Klarinet Archive - Posting 001396.txt from 1997/10

From: Gholson <GGHOLSON@-----.EDU>
Subj: statesmanship
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 05:37:49 -0500

A few notes;

Some time ago, students from a selected university in the east,
posted several statements critisizing the instruction they
received from their professor. We were all new to the Internet
then and I was curious about how the professor, who was on the
listserv, would handle that situation. I saw few posts from that
institution...darned few, subsequent to that episode. I imagine
that the professor had encouraged his students to participate
in the group, even setting up a computer and the necessary
accounts, for that specific purpose. If I had gone to that
trouble, only to see my students recruited, courted, and my
teaching openly criticised in a national forum, I would have
thrown the computer out the window.

Auguste Duques once noted that the French School is defined by
thousands of different French performers. He laughed at the
notion of a "French School." We all have preferential sounds,
techniques, ligatures, ad infinitum. There are many ways to
play the clarinet and literally thousands of equipment avenues
to pursue. If one is NOT in the position to support, nurture,
and interact with a given student (emotionally, psychologically,
musically, AND theoretically) on a local basis, then I think
it wise to defer to the instruction received locally, especially
in an international forum. At the very least, much criticism could be
shared on a private basis.

I suppose I am talking about statesmanship and hope that
my thoughts inspire open dialogue coupled with the discretion
that realizes that we cannot pick up that student and escort
her to a concert, or take him home after a lesson, in a blinding
snowstorm. It means statesmanship even, when it comes to making
suggestions to students online. My own strategy is to react to
a question which could be embarrassing to a given teacher, OFFLINE.
..one to one, with my mail going DIRECTLY to the addressee. Even
here, I would NOT say something that could haunt me later. In my
opinion, this community that we call the Internet is a wonderful thing, but
still only as collegial as we make it.

IN%"ggholson@-----.edu"
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