Recently our puppydog Lucy was very sick. I was reading about her condition on the web and the articles kept saying “Patient presents with…” and then her symptoms.
Well I also belong to Suzuki Chat and a recent message went something like this:
“While boys and girls may present differently to teachers, I do
> not agree that the Suzuki method is less suitable for little boys…”
The word that intrests me is “present”. Like a specimen. It seem accurate, but somehow very clinical. Not at all personal.
My students do not “present”. They appear for a lesson and we work together discovering what will be good for them.
It’s an interesting word but it just … I don’t know
What do you think?
I also want to say that I really enjoy Suzuki Chat!!!
Stay Tuned 
I don’t know the context in which this message appears, so I may be off base. I took the phrase to mean the same as what you had said, “students appear for a lesson.” It’s how the student comes in that is part of the “presentation,” I think. Some students are focused and ready to tackle the lesson when they appear, other students are pre-occupied with something that happened at home or at school, and they bring that preoccupation with them, which makes them appear to be unfocused, when in reality their focus is just temporarily elsewhere.
Maybe a different word should be used instead of “presentation,” but it didn’t raise a red flag for me, even though I’ve been to the doctor last week and wrote on my chart “patient presents with swollen glands….”(!)
So it would be “student presents with focused concentration” etc., correct? I see it. And really it is no different than “student appears focused or unfocused”. That makes more sense to me. It’s growing on me. It just struck me strangely at first.
Clinical rather than loving. And I also think boys and girls are case by case and can’t really be generalized.
Also I am lucky – I don’t have a huge studio. Maybe these teachers who teach 70 students need to be more objective!
And I am glad your glands aren’t swollen anymore~
I agree with you on the boy-girl thing– I think it’s case-by-case, too. I don’t think it’s possible to generalize behavior by gender in a lesson situation, either. I’ve taught plenty of shy guys and outgoing girls, and both girls and boys can be really talkative!