adultlessons

Adult Lessons

I have learned more about how to teach from my adult students than they will ever realize!

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When I first began teaching adult students, I had already had several years experience teaching little chldren. Something that I discovered quickly was that adult beginning students go through all the same difficulties as children do, but they are more cognizant of the problems inherent in the learning process. As I listened to my adult students describe their difficulties, I realized that my little students had those exact same problems, but were not able to explain them to me. (Six-year-olds, however adorable, really do have a limited vocabulary!)

As I helped my adult students work their way through the process of learning to play the violin, I stored up all they had to say and began applying it to my little students. I saw so much improvement! My youngest students began to understand me more clearly because I had learned to understand them through my experiences with my adult students!

Adults students have significant time constraints in their lives. While a child's job is to learn, learn and then learn some more, and adult's job is how the bills get paid. Or the children get raised, or any of a hundred other things! I try to work out lesson plans that are realistic for the amount of time that my adult students actually have to practice.

Last upated 1/11/08