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Prepare for the shocking announcement : I teach becuase I love music, I teach because I love children, I teach because I think that I can make a difference, I also teach to make money. Having a voccation that I am so profoundly inspired by, that I am deeply satisfied by and deeply motivated to give my all to, gives me an opportunity to feel blessed everytime a student knocks on my door. However, it does not mean that paying for my time, knowledge, and dedication is an option or a form of charity. Thinking what I do is a favor or is just my role in the community is absolutely false. The thought I should convience people that I am worth my hourly rate is ridiculous. Yes I love what I do, and I am not ashamed to be paid for it.
Right now I'm struggling with updating my cancellation policy. Up until now, I have always operated on the idea that students/parents give me as much notice as possible when they are not able to make their scheduled lesson. If they give me insufficient notice, less than a day before (24h), I have to charge them for the lesson. "Olivia, why are you charging people for a late cancellation? They didn't have the lesson so it shouldn't count, duh". Weirdly enough this is a common mentality of people who love to cancel last minute. Cancelling last minute prevents me from : -rescheduling other clients, who will pay me for that slot of time -making better use of my time -anticipating someone not arriving and then not launching into emails/texts/phone calls -prevents me from keeping our lesson plans on track, especially if the student is missing many or consecutive lessons. "Fine Olivia, I get it ... but what if something crazy happens?!" Here is a list of what I consider legit reasons for a less than 24 hour cancellation : -Death (God forbid) -Illness (kids get randomly sick all the time... Keep the chicken pox, stomach flu and strep throat at home please!) -Home crisis : flood, fire, you've been burgaled. -Someone had a baby!!!!!!!! -Horrible weather, by the standards of the news saying "stay home" which they do say in Canada. -Otherwise, get your butt to piano class! This is a discussion that I have with all of my students (or whoever is funding their lesson) and it's mainly a verbal agreement. Apparently that is not good enough for some of my students, and I am forced to defend not only my policy but also the reason why it's not acceptable to just refuse paying me when a payment is due. So, in that I have made peace that it is better for me to stick to my principals than to cling on to a student that doesn't respect me or my time. I'm not someone that can be taken advantage of. I suppose that is the most hurtful part of this, I feel like my generosity in spirit and my joy for teaching is taken advantage of in these situations. I go to school full time, I teach 3 nights a week, I have friends and a boyfriend and go to church and bible study and HAVE A LIFE. That I also need to fund through teaching. To the students/parents that don't respect me enough to pay me when a payment is due (and then fight me during a lesson!!!), or to the ones that think it's okay cancel on me whenever they don't feel like coming over or think it's easier to reschedule my life and not their own, I release you. May you find some other method of music education and I hope the time we had together was as meaningful to me as it was to you. To the students/parents that see me as a teacher who does everything she can do to make herself a special part of your (child's) life, THANK YOU!!!!!