Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Is this student pushing her luck?

My friend is a teacher. The kid in question is fairly talented, and the parents pay for lessons 6 months in advance. THEREFORE, the kid is habitually late, or early or somewhere in between. He is never there are the agreed upon hour.

The teacher either needlessly waits or has to rush to his next musical commitment. Would you lay down the law to this student? The teacher is afraid to lost this student of many years. Any suggestions?

I don't see what's so difficult about this problem.

Early? Go wait outside until your time.

Late? You get whatever is left of your lesson.

So, yes, lay down the law. Please.

Paying in advance for lessons - even paying a whopping six months ahead - has approximately zero to do with showing up on time for a lesson. This loose and annoying situation is obviously the result of an informal teaching relationship over many years. Are these lessons taught in the student's home?

Your friend may be a fine piano teacher, but he's also a pushover. That's a bigger problem than one you can solve.

If he's early have him wait. If he's late, teach what remaining time you have. I don't see a big problem, just an annoyance.

maybe you'll have to actively engage and attract this kid so he makes his parents be on time.

I can't imagine really. good luck.

Hate to read too much into the wording, but most people would have said "never there the scheduled time."

Which might lead me to rashly speculate that the time moves to fit convenience, and is agreed upon or even negotiated.

That kind of thing really never works.

Nice catch, Tim. It all sounds flaky.

First thing I'm reading is that the student is fairly talented. If he is being told this by everyone, and the teacher is bending over backward because of his talent - "too talented to lose" - then he may have an attitude and not know better. Talent holds promise, but only together with learning and self-discipline. The ideas of starting and ending the lessons according to schedule seems straightforward. He arrives too early: he has to wait for the lesson to start. He arrives late: he can have the amount of time that is left, and then it's the next student's turn. Like everyone's been saying.

Why is the student female in the thread title and a male in the thread discussion?

ubiquitous reading deficit - I seem to suffer form URD as well.

Yeah, and why is the OP asking for advice for his "friend?"

Hee, hee.

The money is the same if the student is not on time if lessons are paid for, and if you stop at the next lesson, on time, you lose no time. Coming early is not a problem for me, but it could be for others.

But I hate not teaching full lessons, so I always confront. However, it doesn't always work, and when the STUDENT is good but the PARENTS are never on time, it's a tough call...

Weird topic...

Maybe it's one of those, "I have a friend that..." discussions. Gender complications aside, I think the advice given so far has been good and consistent. If the teacher in question chooses to give the student their full lesson time in spite of the student not showing up on time (and is this the student's fault, or the parent driving them?), then it is the teacher's fault for being late for other things afterwards. I do not teach a student extra time if they are late.

And being talented and paying for lessons in advance - no matter how far in advance - has no bearing on this.

I screwed up and didn't check my thread title genderwise. Sorry.

I just emld you a longer explanation.

I think it's something that should be mentioned to the student, however, it's not something that should be "enforced". I definitely think that if a student comes in early, the lesson before shouldn't be compromised. The other students are entitled to their full time that they are paying for. As for the student coming in late, that's his/his parents' decision. As long as they as paying for it, I don't see an issue there. His parents are paying for that time and are entitled to use it as they wish, even if that means wasting some of it. Obviously, it's not ideal, but if you take it up with the student and his parents and they decide to do nothing about it, you either use that time when he's late for your benefit, or lose a valuable student. Those are your options. Personally, I'd say that student being late isn't the worst thing in the world since it gives you a few minutes break. But whatever you do, don't let it compromise your other students.

You have to put your foot down and lay down the law. Without that, this will just continue and may even have a chance of progressing for the worse.

Talk to the parents nicely, saying you can't go on making up time for the student anymore; it's wasting your time and energy.

Find out why the student is late and try to help him solve the problem-- is the lesson too early or too late for him? Does he need a different time?

If he misses a lesson without prior notice, charge him 50% to 100% of the lesson fee still, given the time that you've put in.

People take it for granted that piano teachers will make up any time lost.

This isn't true and sometimes piano teachers are exploited this way.

Another thing that helps is writing a list of studio policies and having every parent sign it before enrolling in piano lessons.