Klarinet Archive - Posting 001039.txt from 1997/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: what I have to teach
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 21:23:55 -0400

At 07:08 PM 10/25/97 -0500, pmedina wrote:
>Well, in two classes there are a few students with behavorial problems. One
>student cannot sit with the rest of the kids and puts himself on the back
>row. He has no book so has no idea what is going on. He also at times gets
>up and walks around the back of the room, getting into lockers. When i ask
>him to participate he flies into a minor rage and only does it to his
>satisfaction. I have to send him to the office with a discipline slip every
>time he is off task as they need documentation of this behavior. I cannot
>remove him from the class without a ton of documentation.
>My best clarinet beginner is also a behavorial student. In my class he is
>fine. He plays wonderfully, also. He even impresses the other students,
>most of whom do not think he is smart. He is VERY intelligent. But he also
>pushed a teacher and has been put in what is called shut down for 4 weeks.
>A padded room where he rocks back and forth and beats the wall. There are
>regular ed kids in these classes I have. I don't understand why their
>education has to suffer for the few who are problems. What happend to
>having control over who is in your band program? The term that keeps coming
>is inclusion. I see the kids every other day for 90 minutes as we are on
>block scheduling. It is a frustrating situation that just seems to get
>worse. Every week there is a fight in the area where the kids wait for
>busses. We did not used to have this much violent behavior in the school.
>The elementary teachers tell us the current 5th grade group is also bad.
>The only solution I see for myself is moving.
>
I wish I could be encouraging, but I don't know where you could move TO.
Inclusion is the current educational fad and will be until, as happened
with the "see and say" reading method, someone finally admits that "they"
(meaning those OTHER people) have screwed up a whole generation of kids and
comes up with some new cockamamie scheme. My wife is a 6th grade teacher
fighting the same battles. Technically, hers is a "stretch" class, which
is supposed to be for the brightest kids. But in the spirit of "fairness,"
she also has some of the dumbest, including special ed and even one who has
a form of autism. Last week she got a new student, who speaks no English
(in all fairness, there is a bi-lingual kid in her class to help, but
still...). The net effect, in spite of the protestations to the contrary,
is a "dumbing down" of the educational process. We have to reorder the
priorities, and spend more of our scarce time and resources to provide
real, meaningful educational opportunities for the brightest students, the
ones who, we hope, will someday lead our industries, governments, and
universities. Firing salvo after salvo of information over the heads of
students to short to catch it in a misguided attempt at "democracy" is
wasteful and harmful. It is like serving steak to the toothless, when soup
is readily available. The material must be appropriate to the student's
ability to learn, and if that means "tracking" students, so be it.

Sorry to rant off the clarinet subject, but I think I understand the
problem. If the clarinet student is simply unprepared to learn because of
what is going on in the schools these days, it is pretty hard to undo the
damage.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.