Good and Bad Parents

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Since the thread on students has lasted so long, why not this? Surely, you have encountered some wonderful and some very difficult student’s parents. How did they affect your teaching?

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

You have brought up an important facet of teaching! If the parent(s) are supportive and help guide the student’s practice sessions constructively during the week between lessons, that student will progress at a much faster rate than someone without this advantage. However, I have met parents who were so unreasonable in their expectations that it caused their talented child to quit playing. At the other end of the spectrum, I have run into parents who were so lax about whether their child practiced or even got to their lessons, that it seriously hampered the student’s development. Then there are the ones who force their reluctant and unhappy kid to study music for all the wrong reasons. I try to rise above it and not let it affect the lessons, but if I have a student who really does not want to be there and has no gift for music, then I gently point the parents in the direction of another field that might suit their child better.

[unknown-user]

They mostly affected teaching by not giving it a chance. They bounce along from teacher to teacher. Others demoralize their kids so that it is really tough to make progress. The kid gets so tied up in knots over pressure that the lessons require some decompression time. It is far better for the lesson to be the focus time, but what can you do when a kid is tied up in knots emotionally and physically and just can’t get started?

[B Y]

They’re either unreasonable, they force it, they don’t care about it or they listen to everything I say. You have to sort of ‘teach’ the parents also. It’s rough! Does anyone have the parents practice with the child at a young age? If so, until what age/stage?

[Calista Anne Koch]

I make the younger students’ parents practice with their children (usually until about age 9 or 10).

[Author]

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