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Thanks for this link. However, after viewing this talk on multipotentialites, I'm left wondering if specialists are also good at idea synthesis, rapid learning, and adaptability, the abilities Emilie claims multipotentialites possess.

As a person who is a multipotentialite, I'd have to say I wish I were a specialist because specialists make more money, and have an easier time getting good jobs. They have more focus and perseverance than I.

That's not true. At least not in my world. A specialist may or may not have a good career. If you feel that way you probably just haven't found ways to use your potentials in the right way.

We can debate the college admissions process all day long, and we won't get anywhere. I agree that students should be well rounded and not be narrowly focused on being great at one thing and one thing only (such as passing exams). But what I have observed is that students are now so scattered--the latest trend being "community service"--that academic excellence becomes a smaller and smaller part of the overall picture. And the effort at turning community service into quantifiable, cumulative, and "verified" hours has become ludicrous.

So, yeah, that's pretty much the reason why these kids are so busy these days.

With that in mind it makes sense you feel the way you do... Nothing to do I guess, the parents probably wouldn't take a piano teacher's life advice too seriously even if you offered it...

Wow this thread of discussion leads to all directions that I find them hard to absorb within short period of time. But thank you all for the comments and thoughts. I myself am more of a jack of all trades type too and sometimes I regret that I couldn't be a specialist like the feeling that Candywoman shared . We (me and my daughter) are curious and interested in many things but lack the patience to get to a specific subject very deep. We are quick to learn but get bored very easily, even though a lot of time "boring" or practice is part of the necessary learning experience. Thus why I feel maybe I should guide my kids to do few things very well but not just generally good at many things. On the other hand like many of you mentioned above, maybe Jack of all trades has his value so why change (or can we change??) this personality? For me I certainly enjoy all the things that I can do to a certain extend but not mastering them. I have quite a profound and interesting life thanks to my generalist gift from God. :-)

I guess one of my questions to the music teacher is that if my daughter wants to pursue a music degree, which she claims now, with her personality I doubt she can focus on one instrument and study the performance of that instrument (like piano or cell performance.)very well. I know it would be against to her personality to put up with all the practices required to be an outstanding pianist or cellist. I am not familiar with music study here in the US, maybe you can let me know how to help her finding the right route for her music study? She likes all kinds of instruments and is willing to learn how to play them, but she doesn't like to polish the skills to the very details...Should she explore conducting or composing (but this needs another kind of talent), or any other field of music study here in the US? Again I won't and can't decide which way to go but it will be nice to explore with her as myself love music and didn't have the chance to really study music.

Sounds like she might make a good music education (rather than music performance) major. She might end up a high school band director.

Exactly what I was thinking!!!

Or she might become a composer or conductor. Instead of focusing on playing skills only, it might be good to balance with theoretical studies.

The music director in my daughter’s school is such an inspiration to the kids! I think being a music teacher or school director is a respectable and important job. However the problem is that she doesn’t like teaching. She was offered to tutor an elementary kid for piano with high hourly pay. She was very tempted by the money but eventually refused. I think outo’s suggestion would be more to her personality and she should try to work in that direction.

Any other suggestions? I am curious about music therapy too. Would that be a good field?

My wife got her first degree in music therapy and worked in the field briefly.

Music therapy is one of the nontalking therapies that works with the non-YAVIS population. (Young Affluent Verbal Intelligent Successful people do very well with talk therapy; the rest of the world not so much.)

It is not music with a bit of therapy. It is therapy with a bit of music. A high degree of musical skill is not only not required but completely irrelevant. Typically you work with lower functioning populations like intellectually disabled people.

I haven't kept up with the job market so I couldn't say how much opportunity there is.

My daughter doesn't play piano anymore, it happened suddenly - she lost her teacher and the replacements weren't anyone she felt inspired by. A month later she was in high school and incredibly busy. She joined a team sport and spends 2 hours a day at practice, all day Saturdays and she kept her primary sport which is an hour a day. she is in honors classes (no AP at grade 9 at her school).

I've been pushing AP Euro for next year and then I stepped away from the goal (good future, good job, good college), and decided to focus only on one thing - making sure she is happy. It's an unpopular view in my circle.

So we are trying to get a summer regular history class approved so she can take art3 or ap studio art . She is a young art student who is internally passionate about it and it isn't something I have ever asked her to "practice". Same with her school sport, she loves it and enjoys working on it, parents are encouraged to be there for events but uninvolved with their child's practices. We are discouraged from even emailing the coach.

What is lost with no more piano? I don't know. She is in ukulele club and loves playing with friends once a week at lunch. So music is still in her life, it's just now a pleasure and social activity.

As a parent, it is more joyful seeing her intense love for the what she is doing instead of making her do something because it is good for her. I hope everyone finds an activity they are passionate about doing, so it never feels like work. It makes other work (trig, English, French, Bio) more bearable -knowing that joy activity is waiting for you when you are done.

Hi, MaggieGirl, nice to hear from you again, after such a long time.

Please keep visiting this forum, even she is not playing piano at this moment.

Thanks! That is a good piece of information to know. I guess then she probably will rule out of this field.

I like your sharing and approach MaggieGirl. I have been trying to get out of my daughter's way and let her direct her own activities. The only thing I am not sure is that if my daughter decides to drop the piano after 8 years of learning, whether or not I will be disappointed and try to redirect her. Fortunately she shows no sign of dropping it now as she feels she doesn't want to quit at this stage. She told me she is determined to finish the highest level of CM test and she is only two tests away.

She dislikes any form of sports so there are a lot of activities been ruled out. I agree that nowadays many kids and the parents are having over commitment issue and their life is just too busy. Besides music activities, which are busy enough, my daughter doesn't have other things going on so she still has time to hang out with friends, watching some TV, read and paint freely. I made up my mind not to over stretch my kids and they should have quite amount of down time. This is not a popular view among my music mom circle of friend either.

Do bear in mind that music majors must have (as undergrads) a "principal performing area," regardless of concentration. And non-keyboard types (tooters, blowers, and squeakers) must also pass piano proficiency. So, everybody is expected to be a performer ("doer"), with performance majors going the extra mile, of course.

Certainly there are great performers, concert pianists, who dislike/are-poor-at teaching. But, performance majors receive the most teaching, which kinda goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to dish out instruction.

Nice to hear from you MaggieGirl!
Happy is a good target.
I don't remember exactly how old she is, but for many (most?) people, long term happiness rests in a satisfying way to earn a living--so you may not want to ditch those aspirations and expectations all together. Do help her become aware of careers that she would enjoy and help her become acquainted with practitioners of those careers.