和淘宝小提琴老师的一次交流

3月23日，淘宝出色完成了铃木小提琴第三册的毕业演出。我一方面为他感到高兴，一方面也想到也许淘宝在小提琴上真的有点“天赋”：他的学琴进度远快于周围的同龄小朋友。现在范德堡大学音乐学院的铃木小提琴课上，和他水平差不多的同学都是比他年龄大很多的哥哥姐姐。我想：我是不是应该给淘宝换一个更高水平的老师和一个更有挑战的环境呢？

3月24日，我和淘宝现在的小提琴老师Tina就此问题进行了一次坦率而真诚的沟通。她很理解我，也支持我。她觉得淘宝最好是淘宝能够和她把第四册学完，然后再换老师。下面是我们的对话结束以后Tina给我发的邮件，和我的回信。

Tina的邮件：

Ran,

Jessica was an amazing violin student many years ago.  When she was in her 20’s she struggled to decide between medicine and music for her career.  She did advanced degrees in both subjects but finally chose medicine. 

She went first to Stanford in premed, then came home to the university of Kentucky for her violin master’s degree, then got into medical school at the university of Kentucky.

I always tell high school students that if they are trying to choose between music and anything else, to choose the other thing. 

Music is so competitive that the only people who should go into it are the people who cannot imagine themselves doing anything else.

I appreciated our discussion last night.  We will encourage David the best way we can to go as fast and as far with the violin while he is young.  When he is older he will tell you who he wants to be and you will let him know that you hear him and you support him whatever he chooses.

Tina

我的回信：

Thank you so much, Tina, for everything you did and thought for David! Thank you for bearing with me and listening to me last night. And thank you for sending this touching email, I really appreciate it.

As you can tell, I grew up in a very different environment from David's. My parents love me, but they cannot afford to pay any extra-curriculum activities. I am pretty good at theorems and equations, and thus survived in a highly competitive, highly stressed academic environment. Now when I look at David playing violin, with beautiful music flew from his tender fingers, I feel rejoiced and fulfilled, that all my past effort and struggle are worthy.

But I realize that there is a tricky balance in education: on one hand, I want David to try his best to reach a high level in violin playing and not waste his “talent”. On the other hand, I need to remind myself constantly (which I sometimes forget) that David is just another 6-year-old kid and is entitled by nature to play and do silly things.

I whole-heartedly agree with you that we should encourage David to go as fast and as far as he could when he was young. But when the time comes, he needs to choose what he truly wants to do, and we will support his decision unconditionally. In the end, what matters is not just that he can play the violin at a high level, but that the courage and perseverance he cultivated from endless repetitions of tonalization and bow hold exercises will guide him to sail through storm and reach the realm of success no matter it being sports, academics, or business. And as a byproduct and a blessing, he will love music and enjoy playing violin for the rest of his life.

Thank you again, Tina, for everything you did for David!

Best,

Ran