I work at a music store as a piano teacher. Now officially, I am a ‘student teacher’, that is, I am taking lessons there as well and at the moment don’t have any formal certification to teach piano.
I’m part of a piano lesson pyramid scheme . The way it works is the Master Teacher is on the top. She hires her mature students (college kids) to work for her as piano teachers. For the first year, the student teacher’s students write checks to the master teacher, and the master teacher pays the student teacher. This works on a negative-feedback system: if the students don’t get paid, then the student teacher won’t have a check to give to the master teacher, and the master teacher won’t pay the student teacher for the lessons they taught (since the students themselves didn’t cough up the money). This forces the student teacher to make harassing telephone calls to the students’ parents demanding payment.
Here’s where things get funky: Once a student teacher has worked there for a year, they take the checks themselves. This means they make more money, since the Master Teacher no longer gets as much of a ‘cut’ of the tuition. However, they are required to pay ‘studio fees’ (rent) to use the studio in the music store to teach. Part of this goes to the Master Teacher, and most of it goes to the store. Problems arise, however, when a new student teacher (me) needs another teacher to substitute, but that other teacher gets paid differently than I do. Since I already handed the tuition checks off to my Master teacher, I don’t have the moolah from the tuition. So who does the substitute come after demanding money? Me! :mad:
Every friggin time I have someone substitute, they start harassing me the following week, calling me and saying, “Hey, where’s my $50?” and “Bitch better give me my money!” :eek: I keep telling them, I get paid by the master teacher, why don’t you pull this pimp BS on HER and see how she likes it? :mad:
("Sometimes teachers, later in their careers, go back to school for further education, and once again they become students, while still remaining teachers. Well, if a younger student who is doing some teaching is a “student teacher,” then wouldn’t an older teacher who goes back to schoo logically be a “teacher student”?
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Now, these teachers who go back to school obviously have to be taught by “teacher teachers.” And if one of these teacher teachers were also taking a few courses on the side, that would make her a “student teacher teacher.”
If you are good enough to teach, why don’t you go out on your own? I don’t get it. Is all this worth the aggravation? Also, if people talk to you like that, don’t take it. Tell them to talk to the “master”. This all sounds like a giant con game, a rip off, with you as “the pigeon”.
Nah, that’s no good. If he goes out on his own, then he has to cut into somebody else’s turf, and that causes all end of namecalling and bitch-fighting.
I donlt know. If someone subsituted for me and the $$ are around $ 50 or so, I’d just pay them, because in essence they are covering my ass. To make someone wait to get paid until I get paid for a relatively small amount of money seems wrong somehow, unless that is the very specific understanding upfront.
Out of curiousity, I’m fascinated that you have such a hard time getting paid. I would assume (apparently incorrectly) that most parents getting piano lessons for their kids are in the middle class to upper-middle class socio-economic cohort. Jamming the piano teacher out of $ 50.00 seems insanely petty.
I do agree with astro. If someone is filling in for you, then it’s your responsibility to pay them in a timely fashion, regardless of how long it takes you to get paid by your ‘boss’. That’s just good and ethical business, and helps you maintain good relations with other professionals.
That said, this system seems completely screwy, and I don’t know that I even understand it. Why are you obligated to pay the ‘master teacher’? That makes no sense. Rent studio space? Yes. Pay someone else because you’re giving lessons at the same place you’re taking them? No.
Also, what ‘certification’ are you talking about? I give private lessons and have no ‘certification’ other than the fact that I’m a good teacher, a good musician, and am actively working towards improving both of those qualities.
It sounds like a total bullshit system in which younger qualified people who aren’t as self-confident or business-minded are being taken advantage of by self-important ‘masters’.
I take lessons and I give lessons, and my teacher doesn’t demand a cut from the lessons I give. Honestly, unless you really feel strongly attached to your teacher, go find a new one. He or she is just looking to use you, not to teach you.
. The way it works is the Master Teacher is on the top. She hires her mature students (college kids) to work for her as piano teachers. For the first year, the student teacher’s students write checks to the master teacher, and the master teacher pays the student teacher. This works on a negative-feedback system: if the students don’t get paid, then the student teacher won’t have a check to give to the master teacher, and the master teacher won’t pay the student teacher for the lessons they taught (since the students themselves didn’t cough up the money). This forces the student teacher to make harassing telephone calls to the students’ parents demanding payment.