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A Clarinet, A Typewriter and A Teacher
By
Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 9, 2018
You are probably wondering what these three things
have in common, I’m so glad you asked. I
could have titled it “Educational Malpractice.”
My mother was musically inclined having played
saxophone in an all girls band back in the 30s; my father, not so much. When it came time for me to consider playing
an instrument as a youngster having music in the family seemed a natural fit –
we selected the clarinet. I don’t
remember how old I was when I first started but the best I can remember I was
in elementary school.
I took lessons and played through High School. What did I learn playing the clarinet? One of the first things the music teacher
taught me was finger dexterity by requiring me to exercise all the fingers on BOTH hands by doing coordinating
exercises. What does that mean? I would take a finger on my right hand (I was
right handed) and I would move it in a certain motion and then replicate the
motion on the corresponding finger on the left hand and match it while
increasing the speed of the movements over time. I would do this for all 10 fingers and that
obviously included my thumbs. It seemed
like a dumb thing to do when you were only 9 or 10 years old but it did pay
huge dividends later in life.
Playing the clarinet taught me several things.
- Coordination between my right hand and my left hand
- Coordination between the music I saw on the page and the movement of the fingers on both hands
- Timing
- Being an integral member of a team working as one (once I joined the school band)
- Believe it or not, the bigger picture of a completed project – playing a piece of music on my clarinet that others would be able to recognize and hopefully appreciate
- Self satisfaction of learning to play a musical instrument
Of these skills, the hand coordination was probably
the most important lesson learned that proved to be invaluable throughout my
life and this is why. During Junior High
School, my mother insisted I take a typing course. I played sports in school and I took a lot of
criticism from my fellow teammates for taking a “typing course.” Looking back, it was unquestionably the most
valuable of any of the courses in all of my 14 years of formal education as it
paid and continues to pay dividends for me.
I can’t say that for the rest of the courses I took in school most of
which I can’t even remember what they were or even name more than 3 or 4. I envy people who remember the names of their
various teachers and then explain how much they have meant to them. Me? I
can’t remember the name of just one such teacher. I was either unlucky in regards to having
memorable teachers or they were simply not very memorable; I believe the
latter.
At the risk of immodesty, I became quite good on the
clarinet (also played the Baritone Saxophone in the dance band and drums in the
marching band). Having dexterity using
both hands on a clarinet worked FOR and AGAINST me in my typing class. When I signed up for typing, I indicated on
the class entry form that I had never typed before which I had not. Extremely important to remember is that I had
been playing the clarinet for several years using both of my hands and fingers to
do so. Compare that to my classmates who
were also typing for the first time.
They were either Left or Right Handed but few if any ever used BOTH of their hands and fingers to do
anything coordinated before in THEIR short
lifetimes.
THE BAD: I barely passed the typing course; did so with a C if
I remember correctly. Why is that
important? It was an extremely valuable
lesson that I did not appreciate until much much later in life. If there were 30 students in my typing class,
you would think that we all started to play on a level playing field. But that was not true. I was light years ahead of the rest of my
class in my ability to use both hands and fingers in unison. As for the rest of the class, not so
much. I picked up the typing technique
very rapidly thus causing the teacher to believe that I had previous typing
instruction and/or practice and graded me accordingly. The lesson I later learned – how it is
impossible to prove a negative?
I could NOT
prove to my teacher that I did not know how to type when I entered her class. There was no way I could – thus the C
grade. I was furious but there was
nothing I could do to sway her thinking.
In her mind, one size fit all and we all were suppose to be that one
size or in this case, no typing skills and that was true. But in regards to two hand coordination or
eye to hand coordination; that was an entirely different story at least for me.
THE GOOD: Think about
this, as a result of the typing class, I
can type 250 words a minute without an error!
Think not? Think again – I just
did it for you! Get it? Also, typing became second nature to me. I began on manual typewriters and progressed
through to the computer terminals of today.
During my service in the Coast Guard I taught typing for about 3 years.
I learned another valuable lesson by taking clarinet
lessons. I could play almost any
instrument “by ear.” What that means is
that I could pick up an instrument and with no instruction, I could play music
I have heard before and play the instrument as if I had training to do so. That is why I was able to play so many
different instruments in the High School Band.
I remember playing at least 8.
The problem with being able to play by ear was that I
was also able to improvise the music that was on the sheet music by adding notes
while playing what was on the paper. My
music teacher had a choice that I did not recognize or understand at the
time. He could either make me play what
was on the sheet music as written or he could have encouraged me to “take off”
and do “my thing” with the music. He chose
to stifle my creativity and made me stick to the sheet music. As a result, I lost interest in taking
lessons and eventually quit.
Some people may say the music teacher did the right
thing. Others would disagree. It is easy to look back to see what should
have been done. In my case I should have
been encouraged to be creative. Living
in New Orleans I have witnessed firsthand what it means to be musically creative. You can see and hear it every day of the week
in the French Quarter. Yes it was
important to learn how to play the music as it was written but it was just as
important NOT to require someone to
color ONLY within the lines. There is a wonderful world outside the lines
and teachers should recognize that some students should stay within the lines
while others should be encouraged to explore.
Here is a more important question that even today goes
unanswered. If a teacher makes a
statement on any subject you want to consider like music, English, math,
science, art, or whatever, and then expect that EVERY student will accept what is taught in the same way, that
teacher is doing a disservice to his or her students. Let me explain. I remember teachers making a statement and
then my mind would literally take off. I
would mentally expand on what the teacher had just said; my mind was like a
rainbow of ideas all related to what the teacher had put forth. Then I would realize that 5 to 10 minutes had
passed and I had not heard a word she had said after making that initial
comment. Do you think that may have
affected my grades? You know it did.
I later discovered that there is a Left Brain/Right
Brain concept and it was explained to me that I grew up a Right Brain person in
a Left Brain world. That may sound
abstract but it made perfect sense to me once explained. People either have technical type minds (Left
Brain) or they have creative type minds (Right Brain). School systems back in the 1950s and 1960s
and probably sill are designed as Left Brain Models meaning that it was the
desire of the education system at the time that all of the students that
graduated would be identical to each other based upon what was taught – same
input – same output. That was the
objective and it worked great for Left Brain students; not so much for Right
Brain students like me. It turned out
that I am living proof that a one-size-fits-all educational system is NOT the ideal system for everyone. Just like not every student in my typing class
started out equally, not every student in a math class started out equally yet
the standard for teaching, at least back then, was that everyone was taught the
same way.
In reality, I had a very difficult time staying
focused on what was being taught in all of the courses I had taken. This was for two reasons. First it WAS
the Left Brain/Right Brain thing but more importantly to me, it was that I had
absolutely NO INTEREST in most of
what was being taught. I can say with
certainty that of all the courses I took, the typing course benefited me the
most. I still use it today followed
closely by what was then taught in English Class (as compared to what might be
called a Writing Class today). I can no
longer dissect a sentence and graph it out as we were all taught. Still I can recognize a good sentence as
compared to a poorly written sentence.
If you want an example of the latter, just read almost any page of Sean
Penn’s latest book (it is so bad I won’t even provide the title).
I attended two years of college where I supposedly
majored in Marketing and Advertising. In
my two years I NEVER took ONE class on either of those two
subjects. The result is obvious to me
now but not so much then. I did not fit
well into the 4 year college educational system where you HAD TO TAKE a lot of useless courses that you/I had absolutely no
interest in. Case in point – explain to
me what taking a course in Geology had to do with Marketing and
Advertising. Answer – NOTHING! I don’t remember all the courses I was
required to take in College except for the Air Force ROTC classes. The ROTC classes reinforced my belief that my
future lie in a military career and that is what I ultimately did – a twenty
year career in the U. S. Coast Guard and I
LOVED IT!
I can’t be alone in my thinking. I would challenge anyone who completed High
School and then graduated College to make a list of the all courses they took
where they can say without exception that THIS
COURSE or THESE COURSES made them better at what they eventually did for a
career. Your High School and/or College Degree may have enabled you to be hired
but I seriously doubt you knew what to do on your first day on the job based solely on what you learned in High School and/or College. Most people learn what they must do, ON THE
JOB!
For anyone reading thus far, I would HIGHLY recommend you read Dr. Bryan
Caplan’s book, The Case
Against Education; Why the
Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. As I read
through this wonderful book I had the recurring thought – HE’S TALKING ABOUT ME! But
he is NOT talking only about me;
he’s talking about everyone that ever attended formal education in the United
States and probably the world.
To all the parents or would be parents of the world, I
would also strongly recommend that you do research on the Left Brain/Right
Brain concept and then make an effort to evaluate each of your children to
determine how it may apply to them. It
will make a difference as to how they are able to learn. Ideally you should want to match your child’s
ability to learn to a school system that can adapt the way they teach to
match. Sadly that is much easier said
than done.
Here is an excellent place to start that research:
This
is my story and I’m sticking to it. I
can still type 250 words a minute without a mistake – see I just did it again. I haven’t played the clarinet in over 50
years.
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