Straggling students and 3 more days until Vegas!

By Gaby -
Do any other violin teachers have trouble with students who just can't seem to get the basics down?  I'm talking about fundamentals like properly holding the violin up, keeping the left wrist "straight" and maintaining a solid, correct bow grip.  The latter, I understand is something that MOST players are always correcting and perfecting, so I'm not going to get too picky about that one.

But seriously, it seems like at least once a year, I get a student--usually just one or two at a time--who just can NOT get it right!  With a majority of my other students, something usually "clicks" and everything comes together; progress may still be slow with some, but progress is still visible and it's encouraging for both student/parent and teacher.  With the straggling students, I don't even think they're trying.  In fact, they are doing the exact opposite of trying...they're practically taking a nap during each lesson.

This is beyond frustrating; I know I shouldn't care about this, but sometimes I worry about my reputation as a teacher when I think about those students--God forbid-- displaying their awful habits in front of anyone else.  I groan when I imagine someone asking, "um, who's their teacher?"

But beyond that...don't students (and their parents) like that get tired of not getting better as a result of not even trying?  I cannot fathom this.  Sometimes it's physically and mentally draining for me to teach students like that.  I--at the same time--feel angry and guilty for accepting and continuing to teach students like that because they're obviously not practicing or trying, but their parents continue to pay for and take them to their lessons. 

Sigh.

Oh man.  Just a day and a half before I'm done teaching for the whole week and am off to my parents to meet up before our flight to Vegas.  I've been building this trip up so much in my head and it's going to SUCK so much having to come back, I can already tell.

Good news: pretty sure I've successfully reconfigured my summer schedule w/ students so that I can have Fridays off for the entire summer without compromising how many students I teach.  I am also excited about future three day weekends for the next two months or so.  I foresee a lot of laying by the poolside and road trips in my future this summer.:)

Comments

Karen Bjork Kubin said…
I know what you're talking about, and have suspected with some of my own students at times that they were not even trying. But then, I was one of those kids, myself--for a number of years. You really never know when something will click for them and they will see that it's worth their effort. Hang in there!
June 8, 2011 at 2:50 PM
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