oboeinsight

Since someone on Facebook (hi Woody!) brought up a song I’d never heard, “Flag of the Free, Fairest to See,” I just had to look to see if it was in an old song book we have.

Yep, it’s there.

And while looking through the book I (after all these years) read the Forward:

Heh. This book came out in 1909. I guess we have always thought of the current popular stuff as “less than”, eh?

And yes, most of the songs in “Songs That Never Grow Old” have … well … grown old.

Some nice classical music on the call to lull the analysts into asking well-mannered softball questions. Very peaceful. Waiting for the call that leads up with “Welcome to the Jungle.”

Because we are always well-mannered if we hear nice classical music!

I just read a blog — I actually posted a quote here first but then took it down, as I realized folks could search on it and fine the blog — where a choir director at a church wrote about a “Problem Child” publicly, and in a very negative way. She was glad he didn’t show up to a rehearsal. She was glad he hadn’t received the reminder the day before (did she not send it, I wonder?) An earlier blog post had a full paragraph about the trouble he causes.

Okay now … this is from a church choir director’s public blog. Sigh.

I am sure he is a difficult child, from all she wrote. I’m sure she has to deal with a lot of junk because of that. But I’m also sure she didn’t have to write about it so everyone could read it. Maybe I’m being overly cautious. Maybe I’m being overly picky. But oh well … “that’s just the way I am,” to quote my dear daddy.

I have, in the past, put up funny quote (very seldom, though). If I do that, I tell the student, because the reason something goes up is that I think it is very funny, clever, or astute. But I will never publicly call a student a “Problem Child”, nor do I have any I consider to be that … some are challenges, to be sure, but in all honesty I often find the challenging students the most fun! Sometimes my only goal with a student is to get her to laugh. Sometimes the only goal is to get him to learn to focus. My goals change as time progresses, too. I love that about teaching: every student is different. Every student changes and grows.

If I was to blog about students in such a negative manner you can bet that blog (or journal) would be set to private and only I would be able to read it. Even that is risky. As far as I’m concerned nothing online is truly private. Ever.

I’ve made mistakes on this blog. I’ve written things and either been told off or read something myself later in the day and quickly pulled it down because I was embarrassed by what I wrote. Heck, maybe I’ll even pull this down. But really, I hope I’ve learned to be more careful. And kinder. I think I can always be kinder.