Klarinet Archive - Posting 000387.txt from 1998/07

From: <CmdrHerel@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Student problems
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 02:17:23 -0400

In a message dated 98-07-15 13:46:36 EDT, Maestro645@-----.com writes:

<< If they pay in advance and don't tell me they will be gone, I
keep the money. (mean, I know, but I do this with the suggestion of one of
my teachers, and it discourages truancy.) >>

Not mean at all. I taught for five years without this policy and got walked
all over. Now my students pay by the month and pay in advance of the month.
You would not believe the difference in attendence! And when they come
regularly, they learn more and enjoy it more, and that benefits them.

Leo sounds like an exceptional case. If he's paying and still coming late, or
not showing, then I don't see what else you can do other than what you've
said. I'm interested in reading other's replies to this. I'd still try to
teach him, though, when he did show up. One or two lessons a month is still
better than none, and he will learn, just not as much as he could.

I once taught a kid for an entire school year and he literally showed up for
maybe a total of six lessons. However, his mother paid regularly. In
retrospect, I think he used the lesson time as an excuse to take the car and
get out of the house... If I'd been smarter, I'd have talked to his mom about
it, but I was young... Anyway, for his last lesson, he came in and said he'd
had some fun playing the clarinet and now he was going to go to college and
take up trombone! I said, "Trombone? Why did you just spend an entire year
paying for clarinet lessons? Why didn't you take trombone lessons?" He said,
"I don't know."

Teri Herel.

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