Klarinet Archive - Posting 000203.txt from 1996/02

From: SHELLEY A BARABASH <SABARABA@-----.CA>
Subj: Mr. Holland and other things
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 10:14:11 -0500

This is mainly directed to Marie, who quoted my letter in hers. You
made very strong points, and I agree with you on all of them. But if
you have the resources, why not fight? But it is when things seem
hopeless that we need people to hang in there instead of giving up.
But like I said, I haven't seen the movie, so there may be issues in
there that I just don't know about yet. But the point of the movie
seems strong, even though he lost. He still had the guts to fight.
I'm probably getting myself in too deep so no more opinions until I
see the movie!

I can't remember who this is for; he brought up the idea of making
the non - majors strong for a good large ensemble. I have to agree,
otherwise the whole ensemble will be held back. Here at Lakehead, we
also accept non - majors. Unfortunately, we don't have a large
ensemble anymore. It's just a class where we are put into different
groups throughout the year, kind of a revolving chamber ensemble.
But here we have the opportunity to put the non - majors together, so
the majors are not held back. I know that sounds snobby, but it lets
them progress at their own rate (assuming that they are at a lower
level) and lets us progress at ours. But like him, I would never
deny anyone the opportunity to play or take lessons.

I need opinions from people. My school provides one hour lessons
weekly for the year, making twelve lessons a term for a total of
twenty - four. We are given a mark for each lesson. The two terms
make up two - thirds of our mark, and the jury at the end of the year
makes up the other third. Does anybody think that it's fair to be
marked weekly? How much progress can one actually make in a week?
What if one person does really well throughout their lessons and
reaches a certain level at the end of the year, and another person
doesn't do so well in their lessons but has a break through and
arrives at the same level? The second person gets a bad mark even
though they are at the same level as the first. Please give me some
direction and reasoning (if there is any) on this.

Sorry for this being so long! By the way Lorne, Peter Shackleton
also says hi.

Shelley Barabash