Adam and Discipline

[robert_white]

I'm looking for some anecdotal stuff here, guys. I never had the chance to work with Mr. Adam in an academic setting, so I was curious how he handled the "problem" student. I know a lot has been made about how positive he is, and he never seems to be "hard" on a student regarding their playing.

But what about the occasional slacker that comes through? The kid with excuses for everything, getting bad grades in his theory/ear training classes, etc. Did Adam ever have to lecture students about this kind of stuff?

Thanks for the help!
Bob

[BRSpringer]

When I was at Indiana, I knew better than to make excuses in my lessons if I wasn't prepared. I figured that my teachers 1) would be able to tell and 2) they had already heard every lame excuse.
Recently, some of my friends told me when students did try to make excuses, Adam would pull out this little card from his wallet and hand it to the student. The card read: "Never before have I heard such a sad story. I am deeply moved. You have my complete sympathy."
I had 100 of these cards printed, and they are very effective with my private students, especially the teenagers. I had one student, after getting the card a few weeks prior, started making some lame excuse about why he couldn't practice. I cut him off and asked, "Do I have to pull out the card again?" That ended the excuses.

Barry