Klarinet Archive - Posting 000593.txt from 2004/10
From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Some more thoughts on embouchures
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:57:28 -0400
Forest,
If my original document was submitted as a publication, I could understand
why you would accuse me of attempting to dumb things down.
I submitted it for criticism and I got exactly what I asked for.
Additionally, I appreciate the criticism, it has enabled me to more clearly
state my arguments and has given me much to think about in terms of the
perception (both correct and incorrect) of what I have written. I'd like to
think someone else on the list has learned something in the process, but as
I have said to Ormondtoby privately, if anyone feels I have asked for more
from the list than I have given, then I apologize.
I don't quite see how working to be able to more clearly articulate my
argument to a wider audience is dumbing it down, though. I'm reminded of an
advanced collegiate math class I once took. The professor put a very
complicated formula (involving lots of Greek letters) on the board and
looked out at the mystified class. Before realizing what he was saying he
said "What's the matter? It's not like this is Greek.". One of the students
shyly raised his hand and said "Um, sir, actually it is Greek".
Trying to communicate my point without resorting to Greek is not dumbing it
down at all. Physics is, sadly, Greek to much of the world. I've said this
privately to Forest and I will say it publicly, I really do wish more
teachers were required to take science and math classes in order to become
music teachers. Until then, I'm just going to have to translate a lot of
Greek as best as I can.
-Adam
At 12:23 PM 10/21/2004 -0500, Forest Aten wrote:
>I don't understand why you want to dumb down so much of what you intend to
>teach. You've made several comments about students/people not being able to
>understand, or to the effect that students don't make efforts to learn if
>the learning process requires even the least amount of effort. Why?
>I have always found that most people only do what you expect from them. If
>you have low expectations you can expect that this will effect student
>behavior as much as having high expectations. Your stated objective to
>streamline and simplify the approach to teaching, making it easier for
>educators to work on common ground, could fail as a result of the low
>expectations required by this "brand" of education. I've seen so much
>oversimplification, misinformation and exclusion of information lately. Let
>me ask you a question. Why? This is not to say that all students will
>respond or be able to respond to the presentation of difficult material or
>ideas....but what you propose is not a reasonable course.
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