Hope Mississippi
A bimonthly podcast educating Mississippians about the needs of fellow citizens, encouraging residents to work together to change the trajectory of our families and children, and sharing success stories.
Hope Mississippi
Every Day in Every Way: Building Hope Through Music
Former band director David Willson shares the transformative teaching philosophy that changed countless lives over a long career, including 32 years at Ole Miss. From humble beginnings in Jackson, Mississippi, Willson's journey reveals how music education became his pathway out of poverty and into a life of purpose.
He was our host, Dawn Beam's band director, and she proclaims that he was such an incredible leader, she would have followed him off the proverbial cliff!
Willson candidly discusses how he revolutionized his teaching after discovering he was "tired of yelling at students." His turning point came when he found Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" at a thrift store for 25 cents—a book he read twice despite not being "a reader." This sparked the development of his signature "Every Day in Every Way" philosophy centered on goal-setting, positive reinforcement, and consistent enthusiasm.
What sets Willson's approach apart is his deep empathy for students' circumstances. "You have no idea what that student has been through from the moment they woke up till they get to your classroom," he explains. This understanding led him to shift responsibility away from blaming students to examining his own teaching methods. When students struggled, Willson concluded, "I either didn't teach them exactly what I needed them to do or I didn't motivate them to want to do it."
As a university educator, Willson trained future band directors with practical tools rather than abstract theories. His mentorship extended beyond graduation, as he maintained relationships with former students, checking in on their progress and offering support. This dedication created a ripple effect, with Willson's influence reaching thousands of young musicians through his students, who went on to become educators themselves.
Willson's powerful closing thought serves as both a challenge and inspiration: "One person is going to be that pivotal moment in somebody else's life. Just one little word of encouragement, one arm around somebody, and just saying 'we're going to get this. I won't give up if you won't give up." His story reminds us that educators aren't just teaching subjects—they're shaping lives.
When you need some hope and inspiration to build collaboration. Hope Mississippi is your salvation. One in four kids live in poverty.
Speaker 2:One in five are food deprived.
Speaker 1:Build collaborations and build hope with those who are struggling. Hope Mississippi. Hello and welcome to another edition of Hope Mississippi, where we talk about lots of positive things going on in Mississippi and also challenges and how to overcome those. And I'm Dawn Beam and I could not be more happy than to have my former band director, david Wilson, here today. Mr Wilson, tell everyone hello, hello, good morning. We're sitting in the band hall at Ole Miss where Mr Wilson was the band director for over 25 years, right, 32. And we're not going to talk about how long ago it was that you were my band director.
Speaker 2:Uh 44 or 5, something like that.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's been about 40-something years, but what I would tell anybody about BAND is I highly recommend it. But you, through BAND, influenced my life more than any teacher I ever had, because you helped me to understand the importance of goal setting and then working every day, in every way, to accomplish those goals, and I will forever be grateful to you. Now we last year, about this time, we're putting together a book called Every Day in Every Way, which was your memoirs. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:It would take me the rest of my life to tell you about it. But when I first started teaching I had no idea what I was doing and I stumbled the first five years and I decided that I was tired of yelling at students and I had to find a different way. So after my first year of teaching at Columbus Caldwell people that don't know what that means is Columbus Mississippi had two high schools at that time. The traditional, older school was Lehigh and the newer suburban school was Caldwell, and that's where we were that first year. I fussed at kids and it kind of worked. I tried to motivate, I tried to be a clown, but I knew I needed more consistency and I wanted the students to realize what we were doing and why we were doing it. And all I was doing was telling them what to do and there was no understanding of the why and I tried to quit teaching. I literally did.
Speaker 2:And I found a book at a thrift store for a quarter called how to Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie, and I don't read. I read every bit of that book in a week. And Start Living by Dale Carnegie, and I don't read. I read every bit of that book in a week and then I read it again. It was readable and understandable. And then I told this guy that worked for one of the big fundraising companies and he said, oh, we use motivation all the time. And he sent me some cassettes that I listened to and I started trying to learn what to do to have some kind of ambition.
Speaker 2:In my childhood I didn't know what it meant. I was raised in blue collar cynicism. You know what do they do? That for? It's time for the break. You know I've got five minutes early, five minutes. I had to fake my ambition at first and I still do to a certain degree.
Speaker 2:But I tried to get the students to understand what we were doing and why we were doing it and the benefits for everybody. So if it was a goal and we listed the steps to overcome that goal and achieved it, it carried over to every single thing that we did in life. So every goal was important. I just tried to write them down and sell the students on it and infuse it with enthusiasm. And you know kids are kids.
Speaker 2:I still have a hard time staying motivated, but you had to talk about it, pat them on the back and I realized that criticism to a student in front of their peers was just a failure of a teacher, and so if I could recognize two positives issues of correction and then a thank you, I can tell you're working very hard and I know that you care about doing a good job. Could you just move to your left a little bit, johnny? Move to your left. You know better than that. It was a long process, but I just learned that a goal if a kid needed a goal, then why. And if it was a positive reinforcement rather than negative, it went a lot further, quicker.
Speaker 1:And so you came up with the idea of every day, in every way, helping kids every day to work toward a goal, and as they achieved it, then the next thing you knew they were setting a higher goal, right, somewhat.
Speaker 2:I taught at the junior high school and another school and we went to state band festival with a high school band and on the way home and it was a fight every day of the year, making them sit down and turn in stuff, abusing equipment. And we were coming home from State Band Festival and the bus got stopped in a town for kids throwing stuff out of the windows and it was one of the best bands of the week. And I went back the next day and people were bragging about how great the band was and I told one of my friends. I said you know, we fought that band every day this year and we got stopped by the police. They were screaming on the bus on the way home and I said it was a shame. And my friend said there's no reason for a band that good not to be good every day of the year.
Speaker 2:And it stuck with me. It stuck with me hard and so when I got to Columbus and I started thinking about how I wanted to do things, I came up with that phrase every day, in every way, and I lived it. I didn't get in front of that band, in front of that band one day that I didn't have some kind of plan and just shaking with energy. So that my enthusiasm motivated the students.
Speaker 1:Well, your enthusiasm was contagious and I recall back those days if you had marched us off a cliff I would have gone right behind you, and that's what folks need. They say that every kid needs one adult that believes in them, and you believed in us and helped us to believe in ourselves, and I think that's one thing that kids learn through extracurricular activities that you might not get the opportunity to learn in a classroom setting is the importance of that self-discipline and even the idea of achieving more together than you ever could by yourself. Some of the songs that we played were just phenomenal back in those days, and you helped us to know that we could do things that we never dreamed possible. Let's talk a little bit about how you went from helping young kids like me to you came to the university. How were you able to pass along those same skills of setting goals and working to achieve that to future educators?
Speaker 2:Well, you touch a lot of emotions. You know my father was not one to nurture I can assure you that and build a positive atmosphere. And if one person, like you just said, reaches a young person as a mentor, says you're capable of this. I see a lot of good in you. And I had a teacher give up on me and I knew that they did Most of them did but she gave up on me bad and I knew it, and I knew that I knew it, but I couldn't raise my hand and say you don't care about me, you don't think that I can do anything, but you haven't taught me anything either. So I had three mentors in my life that came to me as a young man in the field, as you know Mr Cook, your next door neighbor, dan Wright and Wilbur Smith that actually were adults, that believed in me and told me that I could do it and gave me confidence and built me up. And I think everybody needs somebody that touches them on a certain day and gives them that spark to either turn their life around or to keep going through hurdles.
Speaker 2:You know, I got here and I found a man in some poor morale and disarray and the students that I were training for the future just had this esoteric vision of what was going to go on. And I remember the very first day of class I called my chairman and said where is the book for this class? And he said, mr Wilson, this is a university. You teach that class the way you think it should be taught. And I hung up the phone and I just stared at the telephone and I said, okay. I remember within two weeks of coming here, I wanted my tuition money back because I didn't know what I was doing. So I taught them a little bit of vocation, a little bit of critical thinking. This is what you're going to do before you get to your first student. This is what you're going to do the first day they walk in the classroom. How are you going to talk to them? How are you going to set the atmosphere? What are you going to do with the first smart aleck? That's this, and really wrote it out and went over it with them. And when they got out into the teaching field, I called them and stayed with them. I mean, if they were three hours away, I'd call and say how did you do beginner band today?
Speaker 2:Because you just can't learn everything in college that you're supposed to learn. There's 50% of your courses aren't in your course study or your field of study, and then 80% of those don't pertain to what you actually do in the workforce. I don't care if it's being a lawyer, a banker, whatever. You just learn principles and philosophy, but not what happens if somebody doesn't like to check, or whatever. So I try to teach them the real world and talk to them about motivating students that if you don't have the room organized and if you don't have a set of plans, if you don't have enthusiasm and if they don't see that you know how to instruct good and give positive feedback, they're not going to go with you. You know they're just not. I've seen a lot of teachers out there. Some of them are clowns, some of them are motivators, some of them are dictators, some of them are a combination of all. But the ones that make it the students know that they're cared about.
Speaker 1:And your wise counsel helps when these teachers encounter trouble. It's great to have folks that you can call on wise counsel, and I know that those folks never forget your willingness to do that. Now you also did a beginner band book that helps them just to go by one, two, three. That makes it easier. What else have you done to try to reach out? We talked about a podcast that you've done and some different things. Talk about that just a little that you keep giving Wow.
Speaker 2:I'd like to do more. Computer skills and vision of how to do it and want to do it is lacking, but I try to call students periodically. That I've had they call me. I've got a friend that recognizes my work and he's the one setting up the podcast on the books and trying to put it, I guess, in the social media that I don't really understand. I try to stay a little active and I'd like to write another book about this is exactly what happened and this is what I did from that experience as a teacher, instead of continuing to follow my face and yell at students.
Speaker 2:This is what happened, and in an instructional basis too, I finally learned that if a student didn't do what I asked or expected of them, I either didn't teach them exactly what I needed them to do or I didn't motivate them to want to do it. So I tried to quit blaming the student for anything anything, even if they messed up badly and I knew it wasn't anything to do with me. I would just look at them and say I wish I could have motivated you not to want to do that, and when you do that, it takes the venom that some teachers have against students. You don't care, do you? You don't know what the two houses of our state government are. How are you going to live as a citizen Just constantly just talking back to them instead of? Let me help you learn this.
Speaker 1:Well, that humility and caring. It permeates the way you teach band and music and I know that you have touched many lives from that. We talked about the book that you did about basics book that you did about basics and if we've got any folks out there that are planning to be a band director, you certainly want that beginner band book to help you. Beyond that, I helped you write your memoirs and that's called Every Day in Every Way. It can be purchased on Amazon and let's talk a little bit about that, because I knew you as a band director but I got to walk through your life. Let's talk just a little bit about where you came from and how you were able to understand the difficulties other kids went through, because of your own experience.
Speaker 2:Amen. I tell my students early on. You have no idea what that student has been through from the moment they woke up till they get to your classroom. You don't have a clue if it's a single parent, if the kid had to wake up on their own, or if they come and match a Mercedes to school with their parents. You don't know if they've had a friendship issue or they got a first period and they say you didn't do your homework, you don't care about this class, you're going to wish you did. They got a second period. Why don't you ever get your assignment done on time?
Speaker 2:Therapy and by the time they get to you, band is an elective. It costs money to buy an instrument, you have to march outside in the extreme weather elements and if there's not some kind of benefit other than just having an elective, they're not going to stay with you and in band. You need them for the entire six or seven years. They're in grade school that you start them in. So I knew that you had to hold on to them and you did that through goal setting, positive feedback and good instruction. A student is the smartest supercomputer on earth and they can tell you two things quickly. Does this person's instruction make sense and understandable and do I buy it and do they care about me? And you can't disguise it, they just know it. So I tried to do my preparation. I spent some time at night getting ready so that I wouldn't fail. I had a fear of failure as well, but I just prepared a great deal and used my steepest sense of energy and crazy personality to try to get it across to them.
Speaker 1:Oh, you most definitely have a crazy personality. Band was always a laugh, lots of fun, and I think laughter is a good medicine. Takes a lot of the stress away.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 2:When a student sees a teacher has a personality, I don't care what it is. I went to the grocery store oh, you go to the grocery store, or just something that brings commonality to the student and the teacher at the same time helps the atmosphere in that classroom a great deal. I knew that it had to be enjoyable. And when you're marching outside in Mississippi and the temperature's near 100, and you got a 38-pound tuba on your back and you got to do it again, do it again, and why are we doing it again? And it's just brutal, I realized real quick I didn't like being in that heat either, you know. And to ask them to do that, I remember the first day at Collierville High School.
Speaker 2:It's funny how students can teach a teacher a lot of times. And it was the first cool morning, like, let's say, 70. And I was going where have you been? They said it's a different band. And some student raised their hand and said Mr Wilson, it's only 68 degrees out here. And it hit me like a ton of bricks, you know, because when it's 90 degrees, even if you're the fittest person on earth, it's hard to do it. Anyway, I empathy what those kids go through and knowing that something could have touched that kid in a negative way that morning that you just kind of have to walk delicately, and I knew that every student that walked in that band room was different and had a different button to push and you just had to search what kind of button and how to push it. Whatever you had to do it.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the music. When you were in college, you were in Uncle Sam's band as well as the Ole Miss band. But talk a little bit about the music some of your favorite performances that you experienced as a participant as well as a band director.
Speaker 2:Well, I wasn't that great of a player but I was fortunate enough to be asked to be in a horn rock and roll band called Uncle Sam and I absolutely loved it. I tell people all the time I'd sell all my teaching career, my marriage and everything else to go back and play again, which is not true, but it was just to stand in a band and create that kind of energy and fun. It was just fantastic. And I remember early on we played at a frat party at Vanderbilt and the people liked it so much they passed the hat and asked us to play a second hour. And when you got the crowd and I just remember it to this day it was just one of the most eclectic nights of my life.
Speaker 2:And as a high school band director there were some things that we did. I know the year that we played Russian Christmas music at Colwell High School it just brought the house down, you know. And then the year that we went to Delta State and won everything that they had over there. One probably shouldn't have because we were competing with bigger bands and bands from what I'd call more affluent makeup we were po folks at Caldwell that's right and for us to do what we did.
Speaker 2:I look back now and it was a feat and I'm really proud of it, and Clinton and I had some the same type moments when I played advanced pieces of literature and at Ole Miss. The same way, it's hard, with 40-something years of teaching, to remember the exact ones, but the best thing is when the kids know it. When they know it and they know that they know it it's fun and they also know when it's not good. But I'm just very fortunate and that's the thing that that book that you encouraged me to write it reminded me.
Speaker 1:I should have stopped along the way and embrace that moment more sometimes, when you're so busy in the moment trying to get everything right and by the time it all is together, the the stress of it all, you don't really enjoy the significance of it. But boy did we bring joy to. Not only it was joyful playing, knowing that we did our very best, but it was great that other people listening enjoyed that as well. So just a combination of giving and receiving at the same time.
Speaker 2:You said it better than I've ever said it. I was so engaged in just getting the music right, getting the students where they were supposed to be, and when it was over, even though they announced whatever they announced, I was so exhausted that, okay, let me just get home and lay on the bed. So you're right, instead of stopping and going. You know what I just did with these kids. It's a miracle.
Speaker 2:Now it's not going to make the national news. You're not going to get rich doing it, but there's a lot of people in business that can't touch what good teachers get Right, helping people and watching their students do more than you could ever imagine. Some of my most successful teachers in the field are those that when they were in college, they'd be lucky to get out, but they didn't give up and they kept doing all they had to do until they learned their own way. I didn't try to make and they kept doing all they had to do until they learned their own way. I didn't try to make anybody a David Wilson clone, but I tried to teach them enough to give them a basic, fundamental start so that if they used my methods, they could have success and then build their own style above that.
Speaker 1:Now the shows. I'm reminded of so many great shows, both in high school, but also Ole Miss you just really it was an entertaining thing for the crowd Tell a little bit about what all went into that for you.
Speaker 2:Agony I listened to tunes and tried to come up. Nowadays it's a theme. You create a theme the day in the life of a boy where they wake up with a little springtime music. I didn't do that, I just played what I'd call energetic music that people could tap their foot to and enjoy a lot of rock and roll and jazz. But I listened to a lot of recordings and tried to pick something that I enjoyed. I knew the crowd would enjoy. You don't. In my opinion, if you lose your crowd you're hurting yourself not politically but public support. I got here, I found the same thing and I just tried to play something that the crowd first of all recognized could pat their foot to and they enjoyed it. I tried to find good arrangers. I used the same arranger for years, steve Barnett he was. He wrote our music, almost all of it in Columbus, here and at Clinton. He was my assistant here for five years.
Speaker 1:Great guy let's talk about some of the students that you taught. I know some have gone on to be famous players mention just throw a few names out.
Speaker 2:Drop a few names the prominent one is keith carlock. He was a percussionist drummer and he made it big time but he worked. You know, he's played with stevely dan four or five albums, he's toured with sting toto, james taylor, and the list just is on and on. He's been on on cover of Modern Drummer five times, cover of National Jazz Association of Educators. Instead of riding around his pickup truck acting cool, he was in a practice room. Not only did he have some talent, he worked his heart out, he was ate up with it and he's kept his composure Every time I've seen him, since he doesn't seem to have any arrogancy. I mean, he's got confidence, of course, but he's made it big. I had a student that did a couple of years as a trumpet player, kevin Lyons, with the Atlanta Symphony and people locally play it in the local symphonies and whatever. But I wasn't here to make musicians as much as band directors, and I've had some award-winning high school band directors and some to go on to community college and universities.
Speaker 1:You know, it's amazing to me the math of all of that. You help one individual, then they go help hundreds and hundreds of more. So there's no telling the impact that your life has had and, as one of your former students, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that when we talk about Mississippi. You started out in Jackson, mississippi, as a young man from a struggling family. Your daddy worked hard, your mom was not there and through your discipline, band certainly had a huge impact of pulling you from that to where you are today. Talk a little bit about that how band changed your life.
Speaker 2:Not. All of us come from an environment where the dad comes out and pitches the ball with you and have a basketball goal, you have the money to join group sports or the ability to join group sports. My dad raised a sister and myself in the late 50s and early 60s and he had several brothers and sisters that urged him to get us in some kind of activity. One of his brothers had a bunch of kids in band so he bought my sister what I call a pawn shop cornet and she joined band one year and the next year she was in eighth grade and I joined the junior high band in seventh grade. He said she'll play that horn in eighth grade band and you'll play it in seventh. That's how we chose instruments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I just went to band kind of I don't I didn't take it very serious. Then I started kind of practicing a little bit but it forced me since we didn't go to church and I didn't have a civic group to be part of a group. When I didn't want to be part of a group I was just going to be that loner that worked as an associate mechanic at the service station or something. It forced me to be in some kind of civic organization and have civic responsibility. You know, the band couldn't make it as well without me and I certainly couldn't be a band by myself. I tried to quit band in the ninth grade and it's in my book. My dad was in the car shifting the car from first to second gear and he had a cigar in his mouth and I said Dad, I'm going to quit band. He took the cigar out and he said a cigar in his mouth and I said dad, I'm gonna quit band. He took the cigar out and he said, boy, you are too young to make that decision and he shifted to third and we never discussed it again. Now that's not gonna happen in today's society, but I don't know. I don't know if I would have even finished high school. So I got caught up into and our high school band was okay but it wasn't stellar at all. But just being in the camaraderie and fitting in and working toward even though we didn't talk about goal setting, but working towards a common mean with your peers. It's just like any other organization. People volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, some church group, some civic group. You just get such a, I guess, sense of belonging and reward. So I got caught up in it, my junior year especially, and I started working hard. In my senior year I was elected band captain. There's only like 60 kids in my high school band, but it taught me, with leadership comes some rewards and some criticism too.
Speaker 2:The first time you make one decision, who do you think you are? I'm just doing my job. You know, my high school band director was good friends with the band director at Ole Miss and he had him down to rehearse the band one Thursday night and my dad showed up to rehearsal and said what the heck's he doing here? I said I thought I was in trouble. Well, so he said get your horn boy, and I went in there and to audition. It was a joke. He wanted me to play some five-star solo that I didn't know and I just played some solo I had in the jazz band. It was about seven notes, the sounds of silence. But the next thing I know I'm standing in the financial aid. It was about seven notes, the sounds of silence. But the next thing I know I'm standing in the financial aid line.
Speaker 2:At Ole Miss. It could have been Notre Dame or UCLA, I just didn't know because I qualified for financial aid and I was motivated not to go back home and live in that God-foreseen negative environment and I was scared that I would go to Vietnam like I saw one of my cousins get shot up pretty bad and how. So I just knew I had to keep my grades up and when I got to college I struggled in my reading courses. If it was science or something that, or math, I did fine. But reading, comprehension and writing. It goes back to that teacher that gave up on me and now that I don't. I wasn't one of those prolific people, but I had 17, 18 articles. I did probably 85 workshops away from here, even at the national level or international level, and three books, and now that same teacher gave up on me. I'd like to say show me yours. I shouldn't be that.
Speaker 1:Well, we're wrapping up here, but I want to give you an opportunity to speak just a little bit to the parents along the way. I know in high school there were some parents that were friends, parents that had a huge impact on you, and then three mentors that took some time for you and it was because of their investment in your life that you were able to invest in lots of other folks. Why don't you call out a few names of those sweet folks?
Speaker 2:I was scared to death of parents I'm talking just shaking because they reminded me of mine and I thought they were all just going to be brutal. And the longer that I taught and I saw what parents would do for their kids because they were enthusiastic about something, I just overwhelmed me with what they would do. The one that comes to mind the most is Joy Kay Hill House. Anytime the Baptist Church door was open at East End she was there. She did stuff for them. She was the secretary of the Band District Club for four years. She rebuilt uniforms, she worked on the fundraising committee. She just did so much stuff. And I could go on. Wayne West and, oh gosh, rod Adams. And then I got to Carolyn I mean she was a city council lady went to your church Cecilia Jones, was that her name?
Speaker 1:Cecilia Jones was her daughter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I got to Clinton. Bette Douglas is dead. He did a lot. Charlie, saul, david, nolan's mother I can't remember her name but what they did and how hard they worked.
Speaker 2:I mean Merle Taggart, who just ran the concession booth at Columbus-Colwell, killed himself and he drove a Frito-Lay truck and he would start on Thursday afternoon and filling that truck with stuff and going over to that concession stand making sure he had 20 workers. I'd go up there at halftime and it was a business. I mean they worked their hearts out but they did it because their students liked it and I was just dang lucky that three people grabbed me. One of them was gary cook, finest band of richard and the state at the time, in my opinion. He just asked me one day at a music store if I had a recording of my band and I know that mr dan wright sicked him on me and he owned the music store and he saw a lot of good in me and I didn't trust him because my high school band director said he was a crook and I thought he was a crook but he slowly came through the door and became just like a father figure to me. And then Wilbur Smith I road-rubbed him. They were my three main mentors, but I I was smart enough or insecure enough to know that I couldn't do it by myself and I ended every class I ever had with this.
Speaker 2:There's only two things it takes to be successful, be a good bandwagon. One is you gotta learn how to motivate and discipline kids at the same time in your own personality, whether it be the quiet type, the motivator or whatever. And then the second thing is just whatever you don't know somebody does, and if you'll ask questions and listen, you can learn what to do, filter it through your own brain and personality and then spit it back out for it to benefit you. But there's so many people out there that quote don't want to be saved unquote that you could write it down in your own blood, hand it to them and they just won't even read it and they keep making the same mistake and it's sad because their teachers are like surgeons. They're working on somebody's life and if they make a blunder they don't kill them. But kids quit, you know, or they give up. And it could be just an English class and they just give up. You don't give up on kids. You're a surgeon and you're working on their life and you want to keep them alive.
Speaker 1:Well, you certainly invested in lots of folks, including me, and did not give up, and we're forever grateful. And to the folks out there listening to this, we want them to be encouraged to step up. Whether your kids are in band and you need to help support that, there's joy in serving and in seeing something like a band accomplish great things. We're all here because somebody else invested in us and it's important that we give back and you can accomplish great things when you work together.
Speaker 2:One person is going to be that pivotal moment in somebody else's life. Just one little word of encouragement, one arm around somebody and just saying we're going to get this. I won't give up if you won't give up.
Speaker 1:That's what Hope Mississippi is all about encouraging folks to step out there. Hope you'll tune in again and I know you'll take a lot of positive things from this podcast today. Thank you so much, mr Wilson. I love you dearly, Hope Mississippi.
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