Friday, April 06, 2012

ah......now, that's another change!

my son just changed piano teachers. his 1st teacher, Grace, which i think is a lovely name, passed away after a long illness 2 years back. he's been with this 2nd teacher since, & we did notice over the years that he's neither been too enthusiastic about the homework nor practising at home. he used to play on his own initiative but now, we even have to coerce to get him to the keyboard.

then, we realised to our horror, that this teacher only teaches for 30mins on the piano, then gives out written exercises for the remaining 30mins, during which time, she teaches another student on the piano!

i beginning to wonder if this is the norm amongst music teachers?

now, the new teacher, coincidentally also named Grace, which makes me think that life has gone a full circle, assured us the boy will have her undivided attention for the whole hour. when we paid for the lessons, in advance as is the practice adopted by all music teachers we know, she issued a receipt.

we were surprised, mentioning to her that all the previous teachers just recorded payment in a notebook. she said she pays tax on her income & she's ok with that. she also quoted this from the bible :

"Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” the Jews asked.
Then Jesus said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
matt 22:17, 21

oh, did i forget to mention that her father is a practising pastor?

7 comments:

SOO [¥] said...

Must be earning a lot as a piano teacher to even pay income tax!

How much are you paying for one to one private class per hour? Over here I'm paying USD200 for 8weeks x twice weekly x 30 min/session. Equivalent of USD25 per hour!!

doc said...

Soo,

my son is in Grade 4 & each 1-hr lesson costs RM40, or Rm160 a month. this is considered an enrichment class, & just like school subject tuition, if he is a better person/student for it, then it's expenditure well spent.

Yvonne Foong said...

That's why the current teacher gives her students undivided one-hour attention as promised. :) That's what the kids' parents are paying for.

I am glad God sent her to you.

A lot of music teachers teach multiple individual students together. Just like your son's case, they will let your son play his last-week-pieces for her. Once he is done, he will be asked to move aside to do his theory exercises while another student plays his piece on the piano under her observation.

In my past experience, the only places that didn't do it was Yamaha in Subang Parade and a husband/wife team that teaches violin and piano respectively in USJ.

But my parents and I were not as conscious as you were. We didn't realize that we were being shortchanged.

doc said...

Yvonne,

we hope there's no need to change teachers till he finishes grade 8.

anastasia said...

That's what my teacher used to do too. I don't see a problem with it because she was in the same room as I was and if I ever had a question, I could just ask her.

doc said...

Anastasia,

it's down to the teacher's conscience.

if you had asked the teacher questions, doesn't that detract her attention away from the other student, who had paid for the FULL lesson?

Unknown said...

Do u have the number? Thx