Simpedia

Cindy B., Illinois

Having been fairly clear about the need to have students and parents refrain from writing extra notes for themselves or their children, and still seeing some of them doing it, I decided to include a reinforcement in my monthly newsletter. The text follows:

” I’ve noticed some parents are writing extra notes to help their child at home. PLEASE don’t do that. Why? The very nature of Simply Music is that it not only teaches students to play the piano, but it also develops mental muscles that are vital to this method and to life in general.  EVERYTHING that a student needs as far as the actual notesbook materials go can be found in the home materials. When I send a student home with an assignment that’s not in the home materials, it’s for a particular reason.

“Now I realize that it’s very important to parents that their child excel. This is important to me as well. I try very hard to present unsupported material to students in very small pieces, to help them develop what I call the “remembering muscle”.  It’s perfectly natural to get home after a lesson, especially in the early levels, and completely forget what DCT1 means, or the LH of NS1. I earnestly want the student to come to the next lesson without having practiced the forgotten material – the act of refreshing their memory actually builds that remembering muscle so that in the future it becomes quite easy for them to remember. If the parent does the remembering for the student, the building doesn’t take place. I guarantee you that when you child has 30 songs on their Playlist, you the parent will fail to remember something, even with your extra notes, and the student will be in a very difficult situation, having been unable to build the remembering muscle previously.

“All this really boils down to each participant understanding what their roles and responsibilities are. The teacher is responsible for knowing the material and being prepared for the lesson, ON TIME. The parent is the enabler/encourager. Parents don’t have to learn to play the piano, and they definitely aren’t supposed to be the teacher at home. Making sure that the student is going to the piano every day, AT THE SAME TIME, and keeps plugging away even on the days when they’d rather do just about anything else – that’s the parent’s responsibility. The student has to cooperate with both teacher and parent, and do their assignment, which includes marking their own Playlist unless they are very young.”

Thought this might help some teachers who find themselves in the same position I have found myself in.