The drama bombers.
Apr. 8th, 2015 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreadedcandiru2As I said a while back, Phil isn't nearly as effective as a teacher as he can be because he fails to understand that he cannot apply the Henry Ford principle to music education. Despite his clear belief otherwise, children aren't robots he can install a love of music into but members of families, peer groups and an outside world that can't help but influence their readiness to learn.
We get to see an annoying example of this trend when he totally fails to understand why it is that Mike is so discouraged by the realization that there are things he'll never be the best at. What he sees (and what Elly encourages him to see) is some melodramatic kid who's got it in his head that people who are trying to help him are actually cruel monsters who simply pile on high expectation after high expectation because they love to see him miserable. As I said before, Phil doesn't quite see that Elly's idea of support is to stonewall any attempt at reassurance and keep absolutely quiet when she's pleased because she's trying to save him. What he also doesn't realize is something he only rarely sees: Mike has never been the most melodramatic idiot in the strip.
Sure, the Delicate Genius is pretty good at making a meal of made-up atrocities what with his imbecilic overreaction to Rhetta suggesting that they go on break but that's child's play compared to all the wailing Elly does about every little thing that goes wrong. Phil might get the occasional glimpse that she hasn't grown out of standing around living rooms jabbing her finger in the air and running her fool mouth about injustice but he falsely ascribes that tendency to extreme circumstances. He's never around long enough to see Elly go full on crazy about burst milk bags, mislaid glasses and rolled eyes.
Then again, it probably wouldn't matter if he did. As I said, he's pretty much on the same page as Sparky was when he laid pretty much all the blame for Farley dying twenty years ago on April and only considered the role of the parents as something of an afterthought that tangentially has to do with the problem. According to those two geniuses, the people who control the kids' lives aren't to be blamed for the kids' failings.
We get to see an annoying example of this trend when he totally fails to understand why it is that Mike is so discouraged by the realization that there are things he'll never be the best at. What he sees (and what Elly encourages him to see) is some melodramatic kid who's got it in his head that people who are trying to help him are actually cruel monsters who simply pile on high expectation after high expectation because they love to see him miserable. As I said before, Phil doesn't quite see that Elly's idea of support is to stonewall any attempt at reassurance and keep absolutely quiet when she's pleased because she's trying to save him. What he also doesn't realize is something he only rarely sees: Mike has never been the most melodramatic idiot in the strip.
Sure, the Delicate Genius is pretty good at making a meal of made-up atrocities what with his imbecilic overreaction to Rhetta suggesting that they go on break but that's child's play compared to all the wailing Elly does about every little thing that goes wrong. Phil might get the occasional glimpse that she hasn't grown out of standing around living rooms jabbing her finger in the air and running her fool mouth about injustice but he falsely ascribes that tendency to extreme circumstances. He's never around long enough to see Elly go full on crazy about burst milk bags, mislaid glasses and rolled eyes.
Then again, it probably wouldn't matter if he did. As I said, he's pretty much on the same page as Sparky was when he laid pretty much all the blame for Farley dying twenty years ago on April and only considered the role of the parents as something of an afterthought that tangentially has to do with the problem. According to those two geniuses, the people who control the kids' lives aren't to be blamed for the kids' failings.
