It’s lunch period at Irvine’s Northwood High School, and the roar of student chatter is punctuated by the sound of woodwind instruments’ fluttering scales.
Music teacher Ben Case—who was recently recognized as one of five California Teachers of the Year—was overseeing some students as they rehearse for their Dec. 1 winter performance.
“My philosophy is I don’t teach music. I teach students,” Case told The Epoch Times. “I try to focus more on the individual and not just the content. I’m using the content to reach the individual.”
Ben Case. (Courtesy of the Irvine Unified School District)
Case said he has carried this mindset throughout his 17 years of teaching instrumental music at Northwood High, but it became especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic as he worked with other music teachers in the Irvine Unified School District to shift the music programs online….