Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
I was contacted on Facebook by an old acquaintance from over 40 years ago, a fellow pianist. I looked at his information, saw his MySpace account, listened to a few tracks and heard him and his jazz trio playing the third movement of Brahms' 3rd.
As a result of that, I went to http://imslp.org/, downloaded it for free and am presently working on it.
All this took was a handful of mouse clicks. I still get a kick out of having the world's information at my finger tips.
We do live in interesting times.
Yamaha AvantGrand N1X | Roland RD 2000 | Sennheiser HD 598 headphones
Yes it's amazing to have instantaneous access to unlimited information and connection with others around the planet. It's time for me to get my hand off the clicker and in to the soil. Major garden prep and planting at this time of year.
I'm eagerly waiting to be paid in euros, from Sweden, Norway and England (in GBP), without having met with any of the people I worked for...
Amazing and trully weird at the same time!
I'm just wondering where this is going, though. Is it going to the alienation of everyone with everyone, perhaps? The soloing of the human being as a creature? Something else?
And yet all this technology can still not compare to the wonder of the natural world!! Maybe it's just because i grew up (and still growing up of course!) in the generation of technology that i am not very interested or at awe with it all. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that i suppose.
All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.
And yet all this technology can still not compare to the wonder of the natural world!! Maybe it's just because i grew up (and still growing up of course!) in the generation of technology that i am not very interested or at awe with it all. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that i suppose.
I was contacted on Facebook by an old acquaintance from over 40 years ago, a fellow pianist. I looked at his information, saw his MySpace account, listened to a few tracks and heard him and his jazz trio playing the third movement of Brahms' 3rd.
As a result of that, I went to http://imslp.org/, downloaded it for free and am presently working on it.
All this took was a handful of mouse clicks. I still get a kick out of having the world's information at my finger tips.
We do live in interesting times.
Brahms' 3rd what?
"And if we look at the works of J.S. Bach — a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity... -Debussy
"It's ok if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right."
And yet all this technology can still not compare to the wonder of the natural world!! Maybe it's just because i grew up (and still growing up of course!) in the generation of technology that i am not very interested or at awe with it all. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that i suppose.
The technology is fun and fast and makes many things easier, but it also makes things harder. I wonder about the overall cost vs benefits.
My high school students are not as adept at face-to-face interactions and I see a shocking increase in social immaturity, impatience and rudeness because of text messaging and email. They have no manners. They talk, argue, fall in love, breakup and have "sex" all through text messages. They have an inflated opinion of their self worth and demonstrate this by sharing the most intimate and uninteresting details of their lives via text messaging or tweets. My students resist any kind of critical thinking because they are used to instantly accessing information. "You mean you want me to think? That's too hard!". They are increasingly unable to follow verbal instructions because they are accustomed to getting full visual instructions and illustrations on their computers. They have become intellectually lazy and their lack of originality and imagination is tragic. They can't do basic math without a calculator. Their vocabulary and grammar are dismal. They worship the TV which, IMO is limited to watching people suffer or make fools of themselves. They all expect to become famous ala Bill Gates or Lady Gaga, without having to work for it.
I now have to read and carefully answer 50 emails a day. I have to file copies of every email conversation having to do with a student should someone start litigation. My students need visual stimulation to stay on task. I've made beautiful, animated, colorful Powerpoint presentations of my lessons that took me thousands of hours to put together. Heaven forbid if my projector or computer goes down and I have to write my lessons on the whiteboard. When this happens, they lose interest. Armageddon would begin if the main server went down. The entire district would collapse.
I think people had less stress in simpler times. I also think education was more intellectually demanding because information wasn't as easy to access.
P.S. I remember telephones with party lines and long distance calls with operators physically plugging in the wires. I remember black and white TV. About 20 years ago we rented a cabin in the woods for a week of quiet and relaxation. When my then young boys saw there was no dishwasher one of them said with sincere panic, "What are we going to dooooo?"
The technology is fun and fast and makes many things easier, but it also makes things harder. I wonder about the overall cost vs benefits.
My high school students are not as adept at face-to-face interactions and I see a shocking increase in social immaturity, impatience and rudeness because of text messaging and email. They have no manners. They talk, argue, fall in love, breakup and have "sex" all through text messages. They have an inflated opinion of their self worth and demonstrate this by sharing the most intimate and uninteresting details of their lives via text messaging or tweets. My students resist any kind of critical thinking because they are used to instantly accessing information. "You mean you want me to think? That's too hard!". They are increasingly unable to follow verbal instructions because they are accustomed to getting full visual instructions and illustrations on their computers. They have become intellectually lazy and their lack of originality and imagination is tragic. They can't do basic math without a calculator. Their vocabulary and grammar are dismal. They worship the TV which, IMO is limited to watching people suffer or make fools of themselves. They all expect to become famous ala Bill Gates or Lady Gaga.
I now have to read and carefully answer 50 emails a day. I have to file copies of every email conversation having to do with a student should someone start litigation. My students need visual stimulation to stay on task. I've made beautiful, animated, colorful Powerpoint presentations of my lessons that took me thousands of hours to put together. Heaven forbid if my projector or computer goes down and I have to write my lessons on the whiteboard. When this happens, they lose interest. Armageddon would begin if the main server went down. The entire district would collapse.
I think people had less stress in simpler times. I also think education was more intellectually demanding because information wasn't as easy to access.
P.S. I remember telephones with party lines and long distance calls with operators physically plugging in the wires. I remember black and white TV. About 20 years ago we rented a cabin in the woods for a week of quiet and relaxation. When my then young boys saw there was no dishwasher one of them said with sincere panic, "What are we going to dooooo?"
. . They all expect to become famous ala Bill Gates or Lady Gaga, without having to work for it. . .
I am in sympathy with your post as a whole. I'm not sure it's fair to Mr. Gates to mention him in the same breath with that other celebrity. Whatever else one may say about him, he is very intelligent and has worked hard.
Scary isn't it? These entitled sloths will one day become our doctors, lawyers, senators and scientists. Good grief.
To be fair, it wasn't any better 20+ years ago when I was in High School. No one wanted to think critically then either. Teachers had to go to extremes to get people to do so.
I now have to read and carefully answer 50 emails a day. I have to file copies of every email conversation having to do with a student should someone start litigation. My students need visual stimulation to stay on task. I've made beautiful, animated, colorful Powerpoint presentations of my lessons that took me thousands of hours to put together. Heaven forbid if my projector or computer goes down and I have to write my lessons on the whiteboard. When this happens, they lose interest. Armageddon would begin if the main server went down. The entire district would collapse.
I think it all started going downhill when they invented the device that holds 5 pieces of chalk. (lazy music teachers)
While I hear all these complaints about "today's youth", I think a huge part of the problem is with the "adults" that design the curriculum and build the entire system. So lets not put all the blame on the youth of today or whatever. You give them cell phones (and other technology) and you make policies which say that they can call the cops on their parents if they get yelled at or whatever (I'm exaggerating of course but you know what I mean), then you are responsible for what ensues. We are not talking about human beings that are born evil or anything here. We are talking about human beings, who after interacting with their current environments, turn into "entitled sloths". So who really is responsible for this? The easiest thing to do is keep calling these kids spoilt brats and entitled sloths.. but who were the ones that spoilt them in the first place? Never ever is a current generation to blame for things that go wrong at that point in time. Its always the second generation (or whatever you call that) that needs to accept responsibility.
While I hear all these complaints about "today's youth", I think a huge part of the problem is with the "adults" that design the curriculum and build the entire system.
Curriculum is designed by administrators who want to appear innovative even if the new curriculum is garage. Teachers are not given a choice even if they know what works.
Quote
you make policies which say that they can call the cops on their parents if they get yelled at or whatever (I'm exaggerating of course but you know what I mean), then you are responsible for what ensues.
Who is this "you" you are talking about. Most of today's parents have demonstrated to me that they either don't care about their child's education or are more interested in appeasing their child and having them "get" good grades rather than earning them and actually achieving. Often, the first person in a child's life to set standards and mete out consequences is the poor teacher who gets slammed because the kid's self esteem has been damaged. The kids are entitled sloths because that is what the parents created. It's easier to cave in to a kid than toe the line. (I didn't cave into my own kids and it wasn't always pleasant but now they are hard working and responsible.) Just talk to any employer about the difficulty in finding good employees. These kids expect confetti just for showing up to work. They want second chances when they are late. They don't want to work hard. They are lazy and poor producers.
Quote
So who really is responsible for this?
I say it's parents who want to be their child's friend instead of their mentor and role model. And on the other side of the coin are the parents who don't care. It's also the administrators who want to look good to the public so they can stay in office. They can't discipline recalcitrant students because the consequences available to them are not effective. They don't back the teachers but give in to the parents because they are afraid of litigation. Please don't blame the teachers. We are the ones in the trenches dealing with all these neglected and spoiled brats. We have to do our jobs every day, with a smile, while teaching asinine curriculum in overloaded classes filled with students who have failed every class since 5th grade but are promoted to 9th and 10th. Give me a break.
Yes, every generation complains about the next, but this time I think we are in for some real problems because this new generation doesn't believe in hard work and earning their way.
Deborah, do they have online classes in your district? I was very surprised when my cousin told me that she took English in an online class just because her English teacher was known to be a tough marker. The tough chem teacher in my old high school had half his class drop out to take an online chem class. I worked really hard in that class and won the department award. These classes cost money, though, so they are only a privilege for the more well-off.
