From our agony aunt’s mailbox:
Dear Alma
I’m 21, at college doing pre-med.
For recreation, I play the violin. I have a really good teacher and I have made huge progress this year. I can handle a Mozart sonata without sounding like an unoiled gate.
But there’s a downside. My teacher is a born-again Christian. She is a perfectly rational person but she seems to have the idea that it’s her duty on earth to convert me.
I come from a secular Jewish family, never went to temple, wasn’t bothered by God any more than my parents are. This teacher thinks I ought to be.
I tell her Mozart didn’t believe in much and Brahms was definitely agnostic. She replies: their music came from God.
How do I handle this?
Angus the agnostic
Dear A the A,
Sounds quite uncomfortable. Musical organizations, from
orchestras to schools to chamber ensembles, are healthy mixtures of all sorts of people. Ages, genders, backgrounds, and beliefs. All organizations are built out of a web of relationships, and finding a way to respect each other’s differences is paramount.
It’s wonderful that you can survive a Mozart Sonata – even, it seems, enjoying the experience! It means that you not only have a teacher who understands how to encourage you, how to teach you, but also that you will be a patient and caring doctor (in essence, a teacher or mentor to your patients’ health and well-being).
I advise you to turn this experience on its head, and imagine that you are the doctor (teacher) and your violin teacher is the patient (student). What language would your patient use that would convince you, the doctor, to change your method of teaching? And, under the obvious inappropriateness of your teacher’s comments, what could she be looking for in your playing?
A deeper commitment? A willingness to be more open, to look for inspiration from elsewhere?
Perhaps, rather thank just blasting her with the obvious “the school has a policy that prohibits teachers from discussing religious affiliations”, you can start by having a discussion on what she is looking for from you, and explaining that you would like to find other language to search for that which doesn’t include religious content.
A the A, try to forge a path which preserves your most excellent learning environment while also protecting your opinions and beliefs.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
The post Dear Alma, Help! My violin teacher wants to save my soul appeared first on Slippedisc.
