Another things that parents say to us teachers

[rowdy2898]

I feel like blowing off some steam because I had a pretty rough week. Here's a list of things that bother me with parents of students who take piano:

-(after hearing me play in recital): Oh my, that was awesome! Can you teach my kid to play that last SONG? (now to their defense, their son was actually pretty bright, but he was a teenager and struggling with RCM 6 pieces. Plus I'm 99.99% sure he would have NO intention of continuing with music after high-school. This goes to show how deluded some parents can be.)

-What SONG was that? (Please, call it a piece, not a song).

-I want my son/daughter to learn Fur Elize, Moonlight Sonata, (insert another overplayed piece here).

-You're such a good teacher! My kid doesn't need to practice (oh, yes he/she does...)

-Teach my daughter ONLY classical music, please. (Possible response: "Can you define what you mean by 'classical', please?)

-Anyone who said that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were the most "perfect" composers in history, and never even HEARD of Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and a large number of standard composers.

-Asking me this question: "Why are piano lessons so expensive?" When their kid is taking hockey lesson, going to private school, or both. That's right, their child is going to private school and they're too cheap for piano lessons! WTH is wrong with some people?!

-So...HOW GOOD ARE YOU? (usually, if there's a piano nearby, I play the coda from the Chopin ballade in F minor at breakneck speed, and that leaves them speechless and if there are kids around, they start screeching: "Oh my god, you're so good!" . It's not exactly a modest thing to do, but they asked me a question. ).

-You're not Asian...

I tried to keep it annonymous, just in case a parents stumbles on these boards. If anybody is feeling like it, please make a "parents say the darndest things" list.

[nanabush]

I usually get these skeptical looks from parents because I'm not female.  It's pretty sexist... similar scenario to a girl in a business meeting with 80% guys... she may get looks of "what is she doing here".  Since I'm the only male piano teacher at the school, I get singled out for that... I  am one of the few teachers who 'has their grade 8' (for some reason, parents always ask about the "grade 8" because you get high school credit for it in Canada... LAME.  Grade 8 is a fraction of piano, and stopping after it has literally left SO much knowledge in the dust).

"Oh my child forgot their books.  Just 'do theory' with them"... I would, but your kid is 5 and is still struggling with the alphabet haha... I'll do clapping games instead thank you very much.

"Why is my granddaughter not playing at the recital?! This is NEWS to me!"
-I've told her the last month that her piece needs to be ready for her to play it.  I've written in her notebook EXACTLY STEP BY STEP how to approach learning the bars she is struggling with.  I've made checklists, reminders, and she doesn't do it, week after week.
"Well, this is NEWS to me"
-Do you look at her notebook?
"No, we didn't know you have to use the notebook while practicing"
... this girl is in grade 10 in high school.  She is a big girl and I hate having to remind her week after week to do the little things in practice.  This whole scenario was really dumb because the grandma was utterly shocked that her angel wasn't allowed to perform (recital WAS on June 22nd).