I found that really depressing that all students will quit at some point and have therefore resolved never to quit - until the day I die. We'll see how that goes.

Glad you have come to a personal resolution on it pianolism. I don't think you should give it another thought.

I thought of this topic last night when I watched a repeat of "How I met your mother" about people who say "I can't be with you... right now" and keep you dangling on a hook. I thought about the message: "I want to stop piano lessons... for the time being" which is the same sort of thing - keeping the door open for the future.

I work with young people in my job (as a counsellor - not a piano teacher) - and a very large majority communicate via text message only - some only communicate via facebook. To them - it's not avoidance - it is the way they communicate. We might not like the way communication has evolved and it might feel cold and dismissive to receive an SMS instead of a phone call - but they do not hold those same beliefs.

We can try to change those beliefs and have them communicate with us in ways that are more 'acceptable' or in ways we are more comfortable - or we can can accept that technology has changed the way communication happens and young people know no other way! I agree with the posters who suggested the fact that she communicated at all was a bonus and sign of some maturity.

Would it be snarky of me to point out that we recently had a thread about piano teachers reading texts while teaching lessons? And that not everybody agreed it was a bad idea?

Commitment tends to come from one of two factors:

1. Parents who are committed to their child recieving a quality musical education, and who gently but firmly guide them through periods of difficulty and frustration and see this as a valuable part of the experience. This type of parent certainly wouldn't be of the impression that playing piano might be "fun" - they realise there is some effort involved and that piano can't be mastered in 30 minutes a week. They build designated practice times into their weekly schedule and stick to them unwaveringly.

2. Students who are very musical, optomistic, confident, competitive and self driven who want to play for any audience they can muster and enjoy playing through not only the pieces you assign but other pieces they find online, their old repertoire, their friends reportoire, picking out the songs they are learning in school music etc.

I am yet to have a strong combination of those two factors in one student, but the ones who stick at it and do well fall into one of those categories.

I actually have sign up in my studio saying "No Texting or use of cell phones during band classes"
If a student wants to pay me to sit there while they text, cool (but the parents will be informed). But when I have 4 or 5 students in a band class, it is not fair for them if one student is wasting time texting.
It hasn't been a big problem though. I had one drummer (17 yr old girl) who was the reason I put up the sign, and she smartened up right away, and I had one vocalist (again teen girl) who was constantly checking it, but she was a pretty short term student.

For myself, I don't even have a cell phone. I have an ipod touch which I can text with, but I almost never do. And yes if I need to contact a student facebook is generally the best way unless it is time sensitive. Absolutely texting and fb are the primary means of communication for this generation, and that's fine.
I do take phone calls during lessons because most times if I get a call during teaching hours it is a student calling in sick or something. I don't engage in any conversation longer than a minute though.

Still I cannot help but think that the student choosing to not say anything at her last lesson, but sending a text and then not answering a subsequent phone call has some measure of avoidance written all over it. I don't blame her though. No one likes to deliver news that might hurt someone's feelings, and when you are young and delivering such news to an adult, it will be even more awkward and intimidating.

There are missionaries and Peace Corp members working with groups where “a very large majority” have malaria. I am not quite certain that a plurality is justification for not attempting to treat the disease. I am even less sure that they should simply let the disease spread so that everyone has it.


No, technology has not changed anything. Surpluses of microchips, mass-marketing of fantasy, and the huge profitability in selling distractions, are what combined to change the way kids spend their time. “Texting”, “messaging”, “eMailing” (and various other nouns turned into gerunds) are a few of the ways they choose to waste their time now.

Admittedly, I do not know you. However, it would seem to me that, in your profession, you might be perfectly poised to help reverse those trends - and certainly not by considering them normal, and an inevitable course of evolution.

Ed

I do not know about "snarky", Tim. To me it is just a very sad, sad commentary. . .

*snicker*