Your teacher doesn't get to judge your worth

Some of the best teachers are actually the most humble. (Image by Peter H)

I once interviewed a young guitarist who wanted to get into teaching music lessons. He was applying for a position at my music school.

In the interview, he expressed a desire to work only with students who practice. 

I understood his perspective. He had recently finished his degree in classical guitar, and took his craft very seriously. It wasn’t unreasonable that he wanted to surround himself with those who aspired to do the same.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works when you begin building a roster of students — at least not I you want to make a living at teaching. Very few eight-year-olds take up the guitar because they want to spend forty-five minutes a day dutifully working on their scales and arpeggios. They just think playing guitar sounds fun. Of course they don’t practice — not yet.

Therefore, the game is to take these kids who have a casual interest in the guitar and turn them into musicians who practice consistently. 

In fact, that is the recipe for success for any client-based services: Take anyone when you’re just starting out, and then you’ll be able to be more selective as you move forward. 

If you prefer to work only with a small number of students or clients in the first place, you can be selective from the start. 

However, to be selective does not mean that you reject students you deem unworthy. It means that you have a set of criteria you are seeking. If the student doesn’t fit your criteria, they aren’t a fit for you. 

In other words, whether you choose to work with a student or client is about you, not about them. 

Some teachers develop an inflated sense of their stature. They come to believe that the gems of knowledge they possess are so valuable that only some are worthy of them. 

No matter how esteemed a professional you are, it’s not your job to judge another person’s worthiness. You are simply making choices about what you prefer and what you can handle.

It should never be the goal of a teacher to withhold knowledge or force people to earn it. A teacher can feel free to conserve his or her time and energy, but that can be done without degrading another person. 

Why does this matter? Because teachers have a lot of power. They can make or break a person’s enthusiasm. They can change the path of a person’s career with an encouraging word or a disparaging remark. A teacher can choose to empower a student to succeed or imply that the student will never make it without them.

If a teacher presents herself as the keeper of knowledge, her opinion will be valued above others. And if such a teacher says that you don’t have what it takes, you may believe it forever.

For those of us with this power, we must wield it with integrity. It’s not up to us to decide whether someone has the intelligence, discipline, or talent to accomplish something; we can only determine whether we have the capacity to guide that person to the next step.

Meanwhile, for those of us who are students and apprentices, we should know that no one teacher holds the keys, however much they may wish for us to believe this. If one teacher says we’re not good enough or hard-working enough, that’s just one opinion. There is always another way we can learn and grow. There are always other mentors and guides to be found.

The old model of the teacher as all-knowing sage is dying out. Let’s bring this conversation into the open and hasten the process.