Comments on: Weaponizing Mozart

By: George Larson

George Larson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:10:34 +0000

In Junior High my detention monitor would play his bagpipes.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:03:29 +0000

I wouldn’t think you’d need Mozart. Enforced quiet would be an equally annoying requirement.

By: Diana Senechal

Diana Senechal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:14:38 +0000

Thank you, Miss Eyre! That is great that you are using classical music for quiet thinking and writing time. That brings me up another question: why is “reflection” so often treated as punishment? A kid is disruptive and is sent to a special area of the room to “reflect.” The reflection should happen earlier, before problems come up. Kudos to you for making room for it.

By: Bart

Bart — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:24:38 +0000

Thanks, Barry *I think). Found it on YouTube:

The Twangies – Anna (El Negro Zumbon) 1963

I didn’t remember anything beyond the first few bars, but I was pretty young at the time. Zumbon must mean ‘earworm’.

By: Miss Eyre

Miss Eyre — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:22:29 +0000

I use classical music in my classroom as something of a treat. Quiet classical piano signals a time for independent, silent writing, thinking, and reading. Diana Senechal has made some wonderful points in her writing about the loss of solitude and reflection in the classroom; integrating classical music is one way that I try to carve out some space for them.

By: SuperSub

SuperSub — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:58:21 +0000

I’ve always found drawing the window shades and blocking/taking down the clock to be an effective way to make detention seem more painful. Add to that ambiguous answers to the inevitable “What time is it?”

By: Lightly Seasoned

Lightly Seasoned — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:34:34 +0000

Are you sure that’s not the hamster dance? Now there’s some music to serve detention by.

Actually, our detention hall monitor is fond of torturing the kids with long Shakespearean monologues from the more obscure plays.

By: Barry Garelick

Barry Garelick — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:15:23 +0000

Bart:

It was called “Anna”

By: James

James — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:21:33 +0000

My parents never listened to classical music, but it attracted me anyway. That Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 could ever work as a deterrent is a sad reflection on a society.

By: Cal

Cal — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:51:07 +0000

My parents played classical music for me as a child because they wanted me to enjoy it.

That’s no guarantee. Similarly, playing it as a deterrent is unlikely to affect their preferences.