Should We Throw Our Piano Policies Out the Window Now?

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Over the last few weeks, I have received a number of questions about what to do with piano policies now that so much is changing in piano teaching. During this Corona virus pandemic, teacher have asked some great questions:

• Should we throw our piano policies out the window now?
• What’s a good template for handling sudden cancellations in these extraordinary times?
• Does my 1 month notice policy still apply when families quit lessons?
• Do I need to be more flexible in my scheduling and makeup lessons during this time?
• How do I prevent a loss in students?

These are all excellent questions for which I’d like to share some thoughts to consider.

But first, here’s some bad news.

The bad news is that what is happening in the world is guaranteed to negatively affect you in some way. It’s affecting everyone and there is no reason why this will not affect the piano teaching and composing community. Some of your families are going to lose their jobs. You are probably going to lose some students. I am going to lose income because teachers are going to buy less music. Our kids are going to lose the opportunity to play sports, be with their friends, and connect in person with kids their age.

We’re all going to lose something. So let’s take a moment and be honest about this and grieve. It’s a perfectly acceptable thing to grieve losses we’ve already experienced and those we anticipate experiencing. It’s a way we can be honest with ourselves about what is happening. And that honesty will help us grow, empathize, and problem solve as needed.

Now, back to better news and some answers!

The good news is that I think most of us can, and will become better people through this. Most of us will learn to empathize more. Most of us will learn to be more understanding of parents. These circumstances will force us to grow and look at the world through more than just our own eyes. And that’s always a good thing.

So as you consider these policy questions, I’d invite you to ask this question, “In what ways can I still take care of myself and my family, but be flexible and loving during this catastrophic event?”

The answer will be different for every teacher. Some of us can give more. Some of us can give less. But we can all give something in our lives and our businesses to help our neighbors, which include all our piano families. Maybe it’s time, maybe money, maybe flexibility, maybe encouragement, maybe understanding. But we can all give something.

A process to help you make decisions about your policies

Decisions that you make about some of these things are going to have to be on a case by case, family by family basis. Don’t be afraid to make decisions that are not blanket decisions. The whole purpose of having a solid policy in the beginning is so that you can be generous when you see a need. I mention this in every business workshop I give and in numerous articles. See #6 in The 6 Foundational Reasons for Having a Policy. We create boundaries so we can have margin to help those in need!

So again, if you are one of the many teachers wondering, “Should we throw our policies out the window now?” or you are feeling the need to adapt your policy, I would encourage you to ask, “In what ways can I still take care of myself and my family, but be flexible and loving during this extraordinary, catastrophic event?”

Specific policy questions:

1. How do I prevent a loss in students?

One of the most important things you can do during this time is to communicate frequently with your families. Never has this article about How to Become an Indispensable Piano Teacher been more relevant than now. Please take a minute to read it. Now more than ever, you must communicate what you are doing and what the student is learning and how they are progressing.

As I’ve said numerous times, parents are always re-evaluating the benefit of a recurring expense. And you can bet that almost all of your parents are doing that right now about piano lessons. If you haven’t already sent parents to this article, please send them the link right now to help assure them that online piano lessons can be just as good (and better in some cases) as regular in person lessons.

So in addition to giving fairly regular communication points about students’ progress, it is also imperative that you be active about empathizing the extraordinary load on parents right now. Then, based on the feedback that you get, being willing to adapt to what parents need in addition to what the students need is also important. That’s not to say that you need to let the parent run the lesson or make unreasonable demands. You are still the professional and are still responsible for the integrity of the lesson and curriculum.

But if a parent tells you that they are completely overloaded with all the work given to them by their school, be careful that you don’t ask them to do extra things for you. For example, if it’s not absolutely necessary, don’t ask them to do extra things that they weren’t doing before like videoing practice times, sitting in the lesson to write down all the students’ assignments, or requiring them to help their child get to 4 different apps or websites at each lesson. This will be fine for some parents, but I can guarantee that you have a few parent who are so overwhelmed with the workload of schooling from home, that extra requirements just might push them to quit lessons. They just don’t need another list of things to do every day.

Parents are overwhelmed right now! Period. [And I am one of them.] So try not to add anything to their list of things to do that you don’t have to add. This will help keep them from nixing piano lessons just so that they have one less thing to do.

Trust me. Nixing piano lessons just so I have one less task would be so tempting right now if I didn’t have a piano teaching background!

2. Does my 1 month notice policy still apply when families quit lessons?

That depends on the family, their situation and your desire. But when you think about it, it has always depended on these things. While the general rule is that you require a one month’s notice, you have always been able to make a case-by-case decision about any of your policies, even before this pandemic. This is no exception.

In most cases, you’ll want the student to continue lessons for one month (thus requiring the 1 month notice) just so that they can maintain continuity and so that their decision is not based on fear and a knee-jerk reaction. I’ll admit that I had some knee-jerk reactions based on fear when this pandemic was first unfolding. So, the one month period gives parents and students the opportunity to see that online lessons can be just as good as in person lessons and that the continuity and music therapy is good for the student!

But if you have a family where a parent has lost their job and they have no income at all, then by all means you should at least consider allowing the family to stop lessons immediately. Remember that one of the six reasons that we have policies to begin with is to create boundaries so that we have margin to give when we see a need.

A parent losing a job is definitely that kind of need.

Obviously, you won’t do this for all of your families and not all of your families will need this. So you’ll need to make individual decisions for each request. To decide what you need and would like to do, you must communicate more with the family. By text? No way. By email? Nope. This is one that needs to be done on the phone. You’ll gain so much more insight by hearing a parent’s voice than by an email or a text. Plus, there aren’t nearly as misunderstandings in phone conversations as there are in texts or email.

Of course, it’s also perfectly fine to just continue your one month’s notice policy for all your families. That’s up to you and perfectly reasonable if you decide that is what is necessary for you. But this kind of situation probably won’t happen again for another hundred years, so this is definitely the time to be merciful and understanding and at least consider it for your families that have lost jobs and income.

3. Should I be more flexible in my scheduling and makeup lessons?

I think this was a question many teachers faced in the first weeks of online lessons. It seemed like you were going to have more free time since you had to stay home. But you’ve probably learned since that you don’t really have a lot of extra time. You just have the time that you should have had before for things like exercise, leisurely meals, reading a book, and feeding your soul.

So my advice is to be careful. Do an inventory of the things that you know you’d like to make time for like exercise, reading, learning a new skill, practicing, etc. and then see if you are really taking time to do those things. If you are not, then you don’t really have extra time and the answer is no. Keep your same schedule as before.

But if you are doing all those things that you know are good for your body and soul and you still have free time, that’s excellent! Parents love it when you can be more flexible if they have a need! You don’t have to announce this to anyone. Just be more flexible when a family mentions that they have a scheduling need.

On the other hand, think about this…parents have even fewer reasons to need to reschedule online lessons than ever before! Most are under “shelter-at-home” orders from their governors anyway, most sports are cancelled, and most people have much more flexibility to begin with. So it’s highly unlikely that you need to be more flexible with makeup lessons than before.

However, it would be a lovely thing to be able to finish teaching before 8:00 at night, right? Well then, if you can begin teaching earlier in the afternoon, chances are, there will be families that would love to take an earlier time slot, especially since many kids are finishing their school work well before 3:00.

So if you aren’t afraid to completely redo your schedule for the last few months of the school year, then by all means make your schedule better and offer better lesson times for your families to make their lives easier as well!

4. What’s a good template for handling sudden cancellations in these extraordinary times?

This is such a good question and one right up my alley since I’m the kind of person who loves templates. Templates help make our lives easier so we don’t get decision fatigue. But alas, there is no good template for these extraordinary times because they are just that: extra – ordinary. I’ll bet none of us have been in scarier times, so we have to seek to make wise decisions that are loving and empathetic to others while still trying to care for ourselves in sufficient ways.

But if I was going to create a template for extraordinary circumstances, I’d say:

1. Listen.
   I mean really listen. Listen for fear. Listen for panic. Listen for more than just the facts. Find out what’s going on in their life, not for the purpose of whether or not you abide by your policy, but for the purpose of helping figure out what’s best for them. When you do that, you’ll feel best no matter what happens.
2. Be present and empathize.
   Imagine being in that family’s circumstances. Imagine how you’d want a teacher to treat you if you had their circumstances, if you suddenly had no income. Really feel what they feel.
3. Take time to decide.
   You don’t have to respond to people right away. You can say, “I’m so sorry for what is happening to you. So much is happening to all of us that it’s overwhelming. Let me think about this and get back to you.” Then take time to decide.
4. Don’t make a decision based on your own fears.
   Decisions based on fear are some of the worst decisions you’ll ever make. Instead, make it based on love.
5. Love your piano families.
   Imagine what is best for them during these extraordinary times while also being cognizant of your own family’s needs. We are all going to hurt, lose money, and have to do with less during this time. You cannot insulate your business from the economic impacts of this. But some are hurting and doing with much less than others. So, if you are in a position to live with a little less because they are living with a lot less, it’s okay and right to not “abide” by your policy for those families. Do what your heart tells you to do.

I know, I know. This kind of answer feels all squishy and nebulous. It would be much easier for me to tell you to just stick to your policy. And it would be much easier for you to just stick to your policy. But love requires us to do more. It requires us to think, empathize, hurt with others, and so much more.

And we must love to become better human beings during this overwhelming time.

So for those families that are asking for some kind of adjustment to your policy, find out what’s happening in their life. Find out, not for the purpose of whether or not you abide by your policy, but for the purpose of helping figure out what’s best for them.

One of the piano teachers with whom I processed some of these issues summarized it well by saying that she knew she’d feel best if things ended well for her families.

Indeed you will. And that’s a beautiful thing.

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Do you have other policy questions that you’d like me to address? Please leave them in the comments below!

Read More:

• Will Online Piano Lessons Really Work for Me or My Child?
• Best Ideas for Teaching Online During This Pandemic
• Easy Ways to Switch to Temporary Online Piano Lessons – COVID 19 Help