Posted by Ted on May 13, 2003 at 23:04:14:
In Reply to: Teachers vs. Students and Schooling posted by serious question on May 13, 2003 at 21:29:53:
Very valid questions that I have experienced first-hand. Yes, I think some teachers do too much to pad the confidence of their students. I suspect this is spillover from our laughable "I'm OK, You're OK" education system. Some profs are too kind and would never dream of risking their student's 'self-esteem', particularly with a student who struggles and lacks talent. These students, whose professors tell them they are doing well and likely to succeed in the professional market when in fact the opposite is true, are doing themselves no favours by continuing to slough along at a mediocre pace, but how can we expect them to motivate themselves if not through instruction? The answer has always been that the best students are self-motivated, and one could even go so far as to argue that a student that can't self-motivate DESPITE an over-praising teacher should not attempt to make it as a professional musician.
This is a cruel situation, as is our business. The more kind-hearted alternative which is seeing action at many schools is encourage these mediocre students and develop them into only 'decent' players. These 'decent' players are in fact doomed, because as we all know it is only the exceptional players that survive. Perhaps music schools should include a mandatory freshman course: Reality Check 101.