Klarinet Archive - Posting 000559.txt from 2004/11

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] On a new note
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:26:01 -0500

On 19 Nov, skywinkle <skywinkle@-----.net> wrote:

> kimi wrote:
>
> > On a new note:
> >
> > Just thought you all would find this interesting being this topic has
> > taken so many turns.
> >
> > Yesterday another instrument went missing. Guess what instrument it was?
> > A clarinet! Imagine that.
> >
> > I feel bad for the young person that found their clarinet stolen
> > yesterday. This now makes it the third instrument in just a half a
> > semester that has gone missing. A real shame.
>
> Theft is theft, even if under the pretext of "borrowing". It cannot and
> should not be tolerated, not by a student, and certainly not by an adult.
> Were my daughter's instrument, or any part of it, deliberately "borrowed"
> by another student without express permission, that student would be making
> her explanations to the dean of students or the principal, and I would be
> paying a personal visit to the student's parents. An adult doing the same
> thing would be explaining to the police. From what I see below, it looks
> to me like this band director's lack of ethical guidance is continuing to
> bear fruit...
>
> Bruce

Yes, but as I've now come to see, Bruce, the point is -- you shouldn't have
to do any of that.

There is a silly, liberal notion that we can deal with such situations on a
case by case basis. That places an intolerable stress on wronged children
and parents. They cannot deal with the criminal element in our schools face
to face -- they are not equipped for such a task, nor should they have to be.
No, what is needed is a strong, authoritarian framework that will stamp out
even the possibility that such an act might enter a potentially delinquent
child's mind.

Remember, we're not just dealing with one event. What might seem to some a
'trivial' incident involving a joint today, if allowed to be glossed over by
a facile apology, will become real crime tomorrow, as Kathy has pointed out.

*And* the newly stolen instrument was a clarinet! Imagine that indeed! How
many similarly significant events have to occur, before people wake up? How
much more outraged, self-righteous complaining has to be done here on this
list, before we start to take our responsibilities seriously?

What we have to realise is that schoolchildren have no notion of personal
property, or even of right and wrong, as we adults do. It's no use appealing
to them. They need to have the relevant concepts *instilled* -- yes, and by
force if necessary.

In the band, as Bruce says, they must submit to the ethical guidance of the
band director. He or she is -- or should be! -- the moral compass that
informs their musical development.

In sum, it's better to give these delinquents a short, sharp shock at the
beginning, before real evil can take hold.

I think Kathy is quite right not to have told us what further occurred with
regard to the 'criminal little Miss' in this sorry saga. After all, more
details, or even a successful resolution of the case, might have meant that
the shameful confusion in our minds in general about such matters would not
have been exposed.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

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