{"id":8058,"date":"2012-11-30T16:31:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T00:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=8058"},"modified":"2012-11-30T16:31:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T00:31:32","slug":"whats-wrong-with-students-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/30\/whats-wrong-with-students-these-days\/","title":{"rendered":"what’s wrong with students these days?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty amazing, really. I’ve been looking at the Facebook pages of my friends who teach. They teach regular school classes in public and private schools. They teach music classes in university settings. They teach music lessons privately in their own homes, at all different levels of student advancement. And they’re all complaining about their students. The common themes are inattentiveness, a sense of self-entitlement, lack of focus, no will power, no setting of goals for one’s self, lack of humility, and not studying\/practicing. For sure, these problems were endemic from the days that Plato first set quill to papyrus, but there seems to be a growing chorus about the poor quality of people<\/em> that are comprising these up and coming generations. So it was nice to read this quote from an interview with the hot cellist-of-the-moment Alisa Weilerstein:<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course like any kid I had many days when I didn\u2019t feel like practicing. But what (my parents) told me was, \u2018Well, this is what you want to do, you\u2019re only hurting yourself if you don\u2019t practice.\u2019 In a way I made it easy for them because I was absolutely sure from the very beginning that I wanted to be a musician. I never wavered from that, not even in my teenage years at all, I was completely sure. So I knew deep down that even on days that I didn\u2019t want to practice that I really was only hurting myself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don’t kids these days\u00a0want<\/em> anything? Besides looking like and\/or owning stuff like the evil and insufferable Kardashian spawn? When I set out to play something (and this goes way back to when I was first studying the violin, back in the dark ages), I want to sound good. I want to at least not make a fool out of myself and be humiliated in public. That’s the bare minimum. On top of that, I love music, and want to honor the work of the composer and present it as close to her conception of the piece as is possible given my current level of skill and expertise.<\/p>\n

I know that I’m better than some violists, and I also know that there are many others who are far better than I am. That’s where humility comes in. I play in a very good orchestra. There are other orchestras that are quite a bit better on a regular basis – and I need to be\u00a0cognizant\u00a0of that fact. I’m not God’s gift to the viola, and my orchestra isn’t the Berlin Philharmonic. I (and we) are just doing the best we can and always striving to do better.<\/p>\n

Got any thoughts on your students and what their attitudes are towards studying?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s pretty amazing, really. I’ve been looking at the Facebook pages of my friends who teach. They teach regular school classes in public and private schools. They teach music classes in university settings. They teach music lessons privately in their own homes, at all different levels of student advancement. And they’re all complaining about their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1057],"tags":[3210,3209,3682],"class_list":["post-8058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-music","tag-complaints","tag-students","tag-teaching-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-25Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":379,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/07\/09\/on-teaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":8058,"position":0},"title":"on teaching","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past few days (and to be honest, years) I've been discussing the vagaries of teaching with many of my colleagues. It's been an interesting discussion, and among the most common subjects has been the changing nature of the students we all teach. I guess it's not a totally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3620,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/15\/rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":8058,"position":1},"title":"rules","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I made a comment about a scheduling issue that came up this week - we had two rehearsals for a concert that takes place next Monday, with the dress rehearsal taking place on Monday morning.\u00a0 No other orchestral services take place in the intervening time period.\u00a0 I said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/17\/kjerstens-memorial\/","url_meta":{"origin":8058,"position":2},"title":"kjersten’s memorial","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This afternoon the first of two memorials to be held for Kjersten Oquist and Angela Svendsen was held. It was a remarkable event. There must have been at least 250 people in attendance at the Portland Golf Club in SW Portland. What a testament to the impact that Kjersten had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kjersten_program.JPG","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/kjersten_program.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2828,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/07\/nice-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":8058,"position":3},"title":"nice view","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is why (besides the great students I worked with this year) teaching at MAVI this year was so nice - a great view from my teaching room! 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The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/portlandsummerensembles.org\/images\/camp-pic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/portlandsummerensembles.org\/images\/camp-pic.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/portlandsummerensembles.org\/images\/camp-pic.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1278,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/15\/bill-preucil-masterclass\/","url_meta":{"origin":8058,"position":5},"title":"bill preucil masterclass","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wednesday afternoon the Oregon ASTA chapter presented, along with the Community Music Center, a masterclass conducted by Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster Bill Preucil.\u00c2\u00a0 The class took place at the recital hall of CMC, and there was a near-capacity crowd on hand to see the work of four excellent, young violinists and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/preucil.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}