A primary school music teacher in West Yorkshire has been banned from the profession after pupils claimed he touched them on the knee.
The teacher, 63, refused to attend the disciplinary hearing, saying some of the children in the class had a vendetta against him.
BBC report here.
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Whilst not able to comment on that particular case, I can tell you that here in the Netherlands some conservatory students often play the ‘racist’ card because their teacher paid comment about their playing. Usually something as simple as you’re out of tune here. Result is they get money and teachers now are afraid to even teach in a normal manner.
Sorry, I teach on a Dutch conservatory and never heard of something like this. You sound like a right wing troll.
And you sound like a leftwing troll… so what!
Next time it will be giving them the dirty look.
While waiting for the matter to be cleared up, here is a link to a piano concerto by the best Bulgarian composer so far. I meant to share it with NL but, given the huge classical audience (750 views in 2 years) I thought why not post it for everyone to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THHXz6B2dEs
Who would want to listen to this pompous, frustrated monstruosity? It would drive its listeners so mad that they begin to touch each other’s knees.
I always thought he was rather elegant compared to the heavy, sirupy post-romanticism of the Socialist Realism school.
Yes that may be true. But is that a compliment?
I taught music at many levels during my career. I never felt the need to touch any of my students anywhere or at any time. How about we just stop touching people without permission and stop defending those who do?
I studied many years with a leading violinist in the US (with great success, I might add). There certainly are situations where
“touching” is necessary for certain corrections. Never ever did I interpret them to be anything nefarious.
To ignore the fact that “touching” is necessary to the teaching experience of music (yes, including the voice) is to blindly buy into the current climate of fear of intimacy, which in this context has nothing to do with body autonomy.
This argument certainly could be extrapolated to sports and other disciplines that involve training the human body.
and which instrument did you teach? teaching a beginner on a stringed instrument without ever touching them sounds pretty inefficient.
this is not condoning inappropriate touching in any fashion.
Years ago I took-up playing the accordion as a hobby. There was no touching at all so I changed to the banjo. But these guys kept distance all the time so I stopped music altogether.
Sally
It”s more than touching knees. And he admitted more than a denial.
“The hearing … was told one of the pupils said he had “placed his hand on her thigh” and “squeezed her leg”…… his denial he had “never touched” the girl was at odds with his admission he regularly “incidentally” touched pupils during the course of his teaching”
My harpsichord teacher (F 60s) sometimes felt the need to reposition one of my (M 50s) hands and always asked permission first.
My assurance that she did not need to ask cut no ice. Almost 20 years on, given the plethora of stories like this one, I can see how wise she was to be so cautious.
In the middle 90s there was an incident in England where a brass teacher was accused of inappropriate behaviour by three female pupils. When the case eventually came to court several years later, the police stated that the complainants had admitted SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER that they had fabricated their accounts because they “didn’t like him”! Due to his financial circumstances and the age of the young liars the accused had no financial redress for the years of lost income and ended up losing his house! While there are obviously (sadly) many true cases of abuse such as the above, children can and do falsely accuse their teachers and it has already passed the point where teachers cannot teach properly because of invading pupils personal space and suchlike. I am glad to be retired and out of it all!
Today’s people are so woke and touchy!
Younger generations will never understand the importance of genuine human touch. They have been brought up only with a fear of the human body. Not every touch is someone trying to cop a feel.
I blame the proliferation of porn on the internet. Most people don’t understand that it is ACTING.
I remember a rather nice French film about this sort of thing, set on Lake Geneva, or was it Lucerne? Certainly nowhere like West Yorkshire. Lovely scenery.
They should make all lessons online. I am already curious about what they will complain of then. There will be something for sure.