Probably Not The Nicest Thing I've Done
Before I tell you what I did, know that at this moment I am not working on the 10-12 page research paper that is due Friday morning and represents 40% of my grade in music history. In total, I have about 5 sentences written. I predict that I will pull an all-nighter within the next 24 hours.
So, I keep track of who has paid his lesson fees each month with a little Excel spreadsheet I developed a couple of years ago. I print it for the first week of each month and record who has and has not paid his lesson fees. I have it sitting on my music stand for easy reference while I'm teaching.
This one kid wended his way in, let's call him "The Winder Wunderkind", and played so poorly that my mind began to wander, and I wondered (did you catch all that, CW?) to myself, "Self, which students would you cut if you had the financial freedom to get rid of the dead weight in the studio?" So I picked up that list of students and started marking which ones I would keep, which ones I would cut, and which ones I would have to pray about. I smiled as I looked over the pared-down list and thought of the lack of frustration I would have were these eliminations to become a reality.
I didn't do this during his entire half-hour lesson, mind you, just the times when his playing showed how little he had practiced. This afforded me approximately 24 minutes to weigh the pros and cons of each of my 30-plus students.
For the rest of the day, whenever I got frustrated with a student, all I had to do was glance quickly at The List to be filled with a sense of joy mixed with longing. I might have to laminate this little piece of paper happiness and keep a copy in my wallet.
In other news, half of my back tooth fell off during dinner last night. This is a previous injury (1-2 years ago) that was supposed to have been fixed with a good filling by my dentist. If it can fall off just by eating a piece of garlic toast at Buffalo's, then I might ask if the filling is still under warranty. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. and will spend the rest of the day avoiding anyone with a camera and a Facebook page (or blog) while I try to stop drooling before the anesthetic wears off.
So, I keep track of who has paid his lesson fees each month with a little Excel spreadsheet I developed a couple of years ago. I print it for the first week of each month and record who has and has not paid his lesson fees. I have it sitting on my music stand for easy reference while I'm teaching.
This one kid wended his way in, let's call him "The Winder Wunderkind", and played so poorly that my mind began to wander, and I wondered (did you catch all that, CW?) to myself, "Self, which students would you cut if you had the financial freedom to get rid of the dead weight in the studio?" So I picked up that list of students and started marking which ones I would keep, which ones I would cut, and which ones I would have to pray about. I smiled as I looked over the pared-down list and thought of the lack of frustration I would have were these eliminations to become a reality.
I didn't do this during his entire half-hour lesson, mind you, just the times when his playing showed how little he had practiced. This afforded me approximately 24 minutes to weigh the pros and cons of each of my 30-plus students.
For the rest of the day, whenever I got frustrated with a student, all I had to do was glance quickly at The List to be filled with a sense of joy mixed with longing. I might have to laminate this little piece of paper happiness and keep a copy in my wallet.
In other news, half of my back tooth fell off during dinner last night. This is a previous injury (1-2 years ago) that was supposed to have been fixed with a good filling by my dentist. If it can fall off just by eating a piece of garlic toast at Buffalo's, then I might ask if the filling is still under warranty. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. and will spend the rest of the day avoiding anyone with a camera and a Facebook page (or blog) while I try to stop drooling before the anesthetic wears off.
posted by Jason at 8:30 PM
2 Comments:
I caught your linguistic light-handedness. Artfully done -- just one vowel short of a full house.
You'd better hold on to your dead-weight Wunderkinder. Maybe they need two lessons a week to make up for the lack of practice. You'll be needing the cash for all that dental work. A crown ran me about 1500, last year.
By the way, I am sure that my old piano teacher, Mrs. Stokes, should have had me on a similar list, had she not been such a patient lady.
OK, Jason, I see now you slipped in the "e" before I managed to post my comment. More artful still. But maybe it's not quite a full house, since you used "wended" instead of "wender." I guess you could describe a person as a wender, in the act of his wending, though it sounds a little odd. Four and a half marks, then.
Post a Comment
<< Home