Am I a Tyrant... or do I care if I am a tyrant?

I ask you do I ask too much of my students. I am not waiting for your reply because I knw the answer is no. There are in fact many times when I feel like a push over. For my ensembles here are my expectations.

1. Show up.

2. Have your instrument.

3. Have your music.

4. Be prepared. (that has some wiggle room really it's be as prepared as you can be.)

5. Put your things away properly.

These are pretty easy things to do right? Right? Apparently not. We do fine for the most part with steps 1 and 2. 3 is acceptable and 4 is getting better. Where we seem to have the problem is 5. I too often find music and instruments just laying about. Now I will have to say it is emmencely better than when I started here 4 years ago. Special K never addresses this problem. Yes the first year or two I was met with resistance, mostly because the students were never asked or expected to do it. After the first few years it got better. Now we just need to fine tune some areas. When it comes to my classes the expectations are similar, Show up, be prepared, don't be disruptive and we are golden. For the most part this is fine.

So why think I am a tyrant. Well Special K never asks or expects them to do anything. Instead she bitches and maons to me and herself when things go badly. Say drummers lose their sticks constantly because they don't put them away. Well one thing is she never gets on them and makes excuses for them. They are Teenage boys for god sake they forget 2 minutes after you tell them. Don't get mad just say it again. I find it funny that she is the big push over that lets the kids do what they want when they want because they whine and complain to her but for the most part the kids are afraid of her. They come to me, who really is the one who gets on them for one thing or another. I can't count the number of times this year kids have asked me something and I have to refer them to Special K and they look at me and say, "I don't want to." "Why?" "Because I am scared of her." "Really???" "Yea".

To myself I don't see how I am less frightening then her. I am by far the biggest prick on the podium I lose my temper more than she does, and yet I still come across as the nice one. But then again the kids always know when I say something I mean it whether it's yes or no. Mostly it's no because kids have stupid ideas. :)