The teacher is a Japanese woman who says her name is "Rothstein". (Married name?) She is fantastic with preschoolers. Just fantastic! She's good natured, patient, jolly - just loves teaching music it seems. She gave out materials on the first day, explaining her class procedures. (Homework, parent participation, stickers, etc.) She allowed some touching of the piano at the beginning of class.
This, apparently, was Alex's expectation. Just this. When she and her assistant Melanie broke out with the textbook? Oh no, no, no. Alex would not have it! Sure, he cooperated for a brief period of time. Then, he got really antsy.
He kept announcing that he "hated" the kids' names in the book. He wanted to call them other names. He announced that he "hated" the book and he "hated" the class. He didn't want to play with the alphabet (scale letters) cards. He didn't want to play with the "magical" notes which, he said, weren't very magical at all. At one point, one of his classmates, Thalia, asked her mom why he was hating so much. Her mom said "I don't know. Ask him." I added that Thalia should please ask him, because I sure didn't know. This was at a point when Alex was trying to climb over the chairs to get to the drum set behind it.
It seems that Alex expected for it to be just like an episode of the Fresh Beat Band, where they already know how to play their instruments and can already give recitals and concerts. I had to explain that before that can happen, he needed to learn the theory behind it all.
"I don't like the theory!" he declared. "I just want to play the instruments!"
Oh dear.
At leat I was able to get him to practice the "I'm Great Pose" when I read ahead in the book while we waited at the bus stop. I even gained some cooperation by using Iron Man to balance on his head, testing his posture and all. That made him laugh at least.
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