Learning music and playing it is one thing, but teaching it is whole other can of worms, especially when you’re teaching kids – and especially when there are 850 of them.
That’s what Ivan DeSouza does every week. He’s been the music teacher at Delaine Eastin Elementary School in Union City since its birth 12 years ago. It's part of New Haven Unified School District that recently won $29 million in the President's Race to the Top program.
Every week, DeSouza, who has a degree in music from UC Berkeley, teaches the over 850 first through fifth graders at the school – doing it not only with a smile, which he is famed for, but with a passion. KALW's Hana Baba's children go to Eastin. She recently visited DeSouza's classroom while he was teaching fifth graders a song on the xylophones, and then she got her first piano lesson of her life. First, she asked the children to describe their beloved teacher.
Click the player above to hear the interview.
