Klarinet Archive - Posting 000206.txt from 1998/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Teaching Lessons
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 20:17:02 -0400

Even a good teacher can have some quirks that mess students up bigtime. I
loved my childhood piano teacher, a sweet-natured man who probably never
yelled at or belittled a student in his life. No, his way of expressing
disappointment was to start sobbing quietly, as in, "How can you do this to
me?" I would practice my hands off to avoid that!--but in the long run, I
ended up catching his awful stage fright from him and quitting music for years
because of it. (I'm not shy in most areas of life.) I think that for all his
good intentions and enormous skill in imparting knowledge, he may have done
more damage than the ogres. Stable, healthy kids will push back against a
meanie. Some of my best teachers were Grade A jerks. Not that I'm advocating
jerkitude!--but earning respect from one of those characters gave me such a
high. (And then if I couldn't make some old toad respect me, I easily blamed
him/her, not myself....) With a sweetheart of a teacher who wilts and weeps,
there's nothing to feel but guilt, guilt, guilt. There must be a happy medium
in there somewhere!

Lelia
LeliaLoban@-----.com
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I shall hate sweet music my whole life long.
--Swinburne
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