THE ‘FISHERMAN’ PHILOSOPHY

In today’s world of instant results, more often than not, the process of learning becomes compromised under the guise of efficiency. Spoon-feeding becomes the 'recognized' and 'accepted' pedagogy in producing seemingly 'effective' results. Rote learning has now (more than we are willing to admit), a tenacious hold of the hearts of most ‘educational’ systems, curricula and programmes.

In using 'FISHERMAN’ as the name of our School, we are in fact declaring 'war' against rote learning and the spoon-feeding method right from the start of a student’s music education and the way in which he or she perceives learning.

“Give the man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach the man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.”

~ an old Proverb

Yes indeed! The best teacher in the world is a teacher who teaches a student to teach himself from the earliest possible moment. Only with such a skill can a student be confident, and truly free ~ empowered to stand on his or her own feet independently to continue to improve, and make learning an enjoyable, life long process. This student may even strive to surpass the excellence of the teachers upon leaving their tutelage and the portals of FISHERMAN MUSIC SCHOOL.

In Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching by Ivan Galamian (one of the greatest violin pedagogues of the twentieth century), I quote, "The teacher must always bear in mind that the highest goal should be for him to make the student self-sufficient. The parrot method is not conducive to such a result. As Kreisler once said: Too much teaching can be worse than too little."

Thus by journeying the route of the ‘Fisherman’, we are aspiring to be like the famous poet Robert Frost who

“ … took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

We foresee a journey full of obstacles and hurdles, with mounting pressure from society at every moment and at every corner enticing us to walk the way well trodden. However, we are committed to our philosophy, and to be responsible teachers true to this, we have to have integrity as music educators. Music is one of Man’s greatest and most beautiful creations. It is also an international language. Our love for music, and our passion to share and impart skills of this language into the souls of men will help to see us through this challenging, but meaningful journey of learning.

And your support means a lot to us.