Teaching Is A License To Learn

This song appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine
along with my story "Teaching is a License to Learn"
in February 2011.

Words by Mark L Berry & Music by DreamScuba
Performed by DreamScuba

The companion song for my story: Teaching Is A License To Learn about flight instructing at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the mid 1980s.

Teaching Is A License To Learn – lyrics

My students and I sit side by side
Sometimes it’s a turbulent ride
Sometimes new ones get terrified
That’s when I have to stay dignified

Keeping students from crashing me
Giving advice and acting naturally
While flight instructing daily
Teaching is a license to learn
Teaching is a license to learn

I show students the proper procedures
How to handle the throttles and mixtures
How to plan for unexpected encounters
And how to emergency land into pastures

Keeping a cool personality
It’s harder than it appears to be
While flight instructing daily
Teaching is a license to learn
Teaching is a license to learn

I’m getting paid to fly
While my students try
To navigate the sky

Every mistake that a student can do
Is a chance for me to learn, too
Every hour that we fly, me and you
Is doing what we love to do

Keeping students from crashing me
Giving advice and acting naturally
While flight instructing daily
Teaching is a license to learn
Teaching is a license to learn

13,760 Feet–My Personal Hole in the Sky

**13,760 Feet*–My Personal Hole in the Sky***