Sometimes when I ask a younger student what he has been learning, I get such responses as "such and such method book", Hanon and Czerny along with inferior sonatinas and the like. My complaint is, if a student and teacher are really interested in classical music, there is an abundace of top class pieces that are well within the grasp of a beginning student. Things like Bach Preludes of easy difficulty, or movements of a Mozart sonata. If a student should grow, he needs to be exposed to great music right from the start, and learn how to make exersizes out of difficult parts. Technique is important, there can be no music without technique, but the ends do not justify the means; don't play endless hours of mechanical exersizes just because that is what the teacher says. Music is in our mind, then in the fingers. Why do the opposite and treat our mechanism like a weightlifter does to his arms? His goal is to lift, or goal is not to play fast but to make music!

maybe you will make a great teacher someday.

You make an important point -- that of the student's objetive. We don't all play the same kind of music, or have the same ideals for what we'd like to achieve physically.

For some, the kind of music they want to make requires a great physical dexterity, while others, such as yourself, obviously have other achievements in mind.

Yes, it's a shame when a teacher knows just one technique and cannot demonstrate flexibility when a student requires a different approach. In that case, the student should seek another teacher -- one whose techniques can match the objective.

And that goes for any subject... not just the piano.

I definitely agree. Technique, although important, is not nearly as important as your ability to play the piece musically and with a sense of direction. So long as the pianist can play the piece as if it were written for him, a few wrong notes here and there wouldn't matter.

Unfortunately, I had a piano teacher who obsessed about technique like this. I don't think I got much from him at all; just a lot of aggravation with him and his pickiness.