|
I am glad to hear other people experienced the not so good high school music teacher. My D's hs teacher was new to the school her freshman year. We had heard some not so great things about him. But we ignored those and tried to be optimistic. He seemed to greatly favor the marching band students of which there were only 20. My D opted to play field hockey instead of doing marching band. She didn't make first chair until her senior year. Although she consistently beat the people in front of her at county and state competitions. He also seemed to favor those students whose parents volunteered all the time for the marching band. Fortunately she had a great supportive private teacher who saw her through college auditions. After my D's freshman year in hs her private teacher just threw up her hands and said "I don't know what else we can do to get you a higher chair. We just have to accept it and move on." She even taught some of the students that the band director rated higher than our D and she really couldn't believe it. My D also opted out of most of the competitions her senior year in order to prepare for college auditions. Her private teacher said "you have bigger fish to fry right now." She had an excellent elementary and middle school band teachers. I also was a little bitter because her hs teacher never assisted the students at all in preparing for any competitions, even the ones sponsored by the school system yet he always got the credit when they placed. I think her experiences, both good and bad, are why she wants to be a music teacher.
|