Comments on: Branford Marsalis’ Take on Students Today

By: Akma » Duly Noted

Akma » Duly Noted — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:23:34 +0000

[...] Joey linked to an interview that Branford Marsalis gave, in which he submits that “all [students] want to hear how good they are and how talented they are. Most of them aren’t really willing to work to the degree to live up to that.” Without disrespect to Marsalis (or Accordion Guy), I’d want to note that I’ve had opportunities to teach such students — but that I’ve also had opportunities to teach eager, hard-working, diligent students. I sympathize with Marsalis’s frustration at trying to suggest to complacent students that they had a lot further to go, that they do not in fact already have a handle on everything they need to know. That’s a perilous claim; it’s not formally different from saying, “I disregard everything you have learned so far, and will now instruct you on how to be more like me.” Critics justly denounce the effrontery of simply writing off students’ previous experience; we know of too many pedagogical narcissists, who operate on the premise that “if you didn’t learn it from me, it doesn’t count.” And yet — Branford Marsalis can demonstrate a track record of significant accomplishment to back up his harsh assessment of his students’ attitude. Whatever one may think about his bluntness, he has put in the hard work and shown the capacity for excellence that back up his words. And it’s certainly possible — as it always has been — that some proportion of students approaches their education as though they were in a position to dictate the terms of what must be taught, what may be expected. No easy answers. Parts of the difficulty lie in an educational culture that, like the financial culture that has so dramatically collapsed around us, has in instances tended to confuse hypothetical (aspirational, sentimental) benchmarks for actual accomplishments. If I read Marsalis charitably, he may be indicting an educational culture that awards As for effort, for niceness, on the principle that “everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” That much, I dare say, constitutes a genuine problem that teachers should take quite seriously — at the same time that they’re [...]

By: “Before the Music Dies”: The Full Documentary — The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century : Joey deVilla's Personal Blog

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:55:11 +0000

[...] an earlier article, Branford Marsalis’ Take on Students Today, I posted a video in which jazz.funk sax man Branford Marsalis talked about his music students. His [...]

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:29:14 +0000

In my experience, what he says is true — and extremely well-said, my god. But it stems from a profound sense of insecurity rather than a huge ego. Genuinely huge egos just don’t care.

But lots of research has shown that the more you praise a kid directly, e.g. “You’re great” or “You’re so smart, you can do anything”, the fewer risks they are willing to take. Their performance goes down, too, even on an identical challenge, compared to the scores they received before the praise.

I imagine by the time they’re old enough to be this guy’s students, they have heard so much of this kind of baseless self-esteem “improving” crap that they’re riddled with insecurity like swiss cheese with holes. Poor bastards. Not selfish, opportunistic bastards.

If you’re interested in the topic, I highly recommend Alfie Kohn’s book “Punished by Rewards.”

By: Ibod Catooga

Ibod Catooga — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:41:31 +0000

I crashed his party one time and he was like, “Oh, oh, why are you wearing that werewolf mask?!??”

And I was like, “That ain’t no werewolf mask!”

CHOMP!

By: sloot

sloot — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:21:54 +0000

“We live in a country that seems to be in this massive state of delusion, where the idea of what you are is more important than you actually being that. And it actually works just as long as everybody’s winking at the same time.”

That sounds like a summary of what caused the current economic whateverwecallitthisweek.

By: » “Sexual Healing” as Done by the Hot 8 Brass Band » The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century : Joey deVilla’s Personal Blog

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:06:59 +0000

[...] long as I’m in a jazzy, funky mode today (see today’s earlier blog entries featuring Branford Marsalis and Thelonious Monk), I thought I’d point to one of the tunes currently getting heavy rotation on [...]

By: Tomas

Tomas — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:25:46 +0000

The entire documentary is available via google video, here.