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Re: teachers

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-05-15 22:56

While I have no experience as a music teacher and I'm an amateur as a musician, I do want to butt in here a bit. I'm sure Mark knows way more about this than I do, but years ago, before there was any such thing as Skype, I volunteered in an after-school day care program (in a room in a community center) for kids with physical and mental disabilities who needed somewhere safe to stay until their parents came home from work. Abilities varied a great deal, from kids who were learning to read and write to kids who were uncommunicative and close to bedridden.

The volunteers did not consider ourselves babysitters. We wanted to help these kids find their potential and reach it. Some of the kids had Down Syndrome. It seemed to me that one-on-one interaction was important: looking the kids in their eyes, speaking to them directly and encouraging two-way communication. My gut feeling was that these kids understood when someone patronized them. They couldn't verbalize that impression the way two toots did, and I wasn't always sure the kids resented being patronized -- usually they just got quiet and seemed sad or distant, not angry -- but something told me those kids *knew*. They learned much better when treated with dignity and respect by a teacher who spoke to them directly, instead of talking around the kids, to their parents or guardians, as if the kids themselves were inanimate. Maybe Skype would work, too -- but based on those experiences back in the day, I just have a feeling that a live teacher right there in the room would work better.

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.

Post Edited (2016-05-15 22:56)

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teachers new

two toots

2016-05-14 18:28