THINQon : The trap of easiness

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Edna Stern

The trap of easiness

Latest Post: May 26, 2011 at 7:21 AM

87 followers

One of my favourite fairy tale as a child was Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel. I think that what seduced me most was the fantastical house made of sweets and I spent a lot of time as a child looking in the book’s nice pictures. I didn’t think about this story for many years, and today its memory came back to me as I was wondering what would be the equivalent of this house of sweet in our world. In the fairy-tale, the house is a relief, it appears at a moment when the children need it and is there to “save” them, but in reality it is a lure of the wicked witch who traps them through it in order to kill and eat them. Coming back to my previous idea of equivalent, a colleague I very much respect has just been given leave from his organization. He was giving excellent lectures, but the directors thought these were too complex and wanted “easier” and more “accessible” lectures for its public.

As a teacher, one faces a similar question, should I give students pieces that will be easy for them or shall I try to make them advance through putting them in front of more complex difficulties and challenges that will eventually make them progress and raise their level. I think this example explains well the dilemma though it might be a bit simplistic, as very often in music the simplest pieces are most difficult because of their apparent simplicity, (best example would be Mozart’s Sonata Facile in C major which is ghastly difficult) but you get the idea.

Should people running cultural organization give in to the pressure of having to accommodate the taste of the majority? The directors in fact do not respect much the public’s standard and ability to follow, and think it is better to lower the general standards so that it would fit the average, thus attracting the crowd through its easy access, instead of building up their understanding through giving them matter for thought, which ultimately will raise the standards of both sides.

Today I saw the image of Hansel&Gretel and realized it is the image of culture trapped in the sweet house of facility.

What do you think, how should this problem be approached?

Books Discussed

Hansel and Gretel
by Grimm Brothers

Reply to:

Aaron Malver, I moved to Seattle in 1993 to take a job at...

May 7, 2011 at 3:26 AM

6 followers

With the unfortunate consequence of placing piano teachers, public presenters, and child-eating witches in the same metaphorical space, I think my feelings about the easy/hard dilemma also bear a "Hansel&Gretel" interpretation.

The witch in the story does not go out looking for children to eat. Instead, she waits patiently, and when the children present a sufficient combination of desperation and curiousity, she encourages them to come closer by tempting them with something they already want. In this context, of course, it's all very lurid, but in abstraction this is how people connect with each other: we have needs and curiosities which, under the right circumstances, lead us to lower our defenses and attend a lecture, try a new piece, and so forth. The art of the teacher is to sense those moments when our students are ready for something new, which new thing they're ready for, how much they can take in, and when to let them return to more comfortable terrain (this last is, perhaps, what differentiates us from fairy-tale witches). In the meantime our engagement in and love for our chosen fields is what others see as our house of candy (if you'll pardon the...um, saccharine...analogy).

This all reminds me of my first piano teacher, who gave us M&Ms after our lessons. Do you suppose she was trying to fatten us up?

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Warren G Wiltrout

May 7, 2011 at 3:01 PM

2 followers

The student teacher dynamic is difficult at best, and often made more so by the parents. Students come in a wide fariety of abilities and interests, not only in the level but also in the area. I know this may sound obvious but I like to start at the begining. Students may also have different combinations of interest and ability in different areas, for example an individual student may be strongly interested in something but have little or no ability, or they may have ability but no interest. One of the errors I have observed among teachers is their patience in waiting for that student with exceptional ability and interest, and in this student will lavish much attention. I can only attribute this to self-centered ego on the part of the teacher, they expect when the student has achieved greatness it will be a proclimation of the teachers greatness. There are many students with moderate ability and interest who are overlooked and do not develope even these talents as well as possable. There also is the situation of parents and teachers who know what is best for the student without regard for the childs interests. I have observed many times where a young persons interests were poo-pooed and they were directed into an area the teacher or parent believed was better for them. When I was in HS I was taking piano lessons and developed an interest in classical music, the teacher said I wasn't ready and would not help, my Father said he didn't want to hear something that sounded like someone practicing their scales. Neither was very helpful or encouraging, but I persisted and later discovered that the teacher had neglected to lead me in practice that would have enhanced my interest, she did not encourage me to practice scales and cords. Hopefully I have learned from this and have encouraged my own children to persue whatever interest they chose, some of these were tempered by financial limits but we did as much as we could.

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John barri

May 7, 2011 at 5:04 PM

35 followers

It is oh so easy to lower standards to increase performance statistics and oh so much more difficult to raise standards and improve performance statistics. Clearly the difficult path is the only path worth following. The easy path is a mere mockery and in fact is an act of fraud perpetrated by the unscrupulous on an unsuspecting body of persons. Sadly there are many such unscrupulous persons and acts of fraud.