how would you respond?

[ilovemusik]

if the parents found out that his/her child lost interest and not practicing piano and they don't want to waste your time? do you still want the child continue lessons?

[m1469]

Well, this is a bit of an odd question to me.  It's not like the teacher would not know the student is not practicing and is "wasting" the teacher's time.  So, whether a teacher wants to keep a student like this is a decision that the teacher has already made before the parents found out, it would seem.

If it were me as the teacher, my response to the parents would depend entirely upon the specific student and who the student is as a person.

[nyonyo]

Depend, if you need the income, you keep the student hoping the student gets better.
If teaching is not your sole source of income (like me), I will kick the student out even before they express their opinion or thought (nicely though, just find 101 excuse).

[Bob]

Just find a piece they like to play.  They must like some type of music.

[counterpoint]

if the parents found out that his/her child lost interest and not practicing piano and they don't want to waste your time? do you still want the child continue lessons?

If it's obvious that the child does not practise and has no interest in playing piano, simple answer: stop the lessons!

[wenat]

If it's obvious that the child does not practise and has no interest in playing piano, simple answer: stop the lessons!

Sometimes it does seem the obvious answer, but not always! I have a student who has absolutely no interest, and has said so both to me and the parents.  However, the child is a natural and has the potential of being very very good, so both parents and I have decided to go on and push her a bit rather than giving in to her.  Finding a piece of music she likes sometimes does the trick, but only very briefly. I found that putting her into situations like recitals works, as she has to practise or humiliate herself on stage!

[dan101]

Most children don't have a very good routine with respect to practice. However, if the child in question is getting something out of the lessons, then everyone's a winner. I would personally keep teaching the child, unless they openly are stating that they do not want you or anyone else to be their teacher.

[alzado]

I was waiting to go in for my lesson last summer.  My teacher came out of the studio with a little boy, perhaps 6.

She told the mother, "I don't know if he practiced at all, but -- if so -- he did not practice anything I asked him to play."  Then she said, "we had a half-hour lesson to complete, so I played a game with him where he has to guess or find certain notes.  He seemed to enjoy it."

I admired the teacher's strategy here.  She was very pleasant, and did not seem greatly perturbed by the young student, but I respected her in that she told the mother exactly where things were with her son.  I can only imagine this is not what the mother wanted to hear.

A couple of things:  Possibly this boy was a little too young -- sometimes for very young children, Suzuki piano works better.  Children too young to read words may not be ready for traditional piano pedagogy (i.e., reading notes).

Second, two extremes of parenting regarding piano would be (1) scolding, harping parents on one hand, and (2) total "hands off" on the other.  This mom might be in the second category.  It appears the mother would really have to insist that the boy make at least some effort to attempt the material for the next lesson. Otherwise, what are either she or her son getting out of this?

I'm sorry to say I am not a piano teacher, but many of you are.  I am sure that those of you who teach children run into this sort of conundrum every once and a while.  If nothing is attempted at home, even minimum effort, how can the student move forward?

[danny elfboy]

if the parents found out that his/her child lost interest and not practicing piano and they don't want to waste your time? do you still want the child continue lessons?

Just ask the child whether he would continue the lessons or not.
Ask the child what piano and music means to hiim/her and consider whether he/she has replied like someone who is really interested deep inside in piano playing but is just going through a bad moment of apathy of whether he/she just has lost all interest on piano playing or never had it in the first place.

[n_n]

can't really listen to the kids on whether they want to play the piano if they're too young. A lot of kids didn't enjoy practicing when they were little and regreted for giving up later on...

[danny elfboy]

can't really listen to the kids on whether they want to play the piano if they're too young. A lot of kids didn't enjoy practicing when they were little and regreted for giving up later on...

Way more kids though were forced to take lessons as children against their will and now they hate anything that has to do with music, in fact I do know people that hate whatever piece or song and never listen to music because of this reason. Forcing people to do something just because WE believe we know that it's the best thing for them (we just don't know actually, and our opinion is as biased, prejudiced and subjective as theirs) is just a form of prepotence and violence, and something that even if could teach something to them about music, will influence their perception of coercion and power; in other words the take home lesson is that it's okay to use your power to force people to believe and do things rather than relying on valid arguments that we have the birthright to question or ignore.

I would never teach someone who doesn't want to be there learning and I would never want to have anything to do with parents that force children into music against their will, which usually means that they're not only forcing the child on something he/she hates or doesn't care about but are also forbidding the involvement of the child in his/her real interest and predisposition.

Besides I really doubt that it is possible to learn through coercion, it is not true learning just a survival absorption of information because you fear punishment and contempt but that's not learning.

There's a wondeful quote by Albert Einstein that says:

"It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe that it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly."

[johnk]

Would kids go to school if they were given free choice?

[danny elfboy]

Would kids go to school if they were given free choice?

If they didn't it would all the better for them.
For sure children would choose to keep learning, exploring, making sense of the world since it's just too istinctive and natural for us. If nothing it's school that destroys the pleasure of learning and make people "lazy" (actually understimulated). Not to mention the school system, as great pedagogists like John Holt and Maria Montessorri knew well) have been created to have a prison function during the industrial revolution when people moved to cities and kids were all over the place. They exist to teach people how to conform to mediocrity and make them easy to control and to turn into meaningless social gears whose only purpose is to produce, consume and die. So yes, if children were not turned into mediocre slaves they would choose what is better for them and would "learn" instead of choose coercitive brainwashig of regurgitated useless notions, limited concepts and dull intelligence-insulting tasks.
A dear friend of mine is unschooling her children and I've never met kids more knowledgeable and smart than them.

sandradodd.com/unschooling

[johnk]

So would this free approach work for learning music?

[danny elfboy]

So would this free approach work for learning music?

Yes. We can't expect everyone to fall for music so we must accept that those that do will seek it on their own. It's such a marvelous feeling to be involved with the things we love and such marvelous feeling is the best foundation for learning. I'm always buffled that people give things for granted and don't question their peculiarity. For example why people don't question why we give for granted that learning must be an annoying task and that couch potatoing is our true desire? When we go at the cinema and see a movie and we love it and we remember it even after years, not just a memory thing but rememeber the feelings, the sense, the meaning ... well we were learning. When we listen to a person we love, talking about his/her problems and after months we still remember and are trying to find solutions ... we're learning. When we keep trying to make figures with our skateboard and keep falling and yet trying again and again till we're satisfied of the result ... we're learning. When we're all excited about the idea of sailing and want to know everything about how ships work ... we're learning. When we watch the baker in awe for hours making and cooking bread and are fascinated by the process ... we're learning.
What I mean is that learning is inherently a pleasure not different than eating and it happens naturally without struggle or inhumane effort. When it doesn't it's because we're not actively learning, but we're passively recalcitrating second-hand information we can't make sense of because they appear like in a vacuum or worse like coerced brainwashing.
Not to mention that one of the best mean of learning i.e. imitation, is often overlooked while it is the forte of the self-learner. I believe that teachers should be facilitators of a self-discovering process. Education = ex ducere = drawing out NOT injecting in.