We seem to be living in a culture that places an undue emphasis on experts. I call this the expert mentality and I first came across the idea when I was researching homeschool methods. A big part of the expert mentality involves the idea that only “qualified” teachers should teach kids academics. Of course, this type of thinking perpetuates Big Education as a huge business (money-making) venture but it also cripples every day people by making them think they must always rely on an expert to teach them how to do things they could possibly learn themselves. I am constantly trying to unravel my thinking about this. This week, I realized that I did not need to figure out how to find the money to hire a piano teacher…I already know how to play the piano. Even though I have not received training on how to TEACH piano, I know how to DO it. I have taught kids how to tie shoes, ride bikes, cook, read, play games, play sports, swim and lots of other stuff simply because I already know how to do it. I did not need a class on how to teach someone to ride a bike.
LONG before there classes and private teachers for every imaginable skill (and some unimaginable), people learned how to do stuff from someone else who knew how to do it, often their parents!
So I am now a piano teacher for both Jamie and Natalie. It’s FREE, personalized, we don’t have to go anywhere and it’s really fun and gratifying for both teacher AND student. The books we are using came from a garage sale a few years ago – the price tags say I paid 10 cents for them! {{WIN}}
