Klarinet Archive - Posting 000228.txt from 2004/02

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] How would you reply to this student?
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 10:24:10 -0500

At 06:24 AM 2/14/2004, Tony Pay wrote:
>In message <001401c3f245$481e5b00$1202a8c0@DELL> you wrote:
>
> > This student is 24 years old - An Adult beginner who played for 2
> > years in High School and started up again this past Sept.
>
>Perhaps
>the mechanism is, they see that you're being a bit stiff with him in your
>own reply, and anyway think of you as quite generous; and so they incorporate
>a rather negative assessment of the student's probable character into the
>fact that you posted the exchange in the first place.
>
>Then, supporting you amounts to slagging him off (and he can't see that
>slagging off, so no harm done), so it's another opportunity to let off the
>usual steam about 'them', and how terrible they are.

How to say this discreetly? My guess is that adult students come in all
shapes and sizes, and with all manner of reasons or rationalizations for
not getting with the teacher's program.

1. One of them is called Day Job. As in Don't Quit Your. After working
all day, plus commuting, it really IS difficult for some people to get it
together, change hats, and start playing Klose scales, Rose etudes, or
whatever. What happens if the student is just too bloody tired to focus
one or two nights? At 24, what's the problem? Older, there might be
one. From the time we're kids it is drummed into us: practice every
day. It's good advice. It's not always possible.

2. Another is called I Can't Stand This Guy. It will create any excuse
for getting the teacher to fire him/her. This is a character issue. The
student perceives the teacher as...whatever. Or, turn it around, the
teacher really dislikes the student. It happens.

3. A third is I Just Did My Checkbook and I'm In Trouble. Also known as
This Is An Unaffordable Luxury at the Moment. You get to a certain age and
realize, as a presumptive adult, that putting the clarinet tuition ahead of
a necessary bill ("If I pay for this lesson it'll leave me $40 short of my
car payment") would be an act of irresponsibility. Many people do things
in the flush of enthusiasm that are revealed when reality strikes as
shortsighted.

4. Another, and back to where we started: the student is a jerk. Not
being able to practice because you're out doing an imitation of Andy Capp
doesn't make it. If he's making a near-nightly habit of this, he may have
a problem no clarinet teacher can help him with. The fact the student is
forthcoming about why he couldn't practice just makes it easier for the
teacher to unload him.

I suspect there are more things working here than we can know. I don't
think anyone's said so but there's been a tone of single-minded dedication
to one's Art that has morphed into moralism and self-righteousness. If the
shoe fits. Believe it or not, music for a lot of people is a pleasant
pastime, a source of entertainment and recreation. Maybe our adult
beginner would have been better off in the court of Frederick the Great or
in a parlor or salon in 19th century America. Often the study of an
instrument cannot be professionalized or even regularized because people
come to it from lives that may already have their share of non-negotiable
items. If you can adjust the priorities and put something down,
wonderful. If you can't, then you do what you can.

Ken

-------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth
Wolman
http://www.kenwolman.com

"i had not really expected to find any of the art world populated with
ex-murderers fascists green berets and now i know that you can find
anything in the art world and they can even become prophets' -- David
Antin, "Tuning"

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