Recommended AssociatesParents play the most central, yet vulnerable roles in children’s music educationBy Tatiana Bandurina Aug 30, 2009 - 5:32:59 PM
The three basic parties who take
part in children’s music education are the child, the teacher (or teachers) and
the parents.
To best understand how the young
musician will regard music lessons, we must ask: “How should parents plan for
the musical education of their children and what they know about it?”
As a rule, there are two main
things to consider: the choice and cost of the instrument, auxiliary materials
and lessons; and the search for a good teacher. After that, the preparation for
the child’s musical training is largely complete. However, buying the
instrument and paying for lessons are not the most complex part of music education,
although many parents think so and believe that the rest is up to the teacher
and the child, who is obliged to frequent music lessons on a regular basis and
do the homework. In fact, to parents, it all seems very easy! “Did you do your
homework today? Have you practiced that piece enough? Have you learned the
fingers in an etude? Come on, play the piece you had to memorize!”
Here’s the simple truth: The reasons
behind one’s success in music education as well as the loss of interest creep
in absolutely imperceptibly, and often during quite a long period of time.
First, then, let’s discuss what
happens when a child loses interest.
Again, parents are
the most integral and important parts of
the equation when it comes to their children’s success or loss of interest in
musical education. When a child gets bored with his or her lessons, the
parents, who by that point are exhausted by battles with the child to practice
and often feel financially pinched from the costs of the instrument and the
lessons, must then face the difficult decision of whether to terminate the
lessons.
While preparing the materials for
my book,
Voices of our Children, I
talked to parents and teachers and asked them what they considered to be the
prime reason behind the child’s loss of interest. Can you guess who a whopping
80 percent considered to be at fault? The child! It was
he/she who did not want to continue the education!
What’s more important is that after
terminating the lessons, very few parents asked themselves
why their child lost interest. Let’s look the perspective of each
participant in this scenario:
The child
.
He is happy! His “tortures” have finally ended. He no longer has to
hear unpleasant things about his careless attitude toward music lessons. No one
will ever force him to learn music against his will! Now he is free from
tiresome lessons and can spend time doing things he likes!
The teacher
.
Not every teacher, especially not those who often lose students, will
search for the real reasons behind a child’s loss of interest in music lessons.
It is easier for some teachers to accuse or blame the student than to admit to their
own mistakes.
In this case, what does the teacher
do? He quickly forgets about former students and places an ad to get new ones –
he has to earn a living. It’s just a job.
Parents.
Believe it or not, but I think that when the child quits musical
training, the parents suffer the most – not only because they have invested in
this venture materially, but because along with the termination of music
education they must part with their own dreams, hopes, and an opportunity to
discover and develop their child’s true talent that might not have been obvious.
Now, when the child quits music
lessons, he can quickly redirect his attention to new interests. The teacher,
who has lost the student, can compensate for his loss by finding a replacement.
But the parents do suffer the most – they cannot “move on” – they cannot replace
own child with another!
Therefore, to avoid this problem
before it hits home, I strongly believe parents should prepare for their
children’s music education ahead of time.
They
should know
beforehand what
awaits them in the future, and
should be
ready for possible hardships.
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