If you are parent who thinks this way about arts instructors then it’s time you and I had a talk. Arts instructors aren’t big businesses or corporations trying to deceive you into dumping your salary into their bank accounts. They are real people just like you who want to eat dinner, pay their bills, and take care of their families. Arts instructors don’t make much and they usually know that they won’t make much long before they choose teaching in the arts as their career path.
So what then? Why do the arts cost so much?
Well, cost so much in comparison to what? The free public education that your children are handed without question? The cheaply made products that are imported from China and quit working after a week? Yeah, the arts cost more than those things, but in this case you really get what you pay for! You know what the arts don’t cost more than? A motorcycle hobby, a full sleeve tattoo, a lifetime of drugs and alcohol, a sports car, gambling debt, and the list goes on. I’m not judging or endorsing any of these things, but when you compare what you are getting from any one of those things to what you are investing in your kid by putting them through the arts you would realize how cheap the arts really are. You have no business telling your local arts instructor that you can’t afford a payment of $5 per week when you are purchasing a $6 pack of beer every weekend. Arts instruction gives your kid a sense of responsibility, time management, pride in their work, leadership skills, and a whole slew of other qualities that will improve their lives so they will be better equipped to take care of you in your old age. Beer just gives you a bigger gut and some dead brain cells. You really need to evaluate what’s the important thing here if that’s going on in your household.
With arts instructors you often get what you pay for as well. And it’s not really because some are SO MUCH better than others, but what they charge generally indicates how much of their lives is dedicated to teaching the arts to your kid. If they charge a little that probably means they have another full time job that they are living off of, and they just teach the arts on the side because it’s fun. If they charge a lot then they probably don’t have another job outside of teaching the arts and they dedicate all of their time to bettering themselves as arts instructors so they can give your kid the best arts education possible. But they still have to eat and that costs money. They still have bills and families and everything else a normal human being has… just. like. you.
There are always complaints when I raise prices at Spintronix. There are also complaints when we don’t have enough equipment, the mirrors aren’t all the same size or angle, our dance floor is concrete, there aren’t any showers, the bus doesn’t work yet, and the list goes on. I would gladly fix any one of those things if you wanted to pay for it. I could charge $800 per student and we would have a grand facility. I could charge $1500 per student and quit my day job as a public school teacher so I could spend more time and energy making Spintronix better. But you won’t pay that, so I don’t charge it, and we make the best of what we have. I apply for grants, I ask for donations, and I work hard at my full time job. Most arts instructors are like this; they will bend over backwards to make sure your kid gets everything out of the arts that they can. So don’t tell them they are just after your money, because clearly that’s not what it’s about at all.
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