A Policy of Generosity

During the early years of my teaching career, I held lessons in my home in Kirkland. From 2006-2011, I was primarily a mom of three young children, often sitting in lessons with my youngest daughter on my lap or letting her play with the siblings of my student. It was a time when I taught when I could, took lots of time off around school holidays and summer and I was very, very flexible with charging for lessons, when kids missed lessons, when families forgot their lesson or got stuck at the zoo. Without letting clients walk all over me, I was able to act with generosity to my students and their families. And, you know what? They treated me the same way. For Christmas, I got SOOOOO many Starbucks cards, which they all knew was my favorite gift. When I was sick, they often said, "Take care of yourself. Don't worry about making up this lesson." We took care of each other.

When the stresses of having a commercial space brought high levels of financial dependence on how many lessons were taught and when, I was forced to tighten my policies. And tighten them some more. And then some more as the price of real estate became higher and higher. By the time I left my former school in 2022, the screws of policies had been tightened so much that it felt like the human side of the piano business was gone-- both for me and for the families.

I'm so happy to be free of a commercial lease. The flexibility and freedom of teaching in students' homes and online cannot be more welcome. I'm so glad I can again be generous.