burn out

[bluepianist]

Have any of you ever experienced burn out?  I think I may have it.  After 36 years of teaching, I'm not looking for the start of school in Sept.  How did you deal with it?  How do you know it is burn out for sure?  thanks in advance for all of your help.

[lostinidlewonder]

One of the hardest things to do in music is to keep moving professionally. In other jobs you get promoted and move to different companies etc, but with music you can stagnate as a teacher for the rest of your life and never move. Although I am no where near 36 years teaching experience, I cannot fathom the brick walls I might face in the future. In the end we have to enjoy teaching, that is why we do it, we enjoy seeing people progress. This might however lose its effect in many years to come. Why not do more with your teaching? Why not give free public lessons for a mass? Host public concerts with your students, get other piano teachers and their network together too. Unexpected things can happen when you involve the public, outside of our private music circles which we tend sometimes to hide within.

[allthumbs]

If the thrill and satisfaction of seeing those you teach experience the joy of music, if seeing them develop as a musician, if watching them grow as a human being is gone, then it's time to retire and enjoy what you have already achieved as a teacher.

Only you can decide that for yourself.

Good luck and kudos to you for lasting that long.

Cheers,

allthumbs

[general disarray]

Have any of you ever experienced burn out?  I think I may have it.  After 36 years of teaching, I'm not looking for the start of school in Sept.  How did you deal with it?  How do you know it is burn out for sure?  thanks in advance for all of your help.

Ah, repetition.  The same old, same old over and over again.  Yes, that's burn out.  Well, you've been teaching for 16 more years than I have been alive, and I'm already worn out by the stupidity of dull humans and the tedious task of earning money.

I would think that humans need to reinvent themselves every decade or so, but that requires courage and a fearlessness in the face of economic instability.  What to do instead?  Well, partialize your life.  Admit that that your professional life, through the tedium of repetition, must be a total drag.  Use your personal life and the so-called "leisure time" to re-invent yourself.  If, for example, you are a teacher of music by day, be a sculptor by night.  Adopt a new identity for those times away from work.

Otherwise, you are doomed.

[Bob]

I guess we're all doomed.  It was nice while it lasted though.



Find something fresh, if you can. 

Otherwise, work is work.  That's why you get paid for it.  You can do what you have to, then get out of there.  Rest up and find something that interests you.

[joyfulmusic]

have you seen the dvd "The Secret"?  I just watched it again last night.  I confess up until this past weekend i was not feeling like initiating lessons again.  i was only focusing on the negative... and there's plenty of it.  Sometimes I think we get burned out by teaching because we are not getting enough "soul food" for ourselves and our own music.  We need to fill our own cup.  When's the last time you saw a live performance that filled your cup?  One of the reasons I adore living in the Boston area is that a great concert is always going on somewhere.  I also recently started working on Chopin's "Revolutionary".  Pick up some new music for yourself.  This year I'm going to have receptions at my home ever few weeks so that a few students and their families can come and play for one another.  I always hated recitals.  Don't like to subject everyone to hours of boring music.  Years ago when I played out for a living (jazz combo), I used to take a temp job in corporate every once in a while.  That was enough to get my enthusiasm back for being a musician.  it would be worse.  You could be in a cubby somewhere for 40 hours a week until you drop.  I've done that enough thank you very much.   I recommend getting some honest to gosh joy in your life.

[hyrst]

Have you tried to follow up on some of your long ago students to see what they are doing with their lives and if your owrk has really made a difference to some? 

That is one of the reasons I teach - not because soem of my brilliant students amaze me every week or most of them just love playing the piano - I need to know that what I am doing will last and have meaning.

I wrote to my own childhood teacher last December.  Unfortunately, I left it too many years to thank her, and she has died.  However, her daughter worte back to me and said my letter meant a great deal to her in remeberance of her mother.  Just imagine if her mother had known all those years of patience resulted in someone who not only continued to love music and play the piano, but in a second generation teacher.  In addition, I have a couple of students who are talking of teaching piano whene they grow up and one prodigious little girl who wants to be a performer and has the potential to play with orchestras and things.  That doesn't even consider those who might play the piano for reprieve from life, or simply those who have becoem more self-disciplined or better thinkers or even those who were just glad that somebody thought they were special when they were young.

My teaching career is not nearly as long as yours, but these are the things that keep me going now and that I hope I will always find fresh wonder with. 

[dan101]

Giving your mind a complete break from music is a technique that I use to prevent burnout. As a musician, I do, for the most part, think a great deal about compositions that I'm composing, repertoire that I'm learning, etc...

Giving myself a complete break, via sports other activities, really helps.

Good luck.

[m19834]

Have any of you ever experienced burn out?  I think I may have it.  After 36 years of teaching, I'm not looking for the start of school in Sept.  How did you deal with it?  How do you know it is burn out for sure?  thanks in advance for all of your help.

In most occupations, people retire after 36 years.  Perhaps you are just ready to be doing something else.  If for some reason you can't do something different, or you can't retire, perhaps whatever you are doing with your teaching can change enough to bring a fresh perspective for you and a new motivation. 

[alpacinator1]

have you seen the dvd "The Secret"? 

I have, and my first thought was "this should be listed in humor instead of self-help".

[communist]

try changing your teaching methods a little

[Bob]

How goes the burnout?  Burned out or relit?