If I were to sum up the goals of a proper upbringing in this era it would be the title of today's post.
It used to be: Children should be seen and not heard. Then, Don't speak unless you're spoken to. But now that no one is talking to anyone--we are too busy facebooking one another--an infant must already have the message loud and clear: Don't bother to even have a reaction because no one is paying attention to you.
Maybe that is the reason my style of piano teaching is so out-of-line: I insist that listening to the student, no matter how young or how inept, is the beginning of all progress.
