Last year I had an enormous amount of trouble getting the students to treat my aging fleet of choral scores with respect. Whenever I wasn't looking, music was being used as a weapon, as a fan to cool hot faces, or simply as a piece of irritating paper.
This year in the first week I sat each chorus down in a circle. I handed one student a piece of paper and asked them to pass the paper around the circle as quietly as they could. The silent concentration in the room was amazing.
When the paper got to me, I quickly and carelessly crumpled it up. Many of the students were visibly shocked.
There was a double lesson here: It takes the whole chorus to build something, and only one person to tear it down.
This year in the first week I sat each chorus down in a circle. I handed one student a piece of paper and asked them to pass the paper around the circle as quietly as they could. The silent concentration in the room was amazing.
When the paper got to me, I quickly and carelessly crumpled it up. Many of the students were visibly shocked.
There was a double lesson here: It takes the whole chorus to build something, and only one person to tear it down.