there seem to be several issues confused here; 1.) the right of the
student as a customer to be satisfied. 2.) the right of a teacher (as
worker) to be paid for work done. and 3.) the reputations of teachers based
on the product of their students.
(btw, the punctuation of the above was probably influenced by A&E's show
on timothy leary blaring in the background.)
my only real concern in this discussion is the first one. in the
business of vocal instruction, there is no more important concern than the
satisfaction of the student. to place any concern above the satisfaction of
the student is to pervert the purpose of teaching voice.
the right of a teacher to be paid for work done is due any worker of any
kind. if NATS assists teachers in getting their just wage, more power to
them.
concerning teachers' reputations, i would guess that i am not the only
one to witness teachers with great reputations do nothing more than 'put on a
show', leaving one to wonder how they ever got that reputation, while
wondering why a great teacher with real ability as a teacher has absolutely
no reputation. it usually turns out that the former is a genius in
self-promotion while the latter is an utter moron in that regard and, quite
often, is usually the first to point out their own shortcomings. (that is
not to say that all reputations, good, bad and non-existent, are unearned.)
the idea that a student owes a teacher some kind of fidelity, as if they
were married, other than paying the bill and, at least, giving that teacher's
ideas a fair shot (and i'm not even convinced that every teacher even
deserves a fair shot if their ideas appear to be totally unpersuasive) is to
prevent that student from acquiring knowledge. to not encourage a student
to extend their study beyond the confines of a studio makes that teacher
guilty of the claim 'i have all the answers'. on the other hand, the
teacher who says "read everything you can" and "if another teacher says or
does something that 'turns the light on', go find out what they have to say",
that teacher opens up a dialogue with that student that both can learn and
grow from.
fear of income loss is not calmed by locking one's students up at night
but by having something of value to offer them. to me, this seems painfully
obvious but, maybe i'm over-simplifying things.
mike
|
