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From:  Mezzoid@a...
Date:  Tue Mar 5, 2002  7:20 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: can we discuss lesson prices?

In a message dated 03/05/2002 10:58:57 AM Central Standard Time,
ydechance@h... writes:

<< 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. >>

Thank you, Yvonne! I feel exactly the same way. I have chosen NOT to teach
in a conservatory or college setting. At the local conservatory, they would
charge the students slightly more than I'm charging now - but I would get a
little more than half of that. As a self-employed person, I am responsible
for my OWN health insurance, paying quarterly taxes, setting up my studio to
the best possible advantage for myself and my students, establishing a
retirement account -- my income as a teacher is not just a little extra pin
money. I also have to pay out of pocket for any further education -- I try
to go to at least one NATS-sponsored event per year.

And my students may or may not decide to become professional musicians, but I
treat them as though they ARE going to from the minute the walk into my
studio.

<< 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.>>

Exactly!!

Christine Thomas
Wauwatosa, WI
<A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html">
http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html</A>

"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a"



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