"it Isn't Necessary To Touch Children In Order To Demonstrate Options

[Henry Fagg]

Keeping Children Safe in Music is a joint initiative between the MU, the NSPCC, Youth Music, and the ABRSM.

The MU now has 5 videos up on their Youtube site to help music teachers to 'gain a better understanding of their child protection responsibilities and avoid situations that could lead to accusations of misconduct'.

Of course the aims are laudable, but I'm not convinced by these videos.

In particular, the third video entitled 'Inappropriate Demonstration' depicts a grossly caricatured version of teacher-pupil contact, and contains the statement "It isn't necessary to touch children in order to demonstrate. There's always a better way" (01:16).

Personally, I do not believe this is correct, and it reminds me of the issues that Jennie Bristow and Frank Furedi were so helpful in unpacking in their book Licensed to Hug (now in its second edition).

As an Alexander Technique teacher, I know that verbal instruction and demonstration is not enough to change habit patterns (we have a term for it: 'unreliable sensory appreciation'). In my profession, 'not touching' is simply not an option, and I'm sure that many music teachers feel the same.

What does anyone else think about these videos (www.youtube.com/user/TheMusiciansUnion) and the above statement in particular??

[morceau]

Just looked at the videos and found them silly and amaturish to say the least. I thought they were rather insulting to teachers' intelligence.

Just looked at the videos and found them silly and amaturish to say the least. I thought they were rather insulting to teachers' intelligence.

I would have to agree - the vids a more than a bit embarrassing..no self respecting teacher would manhandle pupils (or anyone!) in that way in today's informed politically correct educational climate.

So I don't really get the point of these vids.....maybe they could be used as an education tool for trainee teachers with an IQ of about 3 who are thinking of going into the teaching profession ...not! .....(IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

I've just watched the videos and totally agree with the above. I'm not in the habit of picking things to bits just for the sake of it, and I know that these sort of training videos can often be clunky, cliched and unconvincingly acted, but these ones are really just ludicrous. They are more like the kind of video I would expect to see used for pupils in order to encourage discussion about right and wrong ways to behave, not as training for professionals.

[Organistin]

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I've just watched the videos and totally agree with the above. I'm not in the habit of picking things to bits just for the sake of it, and I know that these sort of training videos can often be clunky, cliched and unconvincingly acted, but these ones are really just ludicrous. They are more like the kind of video I would expect to see used for pupils in order to encourage discussion about right and wrong ways to behave, not as training for professionals.

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Patronizing and excruciatingly embarrassing to watch.
Very poor quality for professional training.

As for the video with the violinist. What on earth?
The example where he held the boys shoulder and wrist was completely ludicrous. No teacher would do that.
And as for the "after" example, where he was supposedly able to teach without touching. ... how on earth, in a real lesson situation, would the pupil know what he was going on about.
In the video, as if by magic, the teacher demonstrates on his violin, says something about keeping your hand in the same position and hey presto, abracadabra, the boy manages to reproduce the correct hand position and plays the scale perfectly. Yeah right.

I got the impression from the videos that they were making out that music teachers were particularly vulnerable to manhandling children. They may not have meant it, but this is how it came across.
It got my back up from the beginning of the first video.

Had it been a sensible series of videos showing how you could demonstrate techniques with MINIMAL touch then it might have been useful. Ditto if it had covered what was definitely inappropriate and what might be interpreted as inappropriate in a way that was not presumptive and insulting.

Of course there have been cases where music teachers have acted inappropriately, just as there have been cases of classteachers, teaching assistants, priests, youth group leaders, relatives, neighbours etcetc.
But as someone pointed out earlier, these were not cases where a piano teacher or violin teacher or whichever instrument (I say piano and violin because that is all I know about (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif) ) has gently moved fingers, or arms or hands into the correct position.

I remember in my early 20s being shocked to find out that the a conductor I had once known was prosecuted for physically molesting some of his female singing and woodwind pupils. Without going in to details, what he had done was WAY beyond any kind of appropriate touch and he had made out to the pupils that it was completely necessary for them to progess. They had believed him at first but gradually realized that he should not have been doing it.
A very clear cut case - not a case of lightly moving a finger or even gently adjusting posture.