When is prescription sound?
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
What a hangover!
Hey all!
Forgive any incoherance, academy Christmas dinner last night, too much rich food, too many fgbs, late out of bed and still have to do some shopping and pick up the house....
Well, who should be making the rules? Larry is right in asking this question. Who said that the feet and legs should be placed and moved in the unnatural manner used in classical ballet? Who decided that it would be slightly different in creating an Aragonese jota? And what about those rapid steps in tap dance class?
Who said that the scale has seven or twelve or tweny-six notes? Who decided that the piano should have 88(?) keys and the guitar six strings? That this combination of notes is an acceptable harmonic arrangement while that other is New Age?
I'll leave painting and sculpture out of this one for now....
What I am saying is that, despite the material, or perhaps because of the material, what is necessary is the discipline. What is the best to offer to the student, who decides that? My bosses tried to decide for two years and have finally realized that what I offer best is what is best to offer and they leave me alone. Despite what may be prescribed by grammar books, or the Unemployment agency, or the Cambridge Exams, in the end it is the individual teacher who acts as informant. Some things work (structural understanding before oral production) with some people and other things work (oral production before structural awareness) with others. Language that comes from the tongue, lips and teeth is not at all more complex than language that comes from bodily expression or from blowing into a pipe or plucking at some strings or beating on a drum. All of these forms of expression have at their heart a desire to share, but the sharing is useless if a common ground is not found between he/she who expresses and he/she who wants to appreciate.
Uuff, going to go make myself a nice hot cup of herb tea.
peace,
revel.
Forgive any incoherance, academy Christmas dinner last night, too much rich food, too many fgbs, late out of bed and still have to do some shopping and pick up the house....
Well, who should be making the rules? Larry is right in asking this question. Who said that the feet and legs should be placed and moved in the unnatural manner used in classical ballet? Who decided that it would be slightly different in creating an Aragonese jota? And what about those rapid steps in tap dance class?
Who said that the scale has seven or twelve or tweny-six notes? Who decided that the piano should have 88(?) keys and the guitar six strings? That this combination of notes is an acceptable harmonic arrangement while that other is New Age?
I'll leave painting and sculpture out of this one for now....
What I am saying is that, despite the material, or perhaps because of the material, what is necessary is the discipline. What is the best to offer to the student, who decides that? My bosses tried to decide for two years and have finally realized that what I offer best is what is best to offer and they leave me alone. Despite what may be prescribed by grammar books, or the Unemployment agency, or the Cambridge Exams, in the end it is the individual teacher who acts as informant. Some things work (structural understanding before oral production) with some people and other things work (oral production before structural awareness) with others. Language that comes from the tongue, lips and teeth is not at all more complex than language that comes from bodily expression or from blowing into a pipe or plucking at some strings or beating on a drum. All of these forms of expression have at their heart a desire to share, but the sharing is useless if a common ground is not found between he/she who expresses and he/she who wants to appreciate.
Uuff, going to go make myself a nice hot cup of herb tea.
peace,
revel.