MAC Week 4 Comment 2 Brian Thomas

Brian's Post

Week 4 - Reading: New Ideas

I am truly amazed at the gift of working with people that Benjamin Zander has. His story in chapter nine was amazing.Knowing how tough students can be on performances, especially classical music concerts it’s truly a testament to his ability to engage a crowd, no matter who they are comprised of. I must say that I was inspired by this chapter to really try to create a spark in my classroom next year with the endless possibilities of learning.

I appreciated the apology story about Cora the violinist. I think it was a great reminder of many of the other points in the book but most importantly to remain humble, appreciative, and understanding of other people’s situations and circumstances before forming an opinion or casting any form of judgment.

The story about the teenage orchestra in Sao Paolo was just great. I can recall chaperoning situations that I had challenging students and issues and also recall responding to them aggressively early in my career. However, I learned that dealing with the person and the cause for the action is much more effective and sensitive. I really liked this story because it gave me another great strategy for overcoming those challenging chaperoning situations.

My Response

Brian, I also share you your sentiments regarding the crowd Benjamin had to contend with.  The perception of the people was such that these lower class students would have no appreciation for the fine arts.  Benjamin, of course, did not just magically conduct and everybody was all of the sudden amazed.  He did a lot of preparation to get this desired effect.  He put in thousands of dollars of his own money to get the projection he needed.  In the same way, I know I spent my own money for a laptop so I can use multimedia to keep students engaged.  If my classroom did not come with a projector, I believe I would have to buy one.  Of course, engagement is the best classroom management strategy.  The misbehavior often comes from a lack of engagement.  I thought your insight regarding the anger in chaperoning situations was interesting.  My wife works in a Family Law and Criminal Law court room.  She said that some of the toughest kids get talked to with more of a calm demeanor from the judge.  This is because the students are used to getting yelled at, so the calm tone seems to get their attention more.  However, the anger approach tends to work best on kids who are generally good, and so a quick yell keeps them on track.  Although anger seems to only work in the short term.  I believe if Benjamin came out those kids with authority and anger, the results would have been quite disastrous!