I’m thinking of Bill Cosby as I write that title. More importantly, Bill Cosby as he is depicted on Family Guy.
My students often ask great questions. I had quite the range of questions in my teaching yesterday.
Let me preface by saying I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with my forehead lately. A few weeks ago I got a pimple on my forehead. No big deal, right? Except, knowing me, I can’t leave it alone, and keep picking at it. Suffice it to say, the scab is still there, and yesterday I needed to have a band-aid over it. I figured, whatever, so it looks crazy but it’s better than the alternative.
Every single student asked me about it. And I didn’t really want to go into what was really under the band-aid because I was a little embarrassed plus it’s mildly disgusting…and none of them would let it go. They refused to accept my answer of simply having a "boo-boo" under my band-aid. They wanted to know more details. How did it happen? How big was it? Did somebody else do it to me or did I do it myself? Was it the cat? They just wouldn’t let it go. I guess an adult having a band-aid on her forehead is a pretty big deal!
(quick google image search for cats and band-aids…PSA: animals have claws. deal with it.)
On the other end of the spectrum, sometimes my students ask really good, interesting, unique questions. I’m teaching one of my students vibrato and we were working on the exercises yesterday. He stopped and asked, "Do you use vibrato in orchestra?" I said "Why do you ask?" and he said, very thoughtfully, "If everybody is vibrating at different speeds, won’t that sound bad?" I had a really hard time answering that question! Since the answer is both yes, and no. I ended up talking a little bit about chamber music and matching vibrato, but I may have just confused him. I just thought it was a great question. He then followed up with "Should I be practicing more than ten minutes a day?" To which I replied, "YES" since I didn’t realize he was only practicing ten minutes a day! I guess I need to ask more questions about practicing….
HAHA, LOVE that “quote” at the end. What a funny post, too! You’re so right about kids NOT letting things go. Sometimes it’s exhausting–but it also keeps me accountable. I noticed that I do a LOT more careful thinking about playing the violin since teaching–more than I ever did growing up, which is sad.
Oh, and I’ve also had that shock when either a student or a parent asked “Should I be practicing more than 5-10 min a day?” WHAT.
My husband freaked OUT the first time our cat scratched him. “You need to clip her claws!” HAHAHAHA. No. I told him to deal with it, because that’s what cats do.
Yes, kids say the darndest things – and don’t we get a laugh out of it! I like the way they come up with unique questions about everything under the sun, including boo-boos. 🙂