High School Student A Profile

High school student A is a junior saxophone player in the beginning band. While it is her

first year playing sax, she been involved in music for quite some time. She previously played

trumpet in middle school, has been in chorus for a number of years, and has participated in the

color guard.

Student A learns very quickly and is very enthusiastic about the saxophone. While this is

good, she tends to be extremely hard on herself and will nitpick at even the smallest of issues.

Although it is good to be able to correct oneself, student A sometimes does so in a way that is

unhealthy for her mental and emotional well-being.

One day in class (in which student A is the only person physically present), we were

going through warmups and scales. Eventually, we made our way over to exercises in the Hal

Leonard Intermediate Band Method book. She was able to get through many exercises very

quickly. But eventually, we got to one that was giving her more trouble than the rest. She was

able to make some progress on it, but then she would regress. After a few minutes, when she

realized that she’d hit a wall, she nearly started tearing up. Thankfully, that was towards the end

of class so we were able to finish up soon and I was able to calm her down.

We told her how well she was doing and how much progress she had made in such a

short period of time, but I’m not convinced that it got through to her. So while I’m glad that

student A is very motivated and wants to learn a lot and do well, it’s worth noting that a strive

for excellence can be self-destructive if left unchecked. It didn’t necessarily get to that point this

time, but it could have had we gone on for a bit longer. Next time, we made sure to keep an eye

out for that early on.

 As teachers, we want our students to give their best effort. Student A certainly does so.

But with that effort comes an understanding that it’s okay to fail, or not to not get something

immediately. Growth and progress often comes after long periods of struggle. Student A was so

used to understanding things at a quick rate that when it took more time, she didn’t know how to

handle it. As a teacher, I hope to help not just student A, but all students like her realize that in

order to succeed, you must be willing to fail many times. And that’s okay.