2010 marks a new year and a significant change in my career path. I have decided to take an indefinite sabbatical from my music teaching work (at least in regards to private tuition) and am focusing on other areas. I have established a new web site www.themeyerstudio.com.au which is a consultancy specialising in the fields of:
- music production and publishing
- music training and resources (predominantly in the vocational training sector)
- web design
- custom spreadsheets and publishing for small business
After working exclusively in music education for the past 4 years, I must admit I am finding the break quite refreshing. If there is any one downside to teaching young children music, it is that the main KPI (key performance indicator) is the results you get from your students. Obviously. But why is that a bad thing?
As far as young adults and mature learners are concerned this is no real problem – they stand on their own feet. As long as I provide good teaching, they will more or less reciprocate with earnest effort. But with young children, it is another thing altogether. No matter how motivated they are, kids will be kids, and that’s even when they’re not juggling their lessons/practice with other subjects, swimming, problems at home, and whatever.
Now for someone like me who – whilst not being a control freak – does like to at least be in control of his own affairs, the fact that the main indicator of his success/failure as a teacher is so heavily swayed by things beyond his control doesn’t exactly thrill him. So for now, I will focus on activities where the earnestness of my labour and faculties brings due reward. Once I am refreshed, and back to practicing like I did in my university days, I may very well return to the private music studio to start working again with tomorrow’s Joseph Alessi’s and Arnold Jacobs’.