Turning Prospective Students Away

I really hate turning prospective students away, but I have to do it every month. There are only so many private lesson slots in a day, and it's literally impossible to squeeze another student in once you reach the saturation point. It would be different if I taught class piano, but there is a limit to how many private students a teacher can take. One man asked me if I would teach his daughter on Sundays. If you agree to requests like that, you will lose your personal life. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and a smart teacher will try to make sure she doesn't do more than that which she can do well.

Right before we started the Fall Term this year, I swore to myself that I would absolutely NOT take another student. No matter what. Then I got a phone call from a mother in a town about 30 minutes away. She had registered her daughters for my waiting list a few months ago, but I had already sent out a "sorry, there's just no way to place your child this year" email to her after there were not enough new openings for the new school year. Her voicemail was typical. "Hello, I'm just calling to see if there is any way that you could take just one of my girls this year. I would really like to talk to you if you don't mind."

It turned out that her teenage daughter was homeschooled and had personally picked me out. Seriously. Her own teacher was retiring, and she needed a new teacher. She had heard one of my students play at a festival and had asked the student's mother how to get in touch with me. That's when the mom found my studio online and signed up for the waiting list. But here is the thing that got me. The daughter had looked up videos of my students on YouTube. She had already read everything she could find about my studio. She was sure that I should be her teacher.

I was in a similar situation many years ago. When you lose a piano teacher that you really click with, it's devastating. You build a relationship of trust and understanding over a period of many years. If you are serious about piano, you simply will not be satisfied with just any teacher. You have to have the right teacher for you. I understood this all too well.

And so I changed my mind.

I had returned the mother's phone call and was already reciting my "absolutely not" line when I just stopped and said, "Sometimes you get a feeling that God wants you to do something. I think I'm supposed to take your girls." That language was a little familiar of me since I'd never met the mother, but I just said it. She assured me that she would get her girls here any time that would work for me. She wasn't picky. And that was that.

Was it a mistake? No. I'm sure it was the right thing to do. The girls are great students, and they get here before the public and private school kids are dismissed from classes. That said, I absolutely will not take another student this year. :)