Posted by: clariniano on: July 9, 2011
Lately I’ve been hearing of a number of school music teachers who teach private music lessons for extra money. However, I feel that they should not do so, as they typically earn a decent income from school teaching (here about 80-100K a year in most schools), and many teachers who cannot or choose not to teach in schools need private students. Many private teachers, unless they have long-term stable well-paying performing jobs, struggle to make ends meet and make a lot of sacrifices to be able to survive, while many school music teachers are likely to have a decent car and a house in a decent neighbourhood.
In addition, the private teachers who do not teach in school music programs seem to be far more likely to get students doing extremely well on exams, auditions, and competitions, and may be more willing to spend money to have students start on good-quality equipment.
Maybe not so much for instruments where there are few teachers (like horn and oboe). But for common instruments, like flute, violin, and clarinet, they need to be referred to teachers who enjoy and strongly prefer one to one teaching and produce excellent results.
Those teachers also are far more likely to need scheduling changes, especially the itinerant ones, due to their school’s meetings and performing schedules. And they are already tired from long days of teaching, and may not have the student’s full attention.
Next, a school music teacher as a private teacher, especially if they refer their own students to take private lessons with them, particularly if they charge money for it, can, and often are breaching their terms of employment with the school or school board they are hired for.
Third, a school music teacher who teaches private lessons is likely to have significantly lower expectations for achievement in private students, because they are heavily influenced by what many students achieve and learn in school music programs, which in many cases is very little. Many school teachers teaching private lessons have lost sight of excellence in achievement in music, since many of them rarely perform once they start teaching in a school
Fourth, a school music teacher is far less likely to offer additional performance opportunities for students, such as student recitals/concerts, because they are often very busy with their school music teaching jobs. They are much less likely to be able to attend a student’s exam or competition, because they are teaching in schools, which private teachers who do not teach at schools sometimes do.
So another question parents should ask their prospective private teacher: do you teach in a school music program, either as a full-time teacher or as an itinerant? If the answer is yes, put that teacher low on the list or cross them off your list.
