Klarinet Archive - Posting 000319.txt from 2000/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Children [was, Legere Reeds]
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 10:40:46 -0500

On Tue, 05 Dec 2000 17:18:53 -0800, jjones@-----.EDU said:

> Lelia,
>
> I find it rather ironically amusing that you don't include in the list
> of responses below, the one you exhibited as the "War of the Tony and
> the Neil" started to smolder again. Surely, the child could remain
> silent, prosper on the clarinet and interject a clever statement or
> two that convinces the adults that there may be a better way to
> exchange ideas, even if they have to be a bit more disciplined in
> expressing their frustrations.

I suppose in the unlikely event that the child had the wisdom of a
Solomon, she might even be able to transform the situation so that she
had the band director buying her reeds out of his own pocket.

I'd say that the point of Lelia's post was to make evident the extreme
difficulty that non-Solomon-like -- ie, all -- children have in
resolving such situations satisfactorily, particularly within
themselves. By putting us in the child's position, Lelia makes clear to
the rest of us what I think Nancy knows: that we have to accord much
greater importance to the effect on the child than to debate about the
good or bad qualities of Legere reeds. (By the way, they don't work
well on my mouthpieces either, Walter.)

Her post also gave me a painfully vivid, half-remembered glimpse of what
it was like to live in that wonderful, terrible and now, alas, mostly
lost world in which even the smallest thing could seem so incredibly
important.

It is the authoritarian attitude of the band director that is to be
deplored, on the grounds that it is immoral and coercive. Even if it
were possible to win a victory over his petty exercise of power, I think
Nancy is right in her assessment that he has demonstrated that the child
is better off elsewhere. Unless the situation has changed.

Just in passing, Jennifer, I hope I'm right in thinking that you're not
seriously equating this very real and, for the child involved, possibly
quite desperate situation with the one that you characterise above as,
"the War of the Tony and the Neil", which lasted precisely one post
each, plus one consisting entirely of a '[snip]', on a little mailing
list. Some war.

And the discussion, about an important issue, actually, is being
continued at a lower temperature. I have to get on with writing the
next bit of it.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.

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