no more tears

One day in the past week, I had two students who came separately for lessons, eyes watery, nose red, face drawn tight, one had mascara that did a good job of staying relatively waterproof.

A lot of times I find myself doing a mental calibration of students' emotional states, and either matching it or responding from the other end of the spectrum. Most times they come not wanting to play anything, or complaining about some classmate or teacher or their work or their lack of sleep etc, and I try to get them slightly hyped about playing the cello, which occasionally feels like trying to dig a hole through cement with a toothpick under 12 noon May sunshine (or sun furnace).

That day I was really quiet, didn't ask them how many days they practised, or make faces at their sound, I just let them do their thing. Maybe I was reminded of the fact that cello is not their life, they have tons of other stuff going on, maybe all they need during their lesson is a cold place away from the heat, hand sanitiser after mucking around in PE, a place they can just do their thing without being judged or nagged or interrogated.

 There is a fine line between motivating and suffocating, between maintaining standards and terrorising, between imposing growth and facilitating development.