There are parts of our public school system that need to change. My experience in high school gave me as much perspective on this as any, but my experiences as a private piano teacher have compounded this perspective tenfold. The most common reason that high school students quit music lessons is because school interferes with them. The changes I have in mind include allowing for more sleep, making students aware of the least-known benefit of summer school, changing how homework is graded, eliminating group work, and rearranging academic priorities.
Oct 12
Consequence Displacement
It has been a while since I coined any new psychology terms. Too long. I have another one I’ve been dying to share, because it happens all the time to everyone, and something that happens this frequently always deserves its own terminology. It has to do with all the times when we feel consequences we know we don’t deserve. I’ve found that some of these situations break down in interesting ways.
Suppose your spouse signs your child up for gymnastics despite your protest that the sport of gymnastics is very demanding on family schedules. Your spouse reassures you that they will bear all the burden of the difficult schedule. Months go by, and your child is absolutely in love with the sport.
Nov 29
Keep Your Goals To Yourself
Contrary to popular belief, repeated studies have shown that sharing a goal with others makes your goal less likely to come true1. Telling someone about your goals makes you feel
- Vera Mahler found that when getting validation of our goals from others, these goals feel more “real” in the mind. Also see The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behavior (Gollwitzer and Bargh, eds.) and The Psychology of Goals (Moskowitz and Grant, eds.). ↩
Jun 12
StarCraft 2 and Professional Gaming
Those who have enjoyed the musical and/or psychological qualities of my articles will probably be very surprised to see a blog entry about StarCraft II, a PC video game. But even those who have no interest in video games are about to be informed about a whole “culture” they never knew existed via a high-quality collection of YouTube videos I’ve built below. But let me first begin with some necessary background:
Nov 10
Environmental Normalization
In Fall 2004, I taught two sections of Math 120 at University of Nevada, Reno. Before classes began, I spent many hours trying to come up with the fairest and most generous class policy I could possibly conceive, and I took great pride in the fact that it was even more generous than the policies of any school teacher I’ve had. I gave practice exams for every test. I posted homework solutions, practice test solutions and test solutions online (typed every one of them with Microsoft Word Equation editor – took about an hour for each one). I allowed students to retake two of three midterm exams, which caused me to have to make up, grade and post solutions for twice as many tests. The chair of the math department even criticized my policy for creating way too much extra work for myself and for giving students too much leniency.
Before the first exam, a student asked me to clarify if tests were open book or not. I said tests were not open book, and I heard groans from a few students. Those students had taken all my generosity for granted, already redefining my way-too-leniant class policy to be their ground level expectation. They had normalized their environment. There were many other examples
Oct 28
Illusory Gain or Loss
One of the hottest topics that piano teachers talk about when they get together is makeup lesson policy. The classic conflict arises when a student insists that they are paying for the teacher’s time, while the teacher insists the student is paying for the time slot (tuition), so if that time slot is missed, the lesson is considered missed. Teachers feel personally disrespected when students disregard their “tuition” policy, and these students (or parents) feel gypped when they “pay for a lesson they don’t get”.
Oct 26
Perception Imposition
Immediately after a concert I gave a few years ago, a pianist introduced himself and said he’d be interested in being presented at the same venue in his own concert. He mentioned some difficult repertoire he was working on at the time and said he wanted to tour with a solo piano program. I concluded he must be very good, considering the level of music he was working on and the belief he clearly had in himself (not to mention a very likeable, down-to-Earth personality). I suggested we both play repertoire for each other once in a while to get each others’ coaching advice, and he seemed just as excited as I was to have a fellow colleague to bounce musical ideas off of.
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