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The Art of Possibility
Music conservatory professor Benjamin Zander, who is also conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, explains why all his students receive an A.

“After teaching for 25 years at a music conservatory, I still run into the same obstacles. In class after class the students are so chronically worried about evaluations of their performances that they shy away from taking musical risks.

I started asking myself how we could reduce students’ fear of failure. Completely doing away with grades would only make things worse; the students would get the feeling they were being cheated out of their chance at stardom and would continue to fixate on their place in the rankings. In discussing the issue with my wife Ross, we came up with the idea of giving them all the only grade that would bring peace of mind-not as an assessment tool, but as a means to allow them to become open to any possibility. What would happen if you gave everyone an A in advance?

“In this class every student will get an A for this part of the curriculum,” I always tell my students. Then I let them know they have to comply with one condition to earn the grade. Within two weeks they have to write me a letter dated “May next year,” which should begin with the following words: “Dear Mr. Zander, I got an A because…” In the letter they tell me in as much detail as possible what has happened to them in the interim that merits this exceptionally high grade. In writing their letter they have to project themselves into the future, then look back and report on all the insights they have gained and milestones they have reached-as if all those successes were already behind them. Everything should be formulated in the past tense.

“But what I’m mainly interested in,” I tell them, “is the person you will have become next May. I’m curious about how this person looks at life, their view of the world now that they’ve done everything they wanted to do, or become everything they wanted to become.”

Bron: www.benjaminzander.com

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