Working for a school district, I'm painfully aware of how students can abuse instruments. It was really hard to keep my composure when confronting the kid who carved the letter of each note into every bar on a four-octave rosewood marimba!
When I was a student, I remember being taught to treat each instrument as if it belonged to me. That seemed to work then, but a lot of the students I work with don't seem to have any appreciation for their own belongings, either. (Mom or dad will just buy them another one, apparently.) So I've put my own little twist on the teachings I received. Instead of telling students to treat the equipment like it was theirs, I tell them to treat the instruments as if they were MINE.
The Royal Ace I mentioned is in impeccable shape, though. I'd love to adopt it personally, but the red tape involved makes it pretty much impossible. While one might think that I could offer the school a trade, there are regulations in place that prevent it. (If public employees were allowed to trade away taxpayer-purchased equipment, it could easily lead to fraud and abuse.) I'm tempted to see if I can arrange a swap to get that drum to my school, though. We've got three Supras -- nice drums, but a bit redundant. I wouldn't mind swapping one of them for a good wood-shelled drum, especially one as nice as that old Royal Ace.
