Lea Ann said "so you can understand why a teacher working out of her home who teaches mostly high school students and has no degree or a low level degree could not compete with a teacher who teaches students who want to be professionals, who is teaching out of a studio and has credentials out the wazoo."
While I understand your overall point, I must take exception to the concept that teaching in one's home, or the age or goals of one's students, must affect the cost a teacher charges for lessons. The concept that a teacher who works in a place other than a school or rented studio, specializes in younger students (or older, or non-classical, or whatever), and accepts students who are not planning on professional careers...that that teacher is automatically less of a teacher than others is an unfair assumption. There are good teachers and bad in every category. Those teachers dedicated to the nurturing of beginning musicians are, in my mind, to be particularly esteemed, because they provide the foundation for further study.
Teaching singing at any level, in any place, is a profession and a business. Supply and demand plus cost of living may come into play when setting fees, but the owner of that business sets the fee(s) and accepts the fact that that will attract some customers and repel others. Like Sharon and many others on this list, I love what I do, but I expect to be compensated for my skills and experience, not where or who I choose to teach.
-y
_Dr. Yvonne Dechance Email: webmaster@n... Homepage: http://www.scaredofthat.com/yworld/ Diction Domain: http://over.to/dictiondomain
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