How Gardening Can Solve All Your Pedagogical Problems

Garden Catalogs as Catalyst

Plato says we must must have an Ideal to establish the
roadmap to contemplating beauty. All gardeners would agree
that one of Winter's great pleasures is curled up with
glossy new garden catalogs, the perfect pictures assuring
us of easy success, even when that new lily is priced
outrageously. Visions of drifts of daffodils enter our
imagination, unencumbered as yet by all the sore muscles
from planting 200 of them. All great visions require serfs
to carry them out, and mine seem to be forever on strike.

So, we approach a new pupil with our ideals in place, only
to be reminded soon enough that like those tender new plants,
the pupil may or may not flourish. So, Plato said to always
study the object at hand. You can kill a plant with too much
attention. One has to stand back and contemplate the whole
person. The most important link to further success will be
if you in fact have the pupil's attention (or not). Tobias
Matthay added a footnote in an early publication, relating
the story of watching three monkeys in the zoo. His companion
asked, "Which one of these three monkeys do you think you
might teach successfully?". One monkey was all over the
place, another was scratching his belly, and the third was
staring straight at them, wide eyed. Matthay replied he
could teach the third one..."Because I have his attention".

Good Results Require the Proper Soil.

How often I have failed in my garden by not paying
enough attention to basic soil health. This Spring I went
on a Black Kow Binge. I can no longer lug the bags around
at the garden center, but always seem to find someone to
lift for me. I think by now I have mastered the trick of
suddenly appearing REALLY OLD. Help seems to come out of
nowhere. Results have been superb...that old spruce came
forth with all sorts of new needles, and an almost dead
shrub seemed suddenly to be shouting Hallelujah!

An older student suddenly has tension problems. I
persuade to put off any thought of surgery, explaining
one slip of the knife might prove irreversible. I go
into basic thinking mode, and set out on a program to
detox the muscles with some relaxation studies of my
own invention. New soil if needed for new roots to grow.
The trick is to find the inner stress that is leading to
tension in the limbs. Take time to talk to students about
what they feel is different in their lives that is causing
this upset. Shift down to basic things explained in simple
language.

Things Don't Always Bloom on Schedule

Preparing recitals with students carries enough baggage to
detour even the best expectations. Its all in the planning.
Cliffhangers wait til the last minute, and quick learners
grow bored. I always insisted pieces be memorized a month
ahead of the date. Also, tryouts should be thrown about with
abandon....play for the postman when you see him approaching.
When you walk past your piano on the way to somewhere else,
sit down and play a difficult passage cold and from memory.
Play act and get yourself into an emotional frenzy, and then
sit down and play the program in total. The actual performance
will much easier, I assure you.

Talk To Your Flowers and Give Them Praise and Encouragement.

Sounds abit like the old movie "On a Clear Day..." Plants do
feel vibrations. Notice before a rain how everything seems to
draw upwards in anticipation. Students respond to patience. To
cultivate a calm demeanor is of great pedagogical value. My
students often ask me how I can be so patient. I tell them I
and extending my life span by not screaming at them, or banging
objects around. They are tense enough already, so why add to that.
If you are pacing everything with a sense of purpose, students will
sense they are on the right path. Sometimes just a word or two can
make a huge difference. I use to praise students as they went along
in the lesson, but learned over time they are so geared to Summations
that they often didn't grasp the "praiselets" as they fluttered by.
The goal is for them to learn to praise themselves when they sense
things are going well. Some day they will be on their own, so that's
a big thing...encouraging and giving praise to oneself.

This Bloom is Staggering....However Did You Grow That!

Some years ago a student approached me to teach them during the
Summer Term, as their regular teacher was away. I asked what they
wanted to learn and back came the "Dante Sonata" of Franz Liszt.
I thought, okay..!!!!... (what on earth are you getting into..)
I really don't think that is possible, but bring it and I'll see what
I think. The piece was something this person wanted terribly to play.
I decided that was the best possible reason to create a hothouse
atmosphere, and force it out. It was an amazing experience, so
successful his teacher asked how on earth I manage to accomplish it.
I said I just gave him permission to fail, and failure wasn't an option.
Many years later that student wrote to ask me how on earth I managed to
get him to play that work. The answer was simple...and easy to guess.

Is this The End, or should I continue....