Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Does a teacher have the right to criticize another teacher?

If everybody agreed what "poor technique" was, and precisely what and where it came from, ...

But they don't. Being ready to criticize the teaching of other teachers, to their students, requires being equally open to letting other teachers unfairly criticize you to your students - because face it, unfairly is how it's going to happen. I don't think that's a good deal for anybody.

If we're not all agreed that unnecessary tension is the major element of poor technique then I'm stumped!

Well, stumped you are, then. I, for one, strongly disagree.

"Eradicating tension." Really !

Back to OP's question. I made the mistake of questioning my sister-in-law about her son's lessons. It was interpreted as criticism. I've learned my lesson.

My job as aunt is to sit there and be impressed.

That is the only situation in which I would ever have felt comfortable offering an opinion, and now I won't even do that.

Does a teacher have the right to criticize another teacher? Yes.

Does a teacher have an obligation to to criticize another teacher? No.

Should a teacher criticize another teacher? Probably not, unless your students all walk on water, and you yourself walk six inches above the water.

This is such a fine line to walk on. The hard part is knowing what the teacher is teaching vs. what the student is doing. Offering criticisms of the student, however, is certainly OK. Then it's up to the student to decide if those criticisms are correct or not, and to reflect on if their teacher was telling them to do those things, telling them not to do those things, or not mentioning it at all.

If another teacher told my student to do something that I've been working with them on and it's not clicking with the student, then sometimes hearing it from a 3rd party finally sinks in.

Now if the criticizing teacher knows for a fact that another teacher is teaching certain things that are detrimental for the student, then it's really that teacher's obligation to say something.

Many people love their teachers for reasons other than what they get taught, and in many cases this is fine. However, when it clouds their judgment to realize that they're not progressing, they are suffering injury, etc., due to poor teaching then they need to have someone open their eyes.

That is what it sounds like happened to the OP's friend. Now that friend has to decide if what was said was true or not, and if so, ask their teacher why they weren't working on these things.

A teacher once came up to me and my son after a public recital. She started criticizing his technique in a certain piece. We nodded politely and listened. My son's teacher happened to be within earshot. She came over and pulled the other teacher aside. She very politely let her have it.

The other teacher was way out of line. She was certainly entitled to her opinion. In that sense she had the "right" to do whatever she pleased. Her manner of expressing it, without knowing a thing about context, reflected a certain "attitude." My son's teacher, who is quite a professional, had no problem with another teacher talking to her privately about what she observed, but to walk up to my son that way was distinctly unprofessional and completely inappropriate in the context of a recital of this sort. This was not a master class situation.

BTW, KBK seems quite happy with that attitude. It's a presumptuousness that most people I know find very off-putting.

Agreed. In this context or any other.

(edit) Just want to add, this has occurred to my daughter as well, and the only result is that she is made uncomfortable in the presence of the, shall I say, new teacher. It is a bestial act towards a child, who has a relationship of confidence and complicity with a teacher.

Oh dear, that doesn't sound so good. Sorry, but I can't just look on. I suppose I'm just a have-a-go-hero when a person's piano-life is in danger.

Some things I've run into directly or indirectly:

- An unscrupulous teacher may deliberately sow doubt in a student's mind in order to gain students. The teacher might also make false promises to lure a student away. (worst scenario)

- There are teachers who have rigid ideas on what should be taught when. They may use the same approach for every single student regardless of that student's makeup. Any teacher who does not do exactly what they do will "doom" a student to failure. The present teacher may have very good reason for what s/he is teaching when and how. By interfering with this, the other teacher may be messing up what the original teacher has been setting up. A student will not have the necessary information to assess this. If what the other teacher is doing is different but not problematic, the doubt, confusion, loss of confidence in the teacher and in him/herself can mess up a student. It is hard to play well if you have lost confidence. It is also hard to work with your present teacher in that case.

- Variant of the above: The present teacher may have chosen whatever because of what s/he has seen in a student. You guys say that it takes three months for student and teacher to know each other. How, then, can a stranger know instantly what needs to be done? (Unless something extreme and obvious is going on.)

- More positive scenario: The criticizing teacher sees some hole that the present teacher also sees but hasn't been able to bring across. By hearing about it in a different way, the student might start doing what the original teacher has been trying to ask for all along. OR there may be a weakness in one area of teaching, and this teacher has managed to fix a weak link in the chain.

- The present teacher is in fact neglecting important things and it is actually causing difficulties that the student isn't aware of. Sometimes the present teacher can actually address this if the student asks about it. There are teachers who won't teach some things if they think their students aren't interested or wouldn't do them. There is no way that a student will know what is missing.

- The present teacher might actually be inept and causing harm to the student, or at best, preventing the student from learning to play better. They may confuse playing harder pieces crudely with "advancing", rather than learning to play better over time. Can an outside teacher actually know what is going on from one observation? Are all teachers scrupulous and honest?

A hero in your own mind, perhaps.

Yeh, like Clark Kent!

It reminds me of that television commercial--- I forget the product. A group of bitches (actual dogs) are gossiping at a party. One says, "Well, you didn't hear it from me... but I heard she has FLEAS!"

If you're going to gossip about someone else's fleas, better make sure you don't have any yourself.

It may take some time, but students find out about these things for themselves.

Yeh, like there's a concert pianist on every street corner.

It's so difficult to keep my mouth shut in those situations.

I recently went to another teacher's student recital - one that I ended up dubbing "Tensionfest 2010!"

I agree with what keystring says, however.

I don't care what profession you are in. It is not acceptable to criticize your colleagues to their clients.

Considering we're in the season:
From Wiki.

Like when they become adults and want to re-start lessons and find that what has been hard-wired into their brains during early lessons vis-a-vis technique, fingering, tempo control, etc, is impossibly wrong for any progress to occur, and must be laboriously unlearned.

I have had adult re-starters like that, and it is not a happy scenario for them. They literally are victims. And this includes the self-taught people with terrible habits who were encouraged to follow the self-taught route.

Having said that, I do not think it is right to speak out and criticize other teachers.

That was a hard one for me to learn, but I realize that my job is not to correct the piano teachers of the world, (like I know enough to do that!) but rather to correctly teach the students that I have.

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