This isn't a poem,
justam
Posts: 21,412
It's a mangle of a thought or two
This morning a student came to play a sonata for me, a piece she's been snailing her way through for months. I've been draggin' her along, piecing it together patiently, without letting her know how SLOWLY she's moving. All because I don't want to hurt her feelings.
Yet, today, as I sat there listening to something that is only better in the places I fixed last week, with NO effort of her own since...
I had a vision of my teacher...she would have exploded!! Right there, on the spot, the music woulda been thrown across the room. Hot hungarian words woulda been shooting-outta-that-mouth at an alarming rate, and the lid would have been slammed shut!! A coat woulda been thrown at the culpret for the disrespect involved.
To bring it back like this to me week after week!!!! It dawned on me, that, well... the older I get, the more I can see why she was sometimes like that!!!
These kids I've coddled have no drive in them at all. No push to do it better. They have no sense that they're draggin' their feet and lazing along because they don't see a reaction like this.
And truly, today, a person couldn't teach like that. Parents would think you're insane. I'd feel wrong doin' it because I always work to be kind and patient, but it did occur to me, that you'd only have to experience that once to fear it. And it occured to me that I can see why I know how to work.
Sometimes being nice and kind to people all the time, unfortunately, you don't always get their best. They don't even KNOW what they're capable of because they don't have anything to push against.
This morning a student came to play a sonata for me, a piece she's been snailing her way through for months. I've been draggin' her along, piecing it together patiently, without letting her know how SLOWLY she's moving. All because I don't want to hurt her feelings.
Yet, today, as I sat there listening to something that is only better in the places I fixed last week, with NO effort of her own since...
I had a vision of my teacher...she would have exploded!! Right there, on the spot, the music woulda been thrown across the room. Hot hungarian words woulda been shooting-outta-that-mouth at an alarming rate, and the lid would have been slammed shut!! A coat woulda been thrown at the culpret for the disrespect involved.
To bring it back like this to me week after week!!!! It dawned on me, that, well... the older I get, the more I can see why she was sometimes like that!!!
These kids I've coddled have no drive in them at all. No push to do it better. They have no sense that they're draggin' their feet and lazing along because they don't see a reaction like this.
And truly, today, a person couldn't teach like that. Parents would think you're insane. I'd feel wrong doin' it because I always work to be kind and patient, but it did occur to me, that you'd only have to experience that once to fear it. And it occured to me that I can see why I know how to work.
Sometimes being nice and kind to people all the time, unfortunately, you don't always get their best. They don't even KNOW what they're capable of because they don't have anything to push against.
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Comments
i had a professor who made more than a few students actually break down into tears during critiques. horrible woman, no need to take it THAT far....but absolutely, sometimes a student truly NEEDS to see/feel the utter disappointment, to KNOW they can do more, better, and that you know it too.
as in all things, i do believe there is a happy medium to be reached most of the time between hot head implosion and too kind patience. it's the finding of it that is quite frustrating for the teacher.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow