The Triangular Support: The Student, The Parent and The Teacher

It was only until recently that I felt the need to share my thoughts on this topic. To be honest, I am not so much of a math person but to illustrate in a way that could be easily understood, I would like all my readers to visualize this scenario of the triangular support as an equilateral triangle. 

It’s impossible to justify how much of the shared work goes between the student, the parent and teacher when a student has his/her weekly instrumental lesson, with or without the parent’s presence, followed by the student practicing at home for the remaining week, again, with or without the parent(s)’s presence. In today’s society, each and every family is different. Ideally, it's best when at least one parent is present during or after the lesson and the same parent (or different parent) is monitoring the child’s practice sessions at home. There are times when one or two sides have to do more work. 

Generally, when a child starts lessons with me, I like to establish my belief that in this case, it doesn’t take 2 hands to clap, but it takes three: the student, the parent and the teacher. Clearly, the student is the one learning new concepts, slowly mastering the craft on a weekly basis. But asides from this, the student has a bigger role to play at home - to practice. As we all know, to master or hone any skill, it is not just important to learn, but also to practice repeatedly. Not every student may have the time or circumstance to practice everyday or on a frequent basis. As a result, it is important to have the parent sit down with the child and devise a practice routine at home (see the below). Although many young children pick up an instrument at the start out of interest or curiosity, they need to understand that the fact that they have picked up an instrument, underlies the inevitable truth of the importance of practicing. 

Since the student sees the parent on a daily or more frequent basis at home, it is clear that the parent plays a vital role:

• Establishing a practice routine that is feasible and sustainable for the student (alongside his/her school’s academics and extracurriculars). 

• Sitting in or checking in after lessons to understand what has been taught and reinforcing it at home 

• Giving feedback to the teacher in the upcoming lesson on what went well during the week’s practice and any areas that the student found difficult 

• Discussing progress and create short- and long-term goals for the student through observation during lesson and practice sessions at home

Last but not least, the teacher’s guidance is undoubtedly important. In order to help the student remember what was being taught during the lesson, I mandate all my students to bring a notebook to every lesson. I will jot down what was the lesson plan, homework, etc. This way, the student can refer during practice sessions, but parents will also have a record of the flow of the lesson. As much as I would love to teach my students as much as possible within the lesson duration, this cannot be achieved without the parent’s support and student’s diligence and perseverance.