I have a student who is dragging through to his final lesson before he quits lessons for good. He comes in, refuses to play through his scales or anything in his book, and reminds me that he will after mid-May, he will never put an instrument up to his lips again. I cannot figure out for the life of me why he continues show up and waste my time. What is the rationale for spending the money so I can babysit the kid for a half hour? 30 minutes in a week is not quite 0.3%! What's the point? Can you improve on anything if you do it less than 1% a week?
I have another student who has quite an attitude, makes no effort to improve, and then makes comments like "I'm not paying you for this!" (actual quote!) when I act silly (entertaining myself) during his time. He lost his book about two months ago, but hasn't replaced it. He now expects to come in and use my copy every week. I'm guess I'm letting him push me around, but I think to myself that if I can remain calm for the thirty minutes I am with him, it will just about pay for a tank of gas.
The majority of my students practice a little (not enough, but a little). A handful practice everything I give them. The remainder (maybe six or seven?) show up, and have not done any work on their own. They even count the thirty minutes a week they spend with me as their practice time. A major waste of money! So I wonder, should I get rid of them, or continue to babysit them and take their money if they want to give it to me? Sometimes I think that if I got rid of every student who was wasting my time and their money, I would be teaching three students a week! Would that be better or worse?
Here's hoping the parents will pay a little more attention. If the kid ain't working on it at home, he's not making progress. Thanks for the money...I think.
