John, you gave up because your instrument wasn't perfect.

I have to stay away from this board sometimes because of this sickening attitude.

just put up a sign saying "Rich Families Only, Please."

Rent to own, or just renting a piano would be a nice option for a lot of people.

I'm tempted to do just that

You should probably reread my post a bit more carefully. I most certainly didn't say what you accuse me of.

"We don't know if they'll stay interested in piano..."

This is by far the #1 topic of conversation with the parents who visit our piano store. Many seem genuinely nervous and pessimistic about their child's chances of success at piano study. Needless to say, these parent's fear of making an investment results in a large number of children practicing on a poor-quality instrument, (sometimes for several years). What kind of "Top 10 Ways to Keep Them Interested" list would you give them? Your feedback is gratefully appreciated.

Do any of you know ANYONE for whom a high-quality acoustic piano ISN'T just a matter of not taking that European vacation and cutting back on the lattes?

You know, I've got to say as someone who stayed with piano for eight years as a child and who stopped to go to college for physics, who has gotten back to it after getting her MS and still has a pretty good technique for an amateur, and who has started to write music as well ... I'm glad I never met any of you as a kid. Do any of you know ANYONE for whom a high-quality acoustic piano ISN'T just a matter of not taking that European vacation and cutting back on the lattes? Jesus Christ, people. Maybe a spoiled brat can afford to stop studying music because their instrument isn't perfect, but a poor child keeps soldiering on, because poor families can't afford to give up when things get hard. If any of you had any brains at all, you'd recognize that that attitude is an asset in a student.

Otherwise, just put up a sign saying "Rich Families Only, Please." Seriously. Roll your eyes all you want, but you have no idea what you are saying to families of extremely straitened circumstances, for whom even paying their buddies $50 to move a freebie into their basement means they need to eat less that month. Sometimes I feel like the people on this board live in a separate universe from the one I grew up in.

I knew plenty of rich kids from school whose grand pianos went unplayed as status furniture after they gave up a year into lessons, contrasted with my own situation on a landfill piano that was quite literally all my family could afford. John, you gave up because your instrument wasn't perfect. I'm happy to say that I did NOT. If I'd given up when things weren't just so, I'd never have achieved a damn thing in my life, because things are never just do when your family is living paycheck to paycheck. We're not all that fragile.

I have to stay away from this board sometimes because of this sickening attitude. I no longer like to associate with people who can make those assumptions about life without realizing how unbelievably offensive they are. You might all like to kid yourselves that you are all teaching the next generations of million-dollar Yuja Wangs, but you're not. I'd sooner teach a poor kid with a weighted Casio who can't imagine giving up without a grand because they can't imagine having one than a pigtailed millionaire's kid who whines and gives up if the piano isn't a Steinway.

also, what I don't understand is this mentality that in public schools, you have to do all your work.

Your parents wouldn't let you just decide to stop studying math or english or history or social studies - they wouldn't let you drop out or pass on doing art / gym homework

But if the child for even a second stops showing interest in music lessons - BAM! They're done.