JOB WELL DONE

A "job well done" is simply the concept that the student feels the greatest sense of pride and accomplishment for doing a good job. The project (goal) becomes its own reward, and not some other unrelated treat such as food or prizes. Animals are trained with food rewards because communication is limited and animals do not have higher cognitive brain function. One of the goals of a music education is to instill the sense of motivation, pride and purpose as a general personality characteristic, and it begins with the very first lesson.

PRAISE: The KMI teacher will ALWAYS praise a student for each area and step of accomplishment. A praise may include simply acknowledging that the student DID the homework assignment (regardless of numerous errors). By extension any task completed PERFECTLY will receive the highest praise. Conversely, the teacher will withhold praise if none is disserved, and will voice clear concern or dissappointment for incomplete or undone assignments and lack of practice.

EXPECTATIONS: In order for a student to achieve a goal and therefore earn praise, it is important for the teacher to establish clear expectations. Being a private one-on-one teaching modality, the management of these expectations and resulting praises will be different for each student. Steps may be more detailed for some, and greater independence will be expected from others. The teacher's specified expectations will always be applied according to individual student's strengths and weakensses - and what the student needs to be successful. Very often pointing out that the next assignment is very difficult can motivate a student to rise to the challenge. It also allows the teacher the opportunity to say, "Wow you did so much better than most students - this is very hard," and still be able to follow it with, "But we have a lot of work to do - because it still isn't right."

STRUGGLES: Learning music is so filled with difficult challenges, that students can easily be discouraged when they come upon the first struggle that requires real work. Young students are quick to say, "I don't get it" or "It's too hard," and as a result it is difficult to keep them motivated toward overcoming the challenge. However, if the student is allowed to slide through, that student will only resist on the next and subesquent challenges, and will eventually have slid past so many important skills that the student is completely incapable of playing any music meaningfully. Instead, we believe in addressing ALL challenges and making it clear that even though they ARE difficult, through many weeks of struggle it IS POSSIBLE to overcome the challenge. As a result the student learns the satisfaction of long-term success and is prepared to meet the next challenge which no doubt will be even more difficult and require even more work.

NO SUCH THING AS FAILURE: We do not believe that failure to master a skill quickly shows lack of potential, nor do we believe a student is unteachable (even in regard to some things). The job of the teacher is to continuously come up with new and creative ways for the student to understand and master the skill, until the teacher has completely exhausted all possible ideas. When this happens, and it appears that the skill is so elusive to the point of bringing the student to a screaching halt, we will identify the skill as "too difficult for right now" and proceed with the remaining material. We will make it clear that the skill must be learned eventually, but that we will just have to come back to it later when the student has progressed a little further in other things (or matured).

PROGRESS: Periodically the KMI teacher will remind the student how far he/she has come, by flipping through pages and reminiscing about earlier successes. This is particularly useful when the student seems to be at an impass or significant struggle. Every time a student complete a LEVEL of books, the feeling of progress is identified and celebrated. Unlike school which as grade levels, and graduation ceremonies, the milestones in music must be celebrated as they happen. The teacher will always sign the certificate of achievement in the back of the books and will include comments, dates and stickers so the student can look back on that certificate in the future and remember the achievement.

LOOKING AHEAD: As an extension to acknowledging milestones and pointing out past successes, it is also important to look to the future. Flipping through a new book to play some of the fun (hard) pieces is a good way to get the student excited about the hard work ahead. Discussing other student's performance pieces as ones the student is likely to undertake in a year or two is a good way for the student to feel her/his progress and sense of where he/she is in the timeline of music education. Students are naturally competitive and always looking to the "fun ahead" if they can see it, and the teacher will periodically encourage these feelings to keep the student motivated.