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Neil Moore, California

About a year ago I responded to a similar question, and so for the benefit of newer teachers and trainees, I will post it on the forum again. Please note that I am addressing the situation with regard to students attending Private Lessons. Group and Shared Lessons can be managed quite differently.

Having had a chance to read some of the correspondence that’s been going back and forth about ‘holidays’, I thought I’d share some of my experiences and thoughts in this area.

Back in Australia, when I first began teaching and training others to do the same, I was surrounded by teachers who were working to a timetable that aligned with the school year. It roughly looked something like this:

The school year started around February, and was mostly on a cycle of ’10 weeks on – two weeks off’. This continued through to around mid-December, when all schools would break for about six weeks over Christmas/holiday season/summer.

In a nutshell, it meant that teachers were not teaching for approximately 12 weeks of each year. Although some would extend their teaching a week or so later into December, and others might start back a week before school returned in February etc., the majority were doing what almost all music teachers do, and that is to align themselves with the timetable as dictated by the school system.

When I spoke with teachers about this, some of them wanted it this way, only teaching during the school year, and having the scheduled breaks off. Obviously, that was their choice, and I both respected and supported that.

Other teachers however, wanted to teach more, but felt that it was not possible. They believed that people insisted on having the school breaks, and that this also applied to piano lessons. The teacher’s views, for the most part, went something along the lines of, “this is just ‘how it is'” or “people are unwilling to have lessons over the holidays” etc.

What it meant for these teachers was that their cash flow was all over the place and unpredictable. Their business was completely dictated by their students’ schedule preferences.

From my own personal point of view, and my own specific needs, this would never work. Taking this amount of time off – 12 weeks each year – was completely unacceptable. Having 3 young children, and with my teaching activities being my full-time profession, it was completely out of the question for me to effectively close my business down for three months of each year.

So, long before school break came around, I let everybody know that classes would continue over the break as normal. Generally speaking, it was really interesting to see how receptive parents were to this. Over time, they would regularly comment on how it was good for their children to have a fun activity to pursue over the weeks that they were away from school.

From the point of view of students’ progress, it was interesting to see how they usually made better progress over the holiday periods when not having to deal with school activities as well. And from my point of view, I really appreciated not having to go back and re-build students’ Playlists, as was often the case those with teachers whose students were on holidays for weeks, sometimes months, at a time.

With regard to my own breaks, I usually ended up not teaching between Christmas and the New Year.

Naturally, I had a percentage of families for whom it didn’t work to continue having lessons over the breaks. For whatever reason, they wanted time off, usually to take a family vacation and go away somewhere. And of course, that was always completely fine by me. I absolutely appreciated their choice in the matter, and I could completely understand their perspective of not wanting to pay for classes that they didn’t want to attend. However, I also wanted people to know that I needed to make sure that my business continued to function, and that I would filling the time slot with another student.

I would let people know that I would hope to see them in the New Year, and that hopefully I would have a place for them. Some people were surprised by this, and as I discussed it further and more deeply, it was an opportunity for them to discover and discuss some of their underlying expectations.

Essentially there were three components to what they expected – firstly, they believed that they had the right to not pay for lessons that they would not be attending. Secondly however, they assumed that I would be perfectly willing to not earn any income during that time. Thirdly, and most amazingly, they figured that they had ‘ownership’ over their regular time, and even though they didn’t want to pay for their breaks, their underlying belief was that I had no right to fill the time with someone else. Quite bizarre when you think about it!

Clearly when we talked about it, they could see the win/lose that was embedded in their expectations. And obviously, as is the case with all fair-minded people, they appreciated that the only way a successful relationship could move forward with any integrity, was for the situation to be a win/win.

So it became clear for everybody. The parents would do what worked best for them, and I would do what worked best for me. If I continued to teach over breaks, and they didn’t want to continue, then of course they were free to stop, however, I would be filling their spot with someone else. And those families who decided to stop, would check in on their return and if I had a spot available, they would take it and continue on.

In reality, very, very few families ever stopped. They didn’t want to. They chose not to. They valued having the 48 lessons a year, far more than the $100 or so they saved by stopping and risking losing their spot.

What was powerful and entirely appropriate about all of this – and this has everything to do with preserving the integrity of the student/teacher relationship – was that people were empowered and free to ‘choose’ what they wanted to do.

In fact, I had many families who would pay for the month that they were away, just to ensure that they kept their spot. And it was exactly the same here in the US. I had many one and two-student families who would pay for the entire summer (three months of vacation @ $125 per month, per student), just to retain their spot, because of how much they valued having lessons for the other nine months of the year!

The bottom line here is to do what works for you, and regardless of what that is, people will have the opportunity to choose.

It’s like the fees issue. When it comes down to what teachers charge, I believe that many teachers under-value what they provide. Often, they charge far less than what this method and the contribution they make is worth. But that aside, there are any one of a number of ways to address your fee set-up. And regardless of what it ends up being, the choice is yours. And if people accept your rates, then great. If they don’t, then you are free to choose as to whether or not you adjust. Nonetheless, it’s about choices, not ethics.

With regard to some of the other forum messages that I have been reading, that talk about ‘cultural differences’ between Australia and the U.S., as far as I’m concerned, those differences don’t exist when it comes to people’s relationship with having music lessons. Having lived in the U.S. Since 1994, and having built large, successful studios in both Australia and the U.S., as well as having recruited and trained teachers in both countries, I’m convinced that the music learning culture, with all its expectations, willingness, unwillingness, attitudes, resistances etc., etc., are remarkably the same in both countries.

However, when all is said and done, there are two things that I want to communicate with no uncertainty. Firstly, every teacher has the right to teach as little or as much as they choose to. Secondly, every teacher has the right to charge as little or as much as they believe their contribution to be worth. And personally, I defend every teacher’s right to choose what works best for them, with regard to these two things.