I had a Music Theory teacher in college who had the reputation of "weeding out" of the music program any student who wasn't really "serious" about being a musician.
The syllabus for her class was entitled "How To Fail This Class", and listed 20 ways you could potentially fail her course. For example, "If you do not take notes consistantly you will FAIL!!" The word "fail" always appeared at the end of every item of the list, in all caps, bold, underlined twice and followed by two or more exclamation points. Her point was made very clear.
Dr. Carpenter had a dry but decent sense of humor and when I visited her once for some one-on-one help, she was very kind and had a ready smile. But her class was extremely hard for me and for some reason any compassion she had within her quickly drained away when she stood in front of a classroom. I have never had a teacher who was more negative in their approach to education as this woman, for some reason, decided to be.
Well, I failed her class miserably. I had never come close to failing a class before and never came close afterward. I took the same class again, from a different instructor, and got a B. Interpret that however you wish.
Whenever I dream of college, it's always a nightmare. Something about missing a test or failing a class or something. But last night, I dreamed that I went back to school to get a Master in Music and was taking another class from Dr. Carpenter! Only this time, she couldn't have been more positive! She was practically dancing around the room as we all came in!
I took my opportunity to see if she remembered me and told her how I had failed her class but eventually got a B when taking it again. She loved my little story so much that she went into her office next door to make a slight change to the syllabus before printing out copies and distributing them throughout the classroom.
There, in the middle of the syllabus, she had typed:
"A special welcome to Peter Pope-stone!"
Like many others before her, she had misspelled my name (pretty badly in fact), but I appreciated the sentiment and knew that, THIS time around, I would really enjoy Dr. Carpenter's music theory class.
So what does this mean? Is this a cosmic sign? Maybe I should return to school and further my music education! Maybe I should slam the brakes on Spirit Blade Productions and dedicate myself to the art of compositional analysis!
Maybe I should gut myself with a spatula.
6 comments:
Paeter, or Peter Pope-Stone, you are as nuts as ever. I hated being a music major, I too got a D in her class and had to take it over and then get an A-. You made being a music major a little more palatable. Remember, Mozart is overrated!
One of the hardest classes ever. I think I did all 20 of the don't do things like do an LOT show, take more than 16 credit hours, breath, you know... I can still see her overly blonde hair and glasses peering out of one of a multicolored tshirt dress...
You've got a great memory, Dooley! Do you still have a copy of her syllabus?
Great to hear from you!
Hey Ben,
Glad I could be a brief distraction for you.
And uh, Mo-who?
If I remeber correctly, the only excused absences she allowed were for funerals.
I think my grandma died three different times that semester.
-Tully
As a real-life, actual, university professor, I am glad to see you coming to your senses and realizing how awesome your college teachers were ........
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