Remembering the Spark: A Letter to Our Future Selves

Remembering the Spark

A Letter to Our Future Selves

By NAfME member Daniel Abrahams

What if you could sit down with the version of yourself who first decided to become a music teacher and listen again?

Every semester, I am reminded that some of the most meaningful moments in music teacher education don’t occur on a podium, behind a score, or even in a classroom filled with instruments. Sometimes, they happen quietly on a page, in a letter, written years earlier by a hopeful student who didn’t yet realize how much they would grow.

In our first-year Introduction to Music Education course, students are asked to write a letter to their future selves. In that letter, they explain why they want to become a music teacher and describe the experiences, people, and moments that influenced that decision. They write honestly, ideally, and without the pressure of assessment beyond sincerity.

Those letters are sealed, saved, and returned semesters later during the final week of classes, just before students are set to begin their student teaching internships.

This is always one of those full-circle moments that remind us exactly why we teach.

From Freshman Dreams to the Edge of the Classroom

As I return the letters, the atmosphere in the room shifts. These are no longer first-year students imagining what it might be like to stand before an ensemble, but future educators shaped by experience. They have overcome methods courses and field experiences, planned lessons that worked and others that clearly failed, and taught real students in real classrooms. Along the way, they have questioned themselves, rebuilt their confidence, and tried again. Now, they hold in their hands words written by a younger version of themselves, full of excitement, curiosity, and unfiltered passion. Watching them read is moving. Some laugh, some fall silent, and a few wipe away tears, but most recognize how far they have come.

What the Letters Reveal

Over the years, a few themes consistently emerged from these letters:

• A deep belief in music’s power to connect, heal, and provide students a voice
• Influential teachers who modeled care, rigor, and joy
• A desire to give back and to create the kind of classroom they once needed
• A hope to matter in the lives of young people

What changes, of course, is perspective. As seniors, students read these letters with new eyes. They now grasp the complexity of teaching. They understand the weight of responsibility. They’ve grappled with classroom management, inclusion, assessment, advocacy, and self-doubt.

And yet, what is most striking is how often the core spark is still there.

Reflection as Pedagogy

This activity isn’t just sentimental. It’s intentional.

Teacher education includes essential technical skills: planning, assessment, rehearsal strategies, and content knowledge. However, reflection is what makes those skills meaningful and valued.

Returning these letters serves several pedagogical purposes:

• It reinforces professional identity development
• It invites students to locate continuity between who they were and who they are becoming
• It affirms growth without erasing idealism
• It reminds future teachers that why matters just as much as how

In a profession where burnout is common and early-career attrition is high, reconnecting with purpose is essential, not optional.

“I Forgot I Used to Believe This Strongly”

One student said quietly, “I forgot I used to believe this strongly.” That comment has stayed with me not because the belief was gone, but because it had been temporarily buried beneath stress, expectations, and the real fear that comes with learning to teach. These letters give students permission to remember the joy that first drew them to music education, the learner they once were, and the teacher they still hope to become. In doing so, they model something we want our graduates to carry into their own classrooms: reflection not as a one-time exercise, but as a lifelong practice.

Why This Matters for Music Education

Music education is uniquely positioned to center reflection and identity because it is grounded in artistry, relationships, and meaning-making. When students view teaching solely as a set of skills to master, they risk losing the qualities that make music education truly transformative. Activities like this remind both students and faculty that teaching is fundamentally relational work, that professional identity develops gradually, and that growth doesn’t mean losing hope when facing challenges. They demonstrate that music matters because people matter. In this way, the activity isn’t just about looking back; it’s a chance to reconnect with who we are as teachers, who we are becoming, and why our work in music education has such deep and lasting significance.

Carrying the Letters Forward

As students prepare to enter student teaching, I encourage them to keep their letters close. Not to romanticize the past, but to stay anchored to purpose when the work gets hard. One day, years from now, I hope they’ll ask their own students to write similar letters. I hope they’ll create spaces where reflection is valued as much as performance. And I hope they remember that teaching music is not just about sound, but about shaping lives, including their own.

Here’s to the future. And to never forget the spark that started it.

Photo at top by Ethan Hoover on Unsplash

About the author:

NAfME member Daniel Abrahams, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He teaches courses in music teacher education, instrumental methods, and music pedagogy, focusing on reflective practice, pedagogical content knowledge, and innovative teaching and learning approaches. Dr. Abrahams’ research explores music teacher identity, game-based learning, and the ethical and pedagogical implications of emerging technologies in music education. A former K–12 instrumental music teacher, he is dedicated to mentoring future educators through authentic field experiences and reflective coursework that connect theory with practice. He actively works as a clinician, researcher, and presenter at state, national, and international conferences.

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