Klarinet Archive - Posting 000449.txt from 2000/04

From: chr <chr@-----.de>
Subj: [kl] Re: lesson fee
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 05:50:13 -0400

I think I need to clarify myself since there have been some
misunderstandings with my letter. The package fee I charge for 4 months of
lessons is much lower than what one would pay for on a per lesson basis. My
husband does have one student who pays per lesson because he doesn't come
regularly and he pays a lot more if you calculate the per lesson price, so
these students are getting a really good deal by paying per trimester.(even
when you take vacations and holidays into account). Secondly, I'm not some
miserly clarinet teacher who is only concerned about money and tries
whatever means possible to do as little work as possible but still get paid.
I'm not like that at all. On the contrary, if I have a really good student
who practices a lot, I often give him extra time. When my students are
getting ready for a competition, I will often give extra lessons during the
week, on weekends or in the vacations. As far as illness goes, I can't even
remember the last time I called in sick. Fortunately I am very healthy and
rarely miss a day, but I'm glad for the security of knowing that if I do get
sick, I'll still get paid. I'd hate to have to depend on my health and my
students health as to whether I get paid or not. Whenever possible I will
make up an excused missed lesson. It's usually not possible with my private
students I teach only once a week, but they understand too and don't expect
it. After all, they are paying much less any way than if they paid per
lesson. Last week a student's mother called and said her son wouldn't be
able to come because he was going to a funeral so I rescheduled him for the
end of the day. There was not enough time to fill the vacant slot so I just
gave the girl who comes before him a full hour. She had practiced really
well and even had things prepared I hadn't assigned her so I felt she
deserved it. If it had been a lazy student, I would have just given myself a
break. I was in no way obligated by anyone to do that though.
One thing also that is different here is my husband and I are teaching ALL
the clarinets students in the bands here. Every player in the music schools'
bands at all levels has private lessons. In America, I think you're usually
teaching only the really serious students. Here we have all of them and most
of them are not diligent. Many of them get their clarinet out 2 or 3 times
in the week and sometimes not even that much. They really don't care if
their lesson happens to land on a holiday or not. The ones who care try to
rearrange with me and I try to accommodate them the best I can.
Hope this clarifies things better.
Cindy in Germany

> My private students are handled like this: when a new student start, the
> parents fill out a form with their bank information. I take this form to my
> bank and every 4 months at the beginning of a trimester money is taken from
> their account and put into mine. If a student misses his lesson, I usually
> don't have to make it up unless I know ahead enough to rearrange the lesson
> for another time. I'm allowed to be sick once a trimester without having to
> make up lessons. If a holiday happens to land on the day of their lessons,
> the lessons are canceled. Any time there is no school, there's no lesson but
> I still get paid. I get paid for the whole year including the 6 week school
> summer vacation. Of course a student can quit end of April, end of August or
> end of December.
> I teach private students one day a week and the rest of the week, I teach at
> the city music school. There it's even easier because I get paid by the city
> and don't have to worry about the money at all. If I know enough ahead of
> time when lessons are missed, I try to reschedule them if possible. Usually
> if they miss because of sickness, it doesn't get made up or if a student is
> gone the whole week. If I'm sick, I can miss one lesson per student per
> trimester without having to make it up. For the music school, I get 13
> months pay per year.
> I've never had trouble here about getting paid. I only have one private
> student where it doesn't run over the bank. He's always late paying because
> his family has real trouble getting the money, but so far, they have always
> paid me. When I lived in Utah, I had to worry about getting paid with every
> single student I had. Some never did pay me. One still has a Rubank method I
> loaned. They were so dishonest. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about
> those things any more. I feel very fortunate with the way it's run here in
> Germany.
> Cindy

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