This is the second of a two-part interview. In the last episode, Jordan interviewed me about teacher pay, asking me about fair rates, negotiating, benefits, living wage, tuition rates, and teacher raises. In this second episode, Jordan asks me about other aspects of running a studio such as: What do you look for when hiring a teacher? Do you train teachers? If so, how? How much leeway do you give teachers for how they teach or what materials they want to use? How do you keep continuity if a student switches teachers in your studio? How do you prepare teachers for transfer students from outside your studio? If you don’t have an administrator, how do you manage everything and when is a good time to hire one? . . .
I’d love to hear from you if you have comments or questions!
Watch video version
In my studio (12 teachers), I don’t allow parent-teacher exchange of contact info…and it’s not because I think the teachers will poach students 😜
Great, tell us why!
– centralises communication, which minimises error, which is very important in larger music schools;
– it’s part of the trade-off: people work for music schools for lower wages than what they could charge working for themselves, in part because of the minimised responsibilities;
– policy would otherwise become complicated: what can and can’t teachers talk about/authorised to do (scheduling, payments, etc);
– not all teachers want to communicate outside the studio, which can lead to discontent among families arising from perceived differences in the quality of teaching;
– maintains professional boundaries which in turn minimises any potential confusion or discomfort that may arise from clients perceiving a personal friendship where none is intended, particularly in situations where issues or conflicts need to be addressed.
To name a few things 🙂
My staff love that they don’t have to/can’t communicate with families outside the studio!
How does centraliziing it minimize error?
As far as complicated policies, it’s very straight-forward in my studio as far as what teachers talk about with clients. The main thing is anything to do with their lessons and practice assignments. Why go through an administrator if a student wants to ask for clarification on how to practice something? Isn’t the teacher the best one to answer?
Not all teachers want to communicate outside the studio? That’s not a very dedicated teacher then, huh? What good teacher wouldn’t want to answer a student’s question? Of course, if it’s about billing or something, the teacher doesn’t deal with that.
Maintains professional boundaries? I’m confused about this. How is it less professional for a teacher to answer a client’ email about what time the lesson is or how their child should practice? And isn’t a teacher/student relationship somewhat friendly anyway? I mean, you’re together 1-on-1 every week working on music, talking about life, playing games, etc. Surely sending a text message or answering an email doesn’t suddenly cross some imaginary professional boundary.
Question: If a teacher can’t communicate with a family outside the studio, what happens when a client has a question? They email the admin or whoever, and then that person contacts the teacher? And then the teacher responds, and then the admin gets back to the client? Just seems like unneccessary steps when the teacher could have handled it in one go.