Without getting up from your computer chair, how many of you can put your hands on your cell phone? 90% of you? That’s what I thought. Our cell phones have become so integrated into our lives that we don’t even notice them anymore. I know I take mine everywhere I go, and I don’t feel quite right leaving the house without it (what if my car breaks down!?). One place I always turn my cell phone off, however, is in my lessons. If you’ve never stopped to think about it, consider the following reasons to keep your cell phone out of your lessons.
Cell Phones are Physically Distracting
Your student is preparing for a tough audition, and they are playing you one of their pieces. Halfway through, you cell phone rings. At this point, you have two options. You can take the call and then politely apologize for the interruption, or you can decline the call, give a sheepish embarrassed look, and motion for the student to continue. The student however, has zero options. Their lesson has been interrupted by your cell phone, and they have to wait while you deal with the call. Anytime a student hears your phone going off, the lesson has been interrupted, even if only briefly.
Cell Phones are Mentally Distracting
Turning your cell phone on “silent” only solves half of the above problem. Again, your student is playing through an audition piece when your phone vibrates in your pocket. You slip it out discretely and notice the call from Steve. Now you mind takes over: “I wonder what Steve wants. He knows I’m teaching now, so maybe it’s an emergency. I wonder if it’s about the gig Friday. I hope it’s not cancelled, because I could really use the money. I wonder if my student noticed I got a call. etc, etc.” Meanwhile, you student has finished the piece and is asking you “how was that?” In truth, you have no idea how the piece was because you were too busy with your cell phone. Every phone call you notice during lessons steals mental energy that should be reserved for your students.
Cell Phones Make Students Feel Slighted
I have taken lessons with 15-20 different private teachers in my life, and I can only think of two teachers who never let a cell phone interrupt my lessons. Some teachers would actually take phone calls and leave the lesson room for up to five minutes! Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “How much am I paying for this? I’m not paying to have my teacher talk on a cell phone!” Remember, your students paying you not only for your expertise, but also for your time and attention. They are entitled to expect all three from you for the duration of their lesson. Every time you take a phone call during lessons, you’re sending a message: “This phone call is more important than this lesson.”
But I Need My Cell Phone!
Unless your wife is nine months pregnant, you probably do not need to have your cell phone on during lessons. The performance offers, the calls from students, and the calls from friends will all be there when you finish teaching. Will Steve really not use you for that gig on Friday because you called him three hours later? I highly doubt it. If you have a long teaching day (6-8 hours on a Saturday, for example), schedule yourself a “phone break” where you can check your messages and return calls (and probably eat lunch, too). Otherwise, turn your cell phone off when you start teaching and turn it back on when you finish.
I recently read an interview with actress Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesley on The Office). She has started leaving her blackberry in her trailer during shoots, checking her messages and email only on scheduled breaks and at the end of the day. She says this has really improved her work environment. She is now able to be more present and focused on the set, because she is not constantly worried about her phone. If an Emmy-nominated actress making millions of dollars per year can let her “important” phone calls wait to focus on her work, surely you can too.
Your Turn
Do you take your cell phone into your lessons? Why or why not? Leave your answers in the comments below.
I\’ve been a piano teacher for over 20 years, and also had my share of teachers leaving the room to take calls. I feel it is completely unprofessional to have a cell phone in the studio and interrupt the student\’s lesson. There is a very easy solution – answering machines or voice mail.
I hate if my cell phone interrupts a lesson but I’ve let it happen a few times. A student telling me they’re late or cancelling, or one time a friend from Canada turned back at the border and unable to do a workshop for us (I might write a blog post about that one). But the truth is that all of these could have been messages I could check between lessons, and when I have had a cell call and reached down to silence and ignore the call, I’ve seen my student smile. They know they’re more important than whoever decided to call me at that moment. Thanks for focusing on this; I plan to silence and ignore my phone during lessons…
I have actually had a problem with students themselves bringing in their cell phones to the lesson. I have many high school aged students, and their parents insist they keep their cell phones on them when not in their presence. However, friends of the students call or text, and in one instance I have even had a student text during her warm up for the lesson! I politely asked her to put the phone away during the lesson. How do you encourage lesson etiquette on the student’s end?
I’ve had plenty of students bring their cell phones into lessons too. I’ve had parents even text their children during a lesson! If it becomes a problem, I’ll talk to a student or parent about it, usually in a way that puts it back on them. For example, I’ll start with “why do you come to drum lessons?” and move on from there. My goal is for the student to realize themselves that cell phones have no place in lessons. At the end of the day though, my philosophy is “it’s your $20,” so if a student would rather text than learn (and the parent doesn’t mind either), then I just wait for them to finish. The students who text the most never take lessons for very long anyway.
I think the student deserves your full attention during a lesson. No cell phones is a good rule – people can leave messages on voice mail, etc. Our school (where I teach piano lessons) has a rule that students are not allowed to have cell phones in the building.
My cell phone is also my clock and the way students contact me to let me know they’re running late, sick, etc. I have all my students on the same ring tone, so I know if it rings and it’s a student, I can look at the display to see if it’s a student who is coming that day or not. If it is that day, I’ll take the call, especially if it’s the student after the one I’m currently with. If it’s not, then it goes into voice mail. I don’t have a landline, so the answering machine isn’t an option, and to call voice mail would take more time than it would to determine just who is calling and if it’s someone I need to talk to or not. Calls during my teaching time are rare and ones that I take are extremely brief.
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