and Mum were first married, and unfortunately they never kept copies of his pieces.

Towards the end of his life he was sometimes confused, but he was always sure of 2 things; his pride in his teaching career and his music. It seems right on Teachers’ Day to post this, so Dad – for 40+ years of teaching, for all the Satie and Scott Joplin, for teaching me to read music, for really making the organ thunder on Christmas Eve – this is for you. 　お疲れ様でした.