posted
I am so steamed about this. We went to my daughter's band performance tonight. She is in the fifth grade band. It was also the sixth and seventh and the middle school jazz band, with a couple of ensembles and one solo performance.
Before the solo performance, tha band teacher gave a little spiel. (At the last ensemble performance, he told us that in 28 years, he had never seen such a musician. And she is phenomenal, but I wondered how all the older music students and band members felt, who now knew they were second fiddle forever. So to speak.)
Tonight, he added the future twenty years of students to his list.
"Parents, if you are around for the next twenty years, you will never see a performance like this."
OK, so now every student in the past, and now twenty years into the future, will never measure up.
She is in eighth grade, and about the sweetest girl ever. She asked my daughter's band how old they were. When they told her they were fifth graders, she said, "Wow! I wish I had been that good in fifth grade!"
I just hope they listened to her, and not him.
The thing is, her performance spoke for itself. The fact that she won a gold medal in a music competition spoke for itself. But why not use her to boost the children's hopes, rather than squash them?
"If you practice as hard as she does, you could be really phenomenal, too."
[ May 07, 2005, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
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posted
I do hope the school administration was present at this performance, and I especially hope that there are a LOT of phone calls and letters generated. I can understand his being impressed by her abilities, but there are certainly much better ways of expressing it, and I don't think anything should have been said at the performance at all, much less with such superlatives.
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posted
When I was in highschool, I played trumpet in the school concert band, as well as studying piano and voice outside of the school. I did a lot of vocal performance with the school as well, so the bandmaster (also a contract music lecturer) was well aware of my training and development across all my instrumental and vocal training.
At the end of highschool I was auditioning for the two of the best vocal training schools in the country, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the University of Queensland's music program.
As I was about to audition, I went to see this guy for some advice, and he told me not to even bother, that I didn't stand a hope in hell of getting into either.
I auditioned for both anyway, and got offers for every place at every university I auditioned for, about four in total. I had UQ first, over the Con, because my vocal teacher at the time thought that I wanted to be an academic musician, rather than the performer that I really wanted to be. Not only did I get offers of places, but I had the head of the Conservatorium's vocal department calling me every couple of days asking me to change them to my first preference.
So I went to see this guy for some more "advice". You should've seen the look on his face when I told him I was trying to decide which offer to accept, and that the Conservatorium (at that time the absolute best institute for classical voice in the country) was being quite insistent.
Moral - ignore bitter & twisted teachers who never made to anything better than one level above their own students.
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Give the guy a break. Its more likely that he was just really really impressed with the student and expressed it clumsily. There's no malicious intent there. No need to generate hundreds of letters to the school, just need to boost the other students moral in other ways to the side.
The guy may be an awesome and perfectly appreciative teacher who was just really wowed by that student and badly expressed it.
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Well, Alcon, I realize he was appreciative of her incredible talent. However, his delivery was really inappropriate. More important, the girl herself looked very uncomfortable both times he said something. The kids(seventh grade) were rolling their eyes (brace yourself) to beat the band.
So I will write a letter, and compliment him for all the good work he does, and say what a fabulous performance she gave, and then just ask that he highlight her talent as a goal for the other children to attain.
In fact, I should have written the letter the last time. Then maybe he would have been a little bit more sensitive to a town's worth of students, and would have avoided the heat I know he is going to get at some point.
[ May 08, 2005, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
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I just thought people were being a little harsh. I've known teachers who say stuff like that who were wonderful teachers. And they tended to say it about a lot of their students. Its not really a big deal. Speaking as a student, it hardly 'demolishes' hope for the future. Especially by the time one reaches 7th grade. 7th grade isn't that far behind me, and I very much doubt the comment bothered those 7th graders much. The eye roll is probably more accurately interpreted as: "We all know she's awesome teach, now quit embarrassing her and let her play and get out of the lime light." or something similar.
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posted
It could be worse. The choir Teacher at our school is constantly belittleing all the kids. Just the other day I heard he had sent a girl out to the hall and told her to have a seat on the floor. When she complained that the floor was dirty he told her, "That's where you belong, on the floor with all the dirt and filth."
He has been written up by a number of kids for things like that. He has told kids they smell, they're stupid, they're fat... the list goes on and on.
So I guess I wouldn't be too upset. At least your band directer is praising her. I don't think he means to make the other kids feel infearior, he just is really excited about a girl who has real potential to be great. As a coach I know I have felt the same way about kids too. It's exciting and in no way effects how I feel about my other athletes.
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Sounds like some of these music teachers know Natalie's rude dance program director. :sigh:
Is there something about the arts that encourages people to be jerks? No more than sports brings out the worst in folks, I suppose.
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quote: It could be worse. The choir Teacher at our school is constantly belittleing all the kids.
Seriously. Nothing is worse than my HS choir teacher. Ask anyone here who goes to my former HS. Stryker, breyerchic, back me up here.
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I think a nice letter explaining how his words of praise can be interpreted by all the other kids and parents is a good idea.
I just remembered my music teacher from grade school. She always focused on the kids who did well and ignored the kids who needed help. Like the year we were supposed to learn to play the recorder. Within a week she had figured out which kids were most advanced and spent all her time on them. We got to hear them perform and get praised and get extra teaching time. Meanwhile the rest of us never advanced any further than we had after week one. What was the point of trying when she wasn't listening, wasn't helping, wasn't caring? I thought I was a failure for years until I realized it was her failure, not mine.
There was a special fifth grade choir every year. At the end of fourth grade she made us all sing for her individually so she could pick the choir members. She wasn't very nice about telling those of us that stank. Afterwards I made All Region choir in both 8th grade and 9th grade and was in the high school choir for three years and I always wanted to go back and tell her... but it would have made me sick to talk to her again. Sometimes I truly felt invisible in her class in a way I've never experienced again.
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posted
I have to atree with alcon at least a bit, I think you might write a letter, but the kids could get to a point where they appriciate it. I know that when I was in 7th grade there was a girl in orchestra that rode the bus to the high school everyday for orchestra, and though some people might have thought it was unfair she was "treated better" she was very good, and by high school her leadership abilities and her skill at violin did prove she could be better than most of us, but our teacher tried very hard to never say "she is better than every student ever" it was more a "she's the best right now, you can't say she's not she's gotten all sorts of awards (which I can't think of right now, but when my brain is less fried I will start screaming them)"
Raia, I do agree there were some things your chior teacher said and did that made her really hurt people, I didn't hear lots of it but I know it happened, I tried to stay as far from that room as possible, but she really does like me. (and I do not go to your high school ,I used to)
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wow, I didn't realize that everyone had bad music directors! Mine is the same way, picking favorites and ignoring the rest, and discouraging the kids she doesn't like or is jealous of.
I think that's one of the main problems, if the teacher started out believing that they were going to star on Broadway, but ended up teaching in a high school, they get jealous of the kids who really could make it.
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This man is very nice, and dedicated. Heck, he has to be to get through the first few months of fifth grade band.
He does encourage the kids, he is just super excited about this girl. Nothing should be taken away from her at all. It was just the predicting of the futre twenty years that bothered me the most.
Turns out she practices three hours a day. So all he really has to say to the kids is "Practice three hours a day and you can be good, too." That would weed out any child who has any other interest in life, and makes them see that, if they wanted, they could be good.
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I do hope the school administration was present at this performance, and I especially hope that there are a LOT of phone calls and letters generated. I can understand his being impressed by her abilities, but there are certainly much better ways of expressing it, and I don't think anything should have been said at the performance at all, much less with such superlatives.
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