Comments on: songs on white keys

By: elfenbein klaviermusik notes » Blog Archive » In Defense of Key Signatures, Accidentals, Double Sharps and Double Flats

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:38:18 +0000

[...] have, in another post on this site, written about the issue of simplification, and the fact that there’s a right way and then [...]

By: Sibylle

Sibylle — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:33:39 +0000

It reminds me of how, when I was a young child, I learned to count: I got all the way to one hundred, and then, in order to simplify (and bolster my self-esteem?), I was taught to continue, “one hundred, two hundred, three hundred,” and so on. I was so proud.

Imagine my embarrassment and subsequent anger when, some time later, I-don’t-remember-who heard me count and laughed at me, “That’s not how one counts!! It goes ‘one hundred, one hundred one, one hundred two,’…”

I wish whoever taught me to count the wrong way had had the guts to say something like, “Honey, beyond ‘one hundred’ is too difficult just yet; we’ll save that for later” rather than teach me incorrectly just because I was pestering him/her to teach me more.

By: Mark Nichols

Mark Nichols — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:09:12 +0000

Not only is a “teacher” who doesn’t fully explain concepts because “it would be too difficult and the students wouldn’t get it” doing her students a disservice by not teaching them, she is doing harm by implying they lack something necessary to understand the concept. It is the *teachers* responsibility to prepare the students to grasp new concepts and incorporate them into their understanding of the subject at hand.

The unspoken message that “you aren’t good enough” is hugely damaging to self esteem.