One-Way Mirror

Story Behind The Song

The artist attends graduate school to pursue a master's degree in speech-language pathology (AKA, "speech therapy"). She is a novice in the clinic and expected to know everything without having been taught, in which case she is not performing up to her mentors' standards. Consequently they ridicule her, criticize her, and talk about her behind her back, which discourages her. The student's clients are improving because of her compassion and instincts (of which her mentors have none); this disturbs the mentors, as she does not go by the book and is not a carbon copy of the other students or of the mentors when they were students. Overall, while the student wishes to treat her clients like people, she would be safer treating them like textbook cases, which contradicts the principles of ethics in this particular field. Some important terms: One-Way Mirror - The same mirror used to pick out criminals in a line-up is used in the clinic for speech therapy sessions. While the student works on one side with a client, all she sees is a mirror. On the other side she is being observed by the heartless supervisors who are getting ready to humiliate the student for her performance. Long-term goals - Each client has short- and long-term speech/language goals for the student to target during sessions. Mailbox - The mentors put their callous comments in the student's mailbox. Gloves - The student uses them as a protective measure when she engages the clients in oral-motor exercises. (At the end of the song she is removing them and giving the mentors the finger through the one-way mirror.) Rationale - The student is expected to research and provide a finite rationale for her session plans.

Song Description

The artist is frustrated by a lack of proper guidance from her mentors. The less they partake in their teaching efforts, the less competent their protégé appears, and the more negative judgment grows on both ends. In a field where compassion is essential, the mentors are quite hypocritical, as they themselves fail to be nurturing role-models.

Song Length 4:05 Genre Rock - Modern, Rock - Classic
Tempo Floating Lead Vocal Female Vocal
Mood Distressed, Furious Subject Power, School
Similar Artists Pink Floyd, Fiona Apple Language English
Era 2000 and later

Lyrics

ONE-WAY MIRROR

Can you read my mind?
Then why do you expect me to read yours?
And all the words you find
To aim at me are just as low as all these scores.
But you are here to teach me.
And you are here to reach me.
And I am here to learn,
But all that I earn

Is grief.
Can't find encouragement, and I can't find relief.
You suck the passion out of this; you take the soul.
And everything is tainted with my long-term goals.

Through the one-way mirror,
Take a look at yourself.
Things do not get clearer
When you throw me a book off the shelf.
Just tell me, tell me, how to do it right, instead of only what is wrong.
I'd like to see you write a song.

Then I'd return it, put it in your mailbox, covered in blood-colored ink,
Just like what you did to me when you said that I should think,
And that I don't use my mind.
And that I've fallen behind.
But you are here to teach me,
And you are here to reach me,
So don't you dare complain,
'Cause all that I gain

Is hell.
Why don't you run to all the other women that you tell?
You spend your energy on stories, without my defense.
Will that really help me grow? Now, use your common sense.

Through the one-way mirror,
Take a look at yourself.
Things do not get clearer
When you throw me a book off the shelf.
I tell you, I tell you, that those in need improved, so I must have done something right.
So, what disturbs you, my insight?

Your messages are vague
And so subliminal.
And I'm behind this window, on display,
Just like a criminal.

Can you read my lips?
I'm taking off these gloves, now read my fingertips.
Of all the rationales that I propose to you,
Know my failure means you didn't do what you're supposed to do.

Through the one-way mirror,
Take a look at yourself.
Things do not get clearer
Just 'cause you throw me a book off the shelf.
I tell you, I tell you, things aren't just one way,
So tell me why it matters?
I'd like to cause this glass to shatter.
Just like my future dreams, and now they're never getting nearer.
They shatter, just like this one-way mirror.

Lyrics Amy Rachman Music Amy Rachman
Producer Art Hays Publisher RockWoman Music
Performance Amy Rachman; Art Hays Label Art Hays

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