The following is not a complaint; I love nearly every minute of what I do. I would teach for free if I didn’t have bills to pay, and be just as happy doing it! I just want to give you my perspective.
Have you ever thought about what you’re purchasing when you hire the services of a teacher? I realize that tuition fees for music or academic tutoring can seem expensive, but if you can find teachers who love their students more than they love their personal downtime, the price is more than fair!
Here’s why.
Yesterday, I spent 14 or 15 hours working on my business, only 4 of which earned any income. (Full disclosure: not every day is as crazy as yesterday, but many are. For instance, today I have worked 13 hours and counting, only 5.5 of which earned income.) What was I doing to keep myself so busy? I keep asking myself the same question, lol.
I was taking a course to make myself a better writing teacher, playing the piano to practice for an upcoming gig, and preparing the curriculum for a new class I’m teaching, tweaking it as close to perfection as possible. In addition, I spent a good portion of my time researching better ways to teach specific concepts to those I tutor and drawing up lesson plans for them. Eventually, I had to call it a night and go to bed, knowing that I would awaken this morning to yesterday’s incomplete to-do list.
Today I have done much of the same, as well as administrative work and researching new ways of teaching voice lessons to young children (and new songs for them too)!
None of this makes me special! I assume that thousands upon thousands of people invest far more into their businesses than they’ll ever see returned, and I assert that it’s true for teachers like me. But it’s because we love what we do and the people we do it for! We have a passion for the growth of our students, and the growth of our businesses.
Why do we want our businesses to grow? We’ll never be rich or famous, but we want to reach more people. We want to imbue confidence. We want to encourage, develop, and train them in areas that will add value to the rest of their lives.
So if you have found a good teacher for your child, know that they will jump through rings of fire and spend any amount of time necessary to research, plan, and teach what needs to be taught, even if they have to learn something new themselves or give up free time to make things happen. In addition to their ongoing endeavors to make themselves and their lessons the best they can be, teachers also bring a lifetime of experience, education, and expertise to the table. You can’t really put a price tag on that, but we do it anyway, lol.
