Re: Positive Reinforcement?


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Rick Denney on December 30, 2002 at 18:00:26:

In Reply to: Positive Reinforcement? posted by Tim Seaman on December 30, 2002 at 14:39:56:

When someone is writing to buddies of the same age and expectation, then they can conform to the expectations of their buddies if they choose. But when they write to a forum populated mostly by older folks, they should consider their motives in violating those expectations. What might those motives be?

On more than one occasion, it has been apparent, even with my limited wisdom, that the person writing is consciously acting as an agent provocateur for the Internet Generation, eliminating the shift key and putting words down in chat-room stream of consciousness just to watch the older ants scurry. Often, though, it's just laziness, which is no different than playing the wrong scale in a fast run because the notes are going by too fast to hear anyway. Occasionally, it is incompetence. In all cases, though, being called on it is good discipline for the real world.

Professionally trained tuba players, if they are not performers, are quite likely to end up in education if they stay with music. The threads you linked to provided excellent and varied viewpoints on education, so it seems to me a stretch to insist they are completely off topic. I for one clarified my thoughts considerably as a result of what I read and of the care I had to take in expressing my own thoughts. And Sean did not pull them, so I assume they did not fall outside his liberal boundaries. One of the reasons this board is so active is because those boundaries are so liberal. But another reason is that it tends to a high standard of discourse and requires participants to live up to it.

As Ray mentions, it is no participant's right to receive positive reinforcement, and nobody has the obligation to provide it. For those of you brought up such that your shortfalls have been excused and your adequacies praised, this will be a dose of truth. Time for the long pants. Putting it off just makes it worse.

When I was a "young person", my writings were graded critically. My English teacher (Mrs. Brennan, RIP) did not coddle us with positive reinforcement. At the time, I thought she was closely related to the Wicked Witch of the West, but from the distance of just a few years I realized how she had turned around my commitment to clear expression. And the older I get, the more I realize how much I owe to her, and how little gratitude she got from me. In a few years, those feeling the sting on this board may look on it as the first time someone deigned to tell that it It Is Not Good Enough.

I can think of no more respectful and helpful approach to take, based on what has been more helpful to me in my life. Kindness and sternness are not mutually exclusive.

Rick "who thinks that respect is not mirrored in careless communication" Denney


Follow Ups: