Hello Ardith,   
      
   On Sun 2039-Feb-06 22:26, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   AH>           Sounds familiar.  I taught theory & expected my students   
   AH> to work with me to produce the best sound we could achieve together   
   AH> even though my principal said "Just keep 'em playing... that's what   
   AH> they want at this age!"  I was never as popular as the band teacher   
   AH> at his former school.  But a few years later one of my ex-students   
   AH> told me, with some amazement, that the kids in his band class at   
   AH> senior high who hadn't been in my class had no experience with 5/4.    
   AH> Another followed in my footsteps & eventually became a band teacher   
   AH> himself.  AFAIC one can't be sure who will become a professional   
   AH> musician or a teacher or a staunch supporter of the arts later on &   
   AH> I owe it to my students to do my best....  :-)    
      
   INdeed, and a friend of mine went in with much the same   
   approach, he was a music major instead of pedagogy, but fell into teaching.    
   YEars later after his death I met a lady   
   while helping do a bit of training for folks going into a   
   program mentoring the newly blinded who wished, or needed to remain in their   
   homes instead of going to a facility to   
   learn about their blindness.  This lady's daughter was one   
   of his pupils and sang his praises for getting the kids   
   actually interested in learning about music.   
      
      
   AH>           Some folks end up as teachers only after they realize they   
   AH> can't make a living as professional musicians...   
      
   YEah there's that too.  I play three or four instruments   
   well enough, but I'm not suited to teaching well.  I don't   
   have the patience for it, and part of that patience is an   
   impatience with myself if I"M not getting an important   
   concept through to a pupil.  That impatience with myself for not being able to   
   put it across manifests itself in the   
   pupil perceiving I'm frustrated with him/her.   
      
   A friend of mine however says I'm a very thorough and   
   patient teacher, but that was in another subject, not the   
   music.  I"ve come to the conclusion that maybe I can teach   
   radio theory, or radio operating techniques, etc. but just   
   am not temperamentally suited to teaching music.  THat fits   
   too, as I'm the guy who will walk out on a bad performance,   
   or a musician failing to tune his instrument properly.   
      
      
   RW>  YEp, and part of that was his admission that he should   
   RW>  have expected that I'd work out an alternative signaling   
   RW>  arrangement with my neighbors and been able to put two and   
   RW>  two together.  I think he was a bit disappointed that his   
   RW>  wife didn't correlate one action with another.   
      
      
   AH>           Perhaps he accepted her interpretation without question...   
   AH> regardless of how well she knew each individual student and/or how   
   AH> much she knew about the technical aspects of conducting...   
      
     Would agree with those, and that's part   
   of what got him, he should have been thinking that far in   
   his mind.  Later on he told me he'd always figured I had   
   some sort of signaling arrangement in place with my   
   neighbors.   
      
   because   
   AH> I think it is to his credit that he was educable.  I'm also taking   
   AH> into account when these events probably occurred.  Years ago, the   
   AH> average schoolteacher had no training or experience WRT special   
   AH> needs.  Your teacher may have been a pioneer, just as Dallas & I   
   AH> were, with very few positive role models & with very little support.   
      
   HE admitted to me he didn't even think about some of those   
   ramifications at first.  HIS main concern was getting music   
   to me with enough lead time that I could get it in braille.   
   I think he also spoke with the band director at the school   
   for the blind, and understood that I'd work out the tools I   
   needed to perform competently.   
      
   AH>           Reading between the lines... I gather you & I are about   
   AH> the same age. As it happens, our own daughter attended the   
   AH> elementary school a girl I babysat during my late teens wasn't   
   AH> allowed to attend because she was legally blind.  A lot has changed   
   AH> since then.  I reckon you encountered some of the same problems   
   AH> we've encountered, however.  The idea that folks who are "different"   
   AH> want to do what they're doing is still new & unfamiliar to many   
   AH> other folks.  And we often find ourselves battling misconceptions   
   AH> such as the idea that everybody who uses a wheelchair is exactly   
   AH> like whoever else gets most of the publicity... (sigh).    
      
   Right, that's a big part of it.  Another though is that   
   often in these days when inclusion is the norm the systems   
   are set up to be inflexible, and therefore don't force the   
   student to think about his or her own needs and therefore   
   develop the tools to independently get the work done.  ASk   
   many blind college students, and they'll tell you that the   
   disability services office on campus is both bane and boon.   
   YOu'd be surprised the number of blind college grads that do not have   
   effective techniques for hiring training   
   supervising, and paying readers.  Even if rehab or somebody   
   else picks up the tab good programs put the power to hire   
   fire and train, as well as the responsibility for submitting vouchers and   
   other requisite paperwork to get the reader   
   paid directly on the user of the reader.   
      
      
   MOre later, I have to run a network on the ham radio later   
   this morning so better organize myself .   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   --- timEd 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)