AN ONGOING DISCUSSION: A piano teacher has suggested that a blind student should not pursue a piano teaching career. She has discouraged this student from becoming a piano teacher because she is blind, and feels that a blind teacher cannot observe hand positions, etc. Following are some interesting responses following the posting of a plea for help from that student located in Indonesia: ________________________________________ Some responses follow the original text below: (some text has been edited for brevity) ________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- From: Winy Kwany Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 1:27 PM Subject: Re: Thank you Mr. Taesch. Dear sir, My current piano teacher has known about my ambition to be a piano teacher. She does not give good response or support to me. She said that it is impossible for a blind like me to be a piano teacher especially if I want to teach those who are not blind. A piano teacher needs eyes to correct hand positions and to give good tecniques in playing ppiano. These words make me feel uneasy. I really hope I can get my independence by teaching and having good piano career. Do the blinds really don't have chance to teach and how to solve those difficulties? Please give me suggestions and guidances. Thank you very much. Sincerely: Winy. _______________________________________ [RESPONSE OF 10-12-04] Hello Winy: With all respect to your piano teacher and her sincere desire to guide you, I'm afraid that she is very mis-informed! I would like your permission to edit and send this letter with your original one to others on our list. It deserves the attention of others like yourself who have been affected and defeated by similar situations. Please let me know, and I will do so. It is this lack of understanding that has plagued the efforts of blind teachers and students far too long! Our network is worldwide, and embraces hundreds of members, many of whom are successful blind teachers, college professors, piano instructors, etcs, etc,. etc.! Your piano teacher must also be immediately informed that the training of sighted braille music transcribers for The Library of Congress is a blind professional piano AND voice teacher! My Co-Director, Grant Horrocks, along with myself, has been training blind students for many years in our Braille Music Division. Four young persons, three of them blind, and two just receiving their music degrees from major universities, are now teaching on our faculty. They are teaching blind students in a full day of classes. Ms. Pieck, who was referred to you, maintains a highly successful studio in New York comprised mostly of sighted students! She is completely blind, and a brilliant concert performer! The harm that this kind of advice has caused among blind musicians, students, and their families, is immeasureable! The anguish among parents of blind musical children is intolerable. It is up to all of us to make whatever difference we can while we walk this earth, and enlightenment is everyone's responsibility! Your piano teacher is not to blame for anything. She is advising you on the best knowledge that she has. The responsibility rests completely on those of us who know better, and must continue to be vigilant on behalf of those we serve. We have obviously not yet succeeded, or we would not be hearing such heart breaking stories. I will do everything that I can to help your situation, and to assist your instructor to access accurate information in any way possible. Most sincerely, Richard Taesch SCCM Braille Music Division MENVI Headquarters ______________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- From: Winy Kwany Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:33 PM Subject: Re: Thank you Dear sir, Thank you for your atention and concerns. I am happy. I still have friends who want to support me in my struggle to reach my ambition. Not only my teacher, all people around me have the same opinion as hers. They think I am dreaming and they believe I will never get my piano career because of such difficulties I will have. I believe I will face chelenges in studying braille music. It is difficult to convince those who look down on me, especially my teacher. But however, I will try my best. Sure, I am very happy to hear that you want to share my story with others. I need supports from you and others. Please tell me their response and I continually hope for your suggestions etc. I will visit the website you gave soon. Now, I must help my friend to find data from internet for her thesis. I will read the articles soon. Thank you very much. Sincerely: Winy _________________________________________ [RESPONSE] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 5:54 PM Subject: Re: Thank you Winy: Just know that they are very wrong, and that there are many, many successful blind educators who can prove it! ________________________________________ [RESPONSE OF 10-19-04 Dear Winy: I would suggest that you follow your dreams and work to prove your teacher wrong. We all are met with different levels of challenges in life, and allowing those challenges to undo your dreams will only make you wonder more about your failures, instead of your successes. As a sighted teacher at a school for blind, I have heard amazing stories of alumni who have gone on to be lawyers, doctors, professional musicians, and even music teachers. Never give up on yourself or your dreams and you will be surprised by what you can achieve and how far you can go. Rick Coates ____________________________________ [RESPONSE] Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 1:05 AM Subject: MENVI discuss: About the Email exchange with Winy Kwany Hello to all, Though I'm not sure why the original message from Richard hadn't reached my Inbox earlier this week, I'll reply now that it is here. I am not sure where Winy is from, but it is sad that her piano teacher is not supportive of her own efforts and desire to carry on her passion for and knowledge of music, to teach others, just because she is blind. Though I don't know specifically how blind piano players teach others about hand positioning, I certainly wouldn't just automatically assume that it cannot be done. I would imagine that there are nonvisual ways to ascertain such things, like asking the student to tell you as part of an exercise to play and verbalize what he or she is doing, or by briefly touching the student's hand with permission. Relating some of my own experience as a beginning flute student, my teacher is sighted, and I am betting that she observes quite a bit auditorily, in addition to using her vision for some things. After all, it is music that we are producing, in the realm of the ears and hearing. One good way of providing a solid technical foundation, with any instrument I'm assuming, is to establish good habits and high expectations with it from the beginning. I would think that quality reciprocal communication between the student and teacher is critical, and would help the learning process in general. Though I'm not sure if any of this is helpful to Winy's own situation, I do hope that she does not give up on her dream of being a music educator, and that finds people who are supportive of her, even if her current teacher doesn't seem to be all that positive about her aspirations. Tina E. ________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:35 PM Subject: response re. W. Dear Richard: I thought it might be best to write you rather than doing so directly to Winy K. as I am not totally comfortable with the degree of "outrage?" you expressed in your message. Granted comments such as those from his? teacher can be discouraging or even devastating there may be some truth and honesty in what she says. One can't say that all blind folks are qualified to teach just as all sighted people don't make good teachers. She may see things in Winy that she feels make him unsuitable or make it inappropriate for him to pursue a teaching and/or performing career. From his message one doesn't know how well he plays, how fast or well he learns, how quickly he understands her instructions etc.; so she may have used his blindness as an easier way to suggest another direction for his life than to tell him that he is not or wouldn't be qualified to teach. I realize the above may sound very negative; I don't mean it that way; but I think one should know quite intimately his situation before creating a fuss. I leave it up to your discression to use this in whatever way to wish including deleting it permanently. Do let me know if there is anything concrete that I can do. Bob Smith ____________________________________________________________ [RESPONSE] Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 11:35 AM Subject: Re: response Hello Bob: Thanks so much for your open and sincere comments. They are much appreciated coming from you. Perhaps I should let you know that there has been considerable background and correspondence in this situation. You might have noticed that one sentence in the letter from Winy stated "... it is impossible for a blind {person} like me to be a piano teacher ..." The teacher's comments were not based on an evaluation of this student, but intended as a blanket opinion of all blind people in general who desire to teach the piano. In that respect, most of the comments I've received concur that, if anything, our outrage was far too mild. If you could only know of the many children and young adults that I have seen who now have music successfully in their lives, and so often because of crusaders like Bettye Krolick and many others who have dared to express "outrage," you would surely see why this reaction and advocacy is essential. Again, thank you for adding some balance to things. Richard Taesch _________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 5:10 PM Subject: Re: response re. W. Dear Richard, I hope my response to your message concerning Winy didn't seem too negative or critical. It's just that I remember from my years at Rio Hondo College several blind students. One of them especially seemed to feel that every inconvenient thing that happened to her was because she was blind. Many of her problems I felt were because of her personality. I guess what I meant was that blind people shouldn't always use blindness as the reason that some people might be negative toward them. Bob Smith ______________________________________________________ [RESPONSE] Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 4:17 PM Subject: Blind Educators - continued ... More on the Winy Kwany issue! Robert Smith [Bob} is a MENVI Advisor, and worked as a blind professor of music for over 30 years at Rio Hondo College.) _________________________________ Dear Bob: Thank you for that especially senstitive insight. I have observed that situation at times. Your comments and criticisms were not at all negative. If anything, none of us, including the other blind teachers that we work with, expect any less performance or responsibility from our blind students because they are blind. They are held to the same standards as the sighted ones, which is the principle on which I began this program. Their success in the RCM exams year after year has shown that they have even surpassed the others in some areas. This has only been because they are given no special allowances or excuses to replace hard work and good attitudes In this case, the teacher expressly stated that: 'blind people should not teach the piano.' hat was the only issue on which we decided to support Winy. Richard Taesch To be continued ........