Catherine leads off with “Want to goto an open house…” and I start to go into a daze. But I’m used to this song and dance and I start to try and think up new reasons why this next house is great, but not “the one”. Yeah, I can do that before I see the house.
But while I’m fantasizing about rejection, she continues “…for a guitar class for Sal?” and she successfully reset my expectations and we were excited to goto the place.
Then when we get there, it dawns on me why. It’s the Suzuki method of teaching music. Yeah, I didn’t know what that was either. And it might not be the Suzuki method – that could be me generalizing a Japanese last name. But it’s super successful.
Of course it is – because the parent is a significant teacher in the process – it’s one of their upfront commitments that you must make when you enroll your child into the class. But what if the parent doesn’t know how to play the guitar? That’s okay – because there is an 11 week course designed for parents to become home teachers.
And as all this sinks in during the presentation and I ask Catherine if she’s planning on going to class and she gives me her “I’m cute and I don’t think I need to do what you’re asking me” look I realized that she chose her “open house” wording very wisely. Misdirection indeed.
So maybe Sal’s too little for a guitar. Nope, they have guitars from “Argentinia” that are not like the “toy guitar like” things that they sell in music stores. Used ones will run 250-600 bucks. The older kids that were playing in the recital were sporting $5-7k guitars.
Okay – so the only way out is to get Sal afraid to commit to the year long classes, so that I don’t have to commit to the year long classes. Except the guy is too young to know what committing to a year of classes is…and I don’t really want to scare him out of it anyway.
Here’s to a year+ of “twinkle, twinkle” – because, they emphasize really mastering a song before moving on, so that the next song is easier. (I mean, I buy into all their tactics and think they are sound. But I also buy into the notion that we pay people to teach and support and love my child, so that I can spend time on the internet…)
At least, this will give me some rationale for buying those guitar tuning and teaching apps on the iPad.