Quarreling Among Siblings
We all know that siblings quarrel and argue amongst themselves and it is something as a teacher we take in stride. There is only one part of this type of behavior that we must address as teachers. When a brother or sister teases or criticize your student about his/her taking piano lessons or how he/she is playing, you might need to work with you student to help him/her handle their feelings. As most young students are struggling with learning to play such teasing may be hard to shrug off and can have devastation effects on a student.
Personally I try to handle it with the student first with a little gentle psychology. Since every person in the world is unique and special I talk to my young student about how wonderful it is to be special and unique, not like any other person in the world. As such a person he or she will do things much different than anyone else in the world. I stress to them that they must be proud of what they are able to do, that their progress will be unique just like they are and can not be compared to anyone else’s. It is not always easy to convince my little ones that it is truly great that they are struggling to learn music and they will be good one day. If a sibling is giving them a hard time about not being good or if it is a boy, being a sissy to take the piano it can be truly difficult to keep a positive focus about music and lessons. One thing I have found very helpful is to invite an older student to come in and play something really “neat” for the younger one and talk to the younger student a little bit about his/her own experiences in music. This is a real positive approach.
I truly like to build up good feelings and confidence within my young students, so will only turn to the parents to speak to the older child who is doing the teasing as a last resort.
|
|
