Adults Claiming Territory
Found in: Adult Students, Claiming Territory, Other Methods
Alice W., Australia
I apologize if this has already been covered on the Forum before but I have a difficult situation with a new adult student I need to resolve.
This new student is in a group of four and has 6 years previous experience as a child/teen. She is complicating lessons by trying to constantly relate everything I am teaching back to her prior knowledge (quite a normal thing to do). E.g.: last lesson learning Bishop Street Blues triangle
Student: “So what chord it that?
Me: “It’s a Bishop Street Blues Triangle is how I would like you to think of it
Student: “yeah but what CHORD is it?”
Me: “you really don’t need to worry about that right now”- (redirecting) Can you see how it’s a triangle?
Student (laughing): yeah but I need to know what chord it is.
Me: “Perhaps you could work that out this week but these guys (referring to others) don’t need to know that stuff just yet
Student lets it go.
I have also overheard her telling a fellow student NOT to watch while a clearly less able student is working his way through the song and demonstrating (at my request). She has sat down herself at this point and I stop the song to explain the benefits of peer observation and watching someone else going through the learning process.
She will often answer questions for others that are clearly directed at them which is less of an issue for me to manage but adds to this overall feeling that she is “competing” with me as teacher (therefore does not respect my knowledge and experience and understanding of what I am doing) and she is trying to “take over” the lesson.
I believe that if I stand my ground as I have been, and firmly but politely continue to correct her or re-orientate the lesson, she will eventually concede and not feel the need to promote herself and her knowledge of playing but she is proving to be a bit of a forceful character. She is also extremely tall which even I find a bit physically dominating (I am a confident teacher who used to lecture in educational psych. but I’m feeling a bit alone in this!)
I have used her good “teaching“ to reiterate or make points and “praised” her “…X just made a really good point….”etc but what I really want her to do is just let me do my job.
At the end of the lesson, I talked generally about how they are at the stage now where they are just getting to know how lessons work and a bit about how I work as a teacher and that they all need to follow my instruction as I know what I am doing and Simply Music is a tried and tested method. I talked a bit about TRUSTING and that they will then be sure to get the great results I have promised. (My less able student had also decided NOT to use the counting 1 2 3 4 for Ode to Joy and, not surprisingly, BH didn’t work well together?!)
Does anyone have any advice? I’m finding it hard not to take it personally and I’m not looking forward to next lesson which is not usual for me.
Gordon Harvey, Australia
Yes, this question comes up over and over – we are all presented with it at times. I think that you have handled it brilliantly so far, well done! It does sound like a private chat with her at this stage has become imperative as she is not getting the message. I would go along the lines of:
“I am impressed with how much you have retained from your earlier piano lessons and how that experience enables you to recognize the information that we are not covering in the lessons just yet and which will be a great asset down the road. However I cannot stress enough how critical it is not to use that form of information at this stage, and your questions and interjections which I know are natural, sincere and well intentioned will actually automatically do just that – trigger the wrong part of the brain and prevent the opening of the part that learns another way. Do you recall that I have been saying all along that this is a breakthrough method in approaching the learning of music? That is my commitment to the class, to deliver the tools that will bring this about because that is where the magic happens. The students’ first commitment has to be to TRUST THE PROCESS.
“It has been proven over and over again by our Simply Music students who would not allow their brains to be introduced to this new way of learning that the retention and understanding of the music is severely limited because no breakthrough has been allowed to happen. Educationally we are trained in Western society to use our brains in a certain way which when used to first learn the piano tends to block the natural understanding and retaining of the patterns and shapes on the keyboard – our road map – which ultimately underpins ‘seeing’ how music is constructed which is huge.
“Technically it is not actually a ‘new way of learning’ as we use this approach to remember how to get from A to B when going to the shops, or even finding which drawer our socks are in etc (ref analogy from our FIS) because IT WORKS and serves us well. We will only develop this other ‘muscle’ to absorb other types information if we don’t give the brain the alternative, familiar way to do it – not even a glimpse of it! Humans naturally go to that which is familiar but not necessarily most helpful in the long run. There are many, many, Simply Music teachers (and students) who were traditionally trained to a very high standard but who saw how the diamonds in this programme could liberate them musically and actually de-mystify how it works. With great determination they temporarily put aside their former knowledge to enable this transformation to take place and, while acknowledging how difficult this proved to be in the first place, are absolutely thrilled with their ‘new sight and understanding’ of the keyboard and how music works. Knowing that it has worked so brilliantly for so many other than myself gives me the belief and motivation to be absolutely true to this unique program me. We can only guarantee the results if we apply ALL the strategies. Missing out even 1 of the strategies has a profound effect on the outcome, it is that finely ‘tuned’ (no pun intended).
“I know that we cannot be all things to all people, it may be that you will not choose to continue learning piano in this way and I absolutely respect your right to make that decision but it would be irresponsible of me to allow those ‘triggers’ to continue to happen in my lessons as it will negatively impact on the learning of the others who have not made that decision. I am hoping that this will enable you to see that there is very deliberate ‘method in the madness’ and that we will continue to have your valued presence in the lessons but, as I have indicated, for the very best of reasons this is actually not a negotiable point.’ [You could recommend that she reads ‘a World Where Everyone Plays’ before she makes her final decision to continue or not.]”
Putting this in your own words will be very powerful – if we are passionate about the actual ‘Heart of the programme’ it does speak to most people but if it doesn’t then that is absolutely fine, give them your blessing which will happily allow you all to move on.