I'm a bad teacher

One of my students had the gall to tell me that he thought I wasn't a good teacher. He said, "Your talent is obvious. You have a beautiful voice. But I just don't think you're a good teacher."

Hmmm. I didn't say anything at the time. I just listened to his perspective hoping that he would get it out of his system. I wanted to to tell him:

"You know what, I think you're a terrible student."

I've given him more detentions that any other student. He once was turning the lights on and off just for fun. He's had his cell phone out texting his friends. He has said all kinds of swear words. He would talk incessantly while I was teaching the boys their parts. When I would work with the girls, he would lead the talking instead of working on his part with the boys. He would constantly compare me to the previous teacher. He should have to do what I said because Mr. M wouldn't have done it that way. He also doesn't sing on pitch. He argued with me in front of the class.

Now maybe some of this is my fault. I'm not the other teacher. I don't play piano that well. But I play well enough to teach parts. I don't do things the way that he did. How can I? I ended up with a completely different class than the one I heard about. 20 kids dropped the class before I even started. Since I started 3 moved or dropped out of school altogether. 5 I had to kick out or it was mutually agreed that we could no longer work together. 2 are burgeoning professional singers who have better opportunities outside of school and don't want to put up with crap from their classmates.

I didn't know how common it was for beginning choir directors to have these kinds of problems. These are the things they never tell you about teaching school and least of all choir.

I don't really believe I'm a bad teacher at all. Things will be better next year. They always are. Other choir teachers have told me these things.