I still remember walking into that classroom the first day of senior year. Ready to go through icebreakers with the same people for the fourth year in a row. Anticipating to hear everyone talk about their siblings and pets because that was what most teachers would expect.

But not Mr. Polancich’s Music Foundations class. He was … different. Where most teachers would lecture for forty minutes, filling our heads with words that we will vomit back onto paper, he would talk to us and ask how our week was going. These conversations took up the majority of class some days, most of the time they weren’t even about what we were learning. It was just us living in the moment, something he encouraged us to find time to do every day.

He is interested in each of our stories with music. It didn’t matter if we were in marching band, singing in a musical, or just having a concert by ourselves in our car – to him we were all musicians with our own moments of stardom.

The way he taught was unique. To the kid who was always in trouble with other teachers for moving around in class, he handed a pair of drum sticks and told him to keep moving. To the kids that he saw true creativity in, he asked them to keep writing new pieces and redefine sheet music. To me, who wanted to learn everything from writing songs to building my own instrument, he told me “let’s find out together”. 

Outside of school, he is the definition of someone who loves music. On the weekends he will go perform in Milwaukee and Madison with other musicians and bring his stories to share on Monday. And whenever he has free time during the school day, he will go watch the school’s musical theater company rehearse down the hall. Listening to them sing and dance in awe. And when it comes time for show night, he is one of the loudest people cheering after each ballad and dance break. Just living in the moment; again, and again, and again.

All my life I have wanted to pursue music in some way, but I never knew exactly how. Since day one, Mr. P has been supportive, reliable, and encouraging. He wants all of his students to pursue their dreams in any way possible and won’t take “I’m not good enough” for an answer. He pushes us to be better students, better musicians, and better people every day. This finally gave me the encouragement and final push to pursue music in college and study to become a music teacher too. While I have had several teachers who wanted me to succeed, none of them were as motivational or encouraging as Mr. P.