Successful recording artists often require years to develop their unique talents and find their space in the marketplace.
When they finally arrive, they usually discover that they make the most enduring connection with their fan base by simply being their authentic selves.
As it turns out, what works for people on the concert stage also works for adults at the head of a classroom.
“When you teach, you don’t turn into a teacher,” says Carolyn Hankins, band director for Page Middle School in Franklin, Tenn. “The reason that you’re teaching is because you’re you, and you share your heart and your strengths and your weaknesses with your kids. If you genuinely can be you, then it’s not a struggle.”
Hankins is one of 30 instructors from 11 states who will be honored Sept. 10 during the Country Music Association’s annual Music Teachers of Excellence event at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Had her life gone the way she anticipated, Hankins would have been — like the staff at the CMA — a professional in the music business. But she ultimately found teaching was her best way to make a difference, just as country music’s creatives typically aspire to bring positivity into their fans’ lives. The effusive Hankins has certainly done that — in 24 years as a music teacher, she counts numerous former students among her success stories. Some have gone on to become band directors themselves, others have gone into the music business, and one is even performing in a Broadway production in New York.
Hankins and her fellow music instructors are clearly assisting the next generation in finding its way, but the CMA’s investment isn’t just altruistic. The more that music finds its way into curricula around the country, the better prepared future music pros will be when they take the industry’s reigns.
“The more that we can uplift and inspire teachers, the more students they will impact over time and the better society will be,” says CMA senior vp of industry relations and philanthropy Tiffany Kerns. “But it’s also [ensuring] a pipeline for our future.”
Hailing from the coal-mining town of Hazard, Ky., Hankins had a better view of the music business than most. Her father, Bernard Faulkner, was a founding member of Exile, playing with the band in the 1960s and early ’70s prior to its breakout with “Kiss You All Over.”
Carolyn Hankins
Courtesy of CMA
“My dad had perfect pitch,” Hankins says. “He could go into a room and say, ‘Oh, the air conditioner is in F-sharp.’ ”
Billy Ray Cyrus and Montgomery Gentry’s Troy Gentry were among the artists who showed up at the Faulkner house during their developmental years, and Hankins expected to join them in Nashville after high school. She enrolled in Belmont University’s entertainment program and landed a job with producer-publisher Rob Galbraith, who’d worked with Ronnie Milsap and Elvis Presley. She was discouraged by the disillusioned hopefuls who showed up with demo tapes and desperate dreams, only to grow angry when she was unable to secure them a meeting.
Galbraith ultimately supported her when she decided to segue into education.
“He persuaded me to follow my heart and to follow the gifts that I had — not what I thought my dad expected or to make more money,” she recalls.
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It turned out that Hankins was a natural in the classroom. She found inventive ways to encourage the kids’ creativity, and her boundless enthusiasm bolstered the students’ self-confidence. After teaching initially back in Kentucky, she joined the staff at a series of Middle Tennessee schools, introducing instruction on wind instruments first at a school in Leiper’s Fork, which had previously been limited to guitar, piano and the like.
“I never really asked permission,” Hankins says. “I just brought the instruments I had from my house or whatever, and before you knew it, we had a little concert band. And so then that program grew.”
When the principal was recruited to Sunset Middle School in Franklin, he brought Hankins along to establish a program at the brand-new learning center. Between 60% and 70% of students ultimately joined the band, an impressive figure given that only 11% of kids join a school band nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education. She’s also taught at Brentwood Middle School and Page Middle School in Franklin, where the seventh grade band swelled to 140 musicians. A former drum major, Hankins also works with the Page High School marching band, a role she particularly relishes.
“Marching band is actually what made me fall in love with band,” she says. “I love the physicality of it. I love the intensity of it. I also really value the discipline and the strictness, and I just love the uniformity and to see kids work together. It is hard to do marching band. It is very hard to sit still and play an instrument, let alone run around on a field with a wool uniform on, while playing in tune and watching left to right and not running into somebody and remembering what step you’re on.”
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The coordination of mind, body and soul involved in learning music leads to stronger students, setting the stage for them to become capable adults. The Music Teachers of Excellence event supports that mission, with artists and Music Row executives — most of whom benefited from music classes as kids — showing their own appreciation.
“We ask their principal to attend, and we typically ask their superintendent to attend, because we want those key decision-makers to understand the value that that teacher has in their community,” CMA’s Kerns says. “If they allow it, music will bring people together. It will build community.”
The music business is about building fan bases and revenue. It has the ability to influence, even change, lives. But teaching music is arguably a more noble cause, directly making a difference in future generations by helping students learn a discipline that incorporates multiple skills and personal traits. Hankins’ high school instructor, Pauletta Smith, gave her a simple tool to evaluate her progress as a teacher.
“If you ever wonder if you’re making the right decision, you just say, ‘Am I doing what’s right for the kids?’ ” Hankins recalls, “and you will not falter in your career.”
