I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal. . . .
Too often, in the senior school, students are not doing things for enjoyment. As I look around the Learning Centre right now, five minutes before lunchtime - students are working quietly on set tasks, but even without bells, students are hyper aware of when lunchtime rolls around.
In contrast, I can recall plenty of occasions when teachers in the junior school have had students continue their work when break times happened, blissfully unaware of the time.
This aligns to what John Hattie calls the thrill part of 'skill, will, and thrill':
“In fact, if we can increase their sense of love of learning, the thrill, we can increase their sense of self,” John Hattie.
