Mentoring is messy. There is no other way to say it. If you are doing it right, then it is very mess. Moreover, the time it takes to be involved in a person’s life while they live out their own drama can sap all of your energy. Yet, every once in a while we find a person like Conrad Johnson who embellishes  all of the finesse of a great mentor yet is able to instill the rigors of real life into his mentees like a drill sergeant does with their cadets. Someone who is able to live with the person, in their drama, yet pushes them not just through it, but beyond it; that was Conrad Johnson.

 

 

If you are not familiar with whom Conrad Johnson is, then you must see the new film directed by Mark Landsman (Skylab 2005; Peace Of Mind 1999), and produced in help from Jaime Foxx, titled Thunder Soul. It chronicles one of this countries great music educators who developed a high school stage band into a world renowned jazz-funk powerhouse in the early 70’s. Johnson was able to do what many other teachers, were not able to do, which was instill self-respect, identity, and self-esteem within his students in order to create a legion of band members who would reshape the very essence of high school stage bands.

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