Daniel Hill: ‘I could never imagine being loved by so many’
Daniel Hill describes his career in education as one of delayed appreciation.
The 73-year-old taught music and social studies for 47 years across countless public schools as well as giving private classes.
Mr Hill said that he was a strict disciplinarian — something that took students a while to appreciate.
“A lot of people vowed ‘I don’t like him, I can’t stand that man’,” he admitted.
“It was years later when I found out they said ‘he was my best teacher; he made me do what I had to do and I appreciate him for that’.”
Many are now doctors, lawyers, politicians, high-ranking civil servants and celebrities.
Several former students have organised a tribute concert to their former teacher, Tailored for Greatness, to take place on Sunday.
It will feature performances from former students such as Joy T. Barnum and Tony Robinson.
Mr Hill said hearing of the concert told him his work had paid off.
He added: “I could never imagine being so loved by so many people.”
Mr Hill discovered his talent for music as a child, teaching himself how to play piano by ear.
As a teenager, he took formal lessons for piano, violin and guitar while learning how to sing.
Mr Hill eventually received a degree in vocal pedagogy alongside his university classes in history, science and political science.
After graduating, he worked as a freelance entertainer, performed as both a jazz pianist in Bermuda and a concerto in the US.
Despite his talent, Mr Hill said he initially had his eyes set on a career in medicine.
He explained: “I actually had a four-year scholarship to medical school, but I got married and I kept postponing the scholarship until it expired after five years.”
He returned to Bermuda in 1975 and pivoted as a schoolteacher.
He admitted that he did not think he would stay in teaching as he still had a healthy career in music.
However, he added that “everybody loved me”, and eventually he got his Master’s in Education Administration on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education.
Mr Hill’s placements included Sandys Secondary School, Warwick Academy, Northlands Primary School and St George’s Secondary.
He quickly learnt he had a gift for commanding attention, saying: “I speak, people listen.”
Mr Hill explained he studied the vocal patterns of powerful orators through history.
He added: “Some people have a talent for public speaking.
“Sometimes you can hear a young boy speak and listen to the tone of his voice and say ‘he’s going to be a minister’.”
Although “very intimidating” to students, Mr Hill said it won him respect, which encouraged them to work to a high standard.
Mr Hill said: “If I wasn’t happy with what I got, then I’d make sure that the student got a consequence whereby they’d never do it again.”
His toughness, he said, came from a place of care, since many students could be unruly or rebellious.
Mr Hill said: “Every successful person has to have a teacher. I don’t care what you are, I don’t care what you think about yourself. You need to practise and you need a teacher.”
Daniel Hill admitted that self-destructive tendencies nearly ended his career.
During the 1990s, he developed a habit of drinking and smoking cannabis.
“I was very uncomfortable with my career,” he explained. “I felt like I was not being rewarded.”
Eventually he started growing cannabis at his Southampton home, which was discovered by police in 1994 and led to his arrest.
A father of five at the time, Mr Hill was fined $1,350 for drug possession and cannabis cultivation.
While he was lucky to not receive jail time, he was eventually asked to resign from the school system.
Mr Hill said that he later worked with the Ministry of Education and the National Drug Commission to enrol in drug treatment overseas.
Once he returned in 1996, he was offered school positions once more.
However, Mr Hill said: “I went to a new level of success, but my name would be for ever blacklisted.
“They would now never, ever promote me. I’d never, ever be a school principal. I’d never be given jury duty.
“I became shy of the stage and I didn’t want to be out in the limelight because of what I’d done.”
Mr Hill said that his experience reflected a larger issue that Black Bermudian men went through during that time — and that many suffered today.
He added: “If you have a Black man that’s gifted and talented and you never reward or elevate him, he’ll go rogue.”
Mr Hill said that he wanted to help steer troubled children in the right direction and had taught at the Centre for Adolescent Development, Education and Training, which became Success Academy, for about 20 years.
In spite of his challenges, he was proud of what he overcame.
Mr Hill reminded the public that just because a person’s life was not “spotless”, it did not mean they could not be successful.
He said: “I’m a person that has triumphed over whatever mishaps I’ve had.”
Mr Hill added: “There should be more opportunities and more options for young Black men.
“Some people go rogue by saying ‘I don’t want a job, I’m going to sell drugs because that’s the only way we can make money in this country’.
“I think people should be given a second chance.”
If you asked him, Mr Hill would say that his hard work paid off.
He has coached countless singers, from winners of Bermuda Idol to singers at the Metropolitan Opera, and has taught people how to sing in German, Italian and French.
Mr Hill even likened himself to the biblical King Saul, mentor to his giant-slaying successor David.
He said that he taught the likes of Mark Pettingill, an acting Supreme Court judge and former attorney-general under the One Bermuda Alliance administration, and Owen Ellsworth Simons, an award-winning musician and music educator.
He added: “I had these big choirs and I recognised that one of the girls in these choirs could sing.
“She’s a doctor now — Emily Gail Dill. She was a beautiful student.”
Dr Dill went on to become a Progressive Labour Party senator and MP. Mr Hill said he and his former student still shared jokes.
Mr Hill said: “My students, many times, go forward and outshine me by far. They’ve taken everything I taught them and took it to a next level.”
After his retirement in 2022, Mr Hill now works as music director for Wesley Methodist Church on Church Street, Hamilton, and the Southampton Seventh-day Adventist Church.
He teaches at the Adult Education Centre, helping people achieve their GED diplomas.
• Tailored for Greatness is on Sunday at 6.30pm, at the Bermuda Institute Auditorium on Middle Road, Southampton. General admission tickets are $30, while tickets for patrons are $50. Both can be bought online atPtix
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