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Episode 227: Cheers to The Changing Trends of Summer

Hello there, my teacher friends!  Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast: a weekly moment of solidarity for studio music teachers around the world. Christina Whitlock here, your host, and self-appointed Anytime Piano Teacher Friend, here to bring you some important perspectives today on the changing trends of SUMMER.  Summer just feels DIFFERENT these days, doesn’t it?  It’s not your imagination; the times they are a’changing. I’m here to help today, so without further delay, let’s get on with the show!  This is episode 227 of the Beyond Measure Podcast.

First and foremost, I’m going to admit RIGHT AWAY that a lot of today’s content comes from a very American perspective.  If you live in another part of the world and experience societal trends differently, just breathe a sigh of relief and feel free to roll your eyes as I describe the state of 21^st century summers in America, okay?

I’ve gone back and forth on the timing of this episode.  On one hand, many of us are starting to wrap up our summer months.  My kids went back to school last week, so summer is already feeling like a distant memory around here. I kind of hate to talk about summer as it’s in its final stages… but, if I waited until next year, it would be too late.

The truth is, friends, the dynamics of summer have been changing for a long time.  It’s kind of like turning a kaleidoscope. One turn alters the image you’re looking at a little bit.. the next turn changes it a little more… but after three or four turns of the kaleidoscope, you’re looking at a completely different image, right?  The drastic change happened little by little over time.

Summer has been evolving like those turns of the kaleidoscope. A lot of us want to blame the pandemic and all the extreme versions of FOMO we all had post-lockdown… and there’s some truth to that.

But I’ll say this: our productivity-driven culture was worming its way into summer years before lockdown. And that’s the heart of the problem: we used to see summer as this stretch of time that was wide open with possibilities. There are these social media trends of a “90’s summer” where we picture kids riding their bikes all over the neighborhood and eating popsicles in the driveway. It’s so idyllic, right?

Well, the truth is, it takes a lot of work to protect your summer in that way. Instead, our productivity-obsessed culture has feasted its hungry eyes on the months of June and July, and it has made schedules crazier than ever.

Instead of those idyllic “lazy” days of summer, the powers-that-be have determined THOSE 8 or 9 weeks are our best opportunity to give kids everything they don’t have time for during the school year.  This means culinary camp and art camp and nature skills camp and sports camp and EVERY themed camp imaginable. It means swimming intensives. Day programs. Sleep away programs. Family travel. Computer programming, leadership development… summer has become our time to do ALL the things.  Those two months are treated like make-it-or-break-it opportunities for academics AND athletics.

And before you come at the parents for being the ones at fault for this?  I want to broaden our scope a little bit.  And THEN we’ll talk about what this means as music teachers in the 21^st century.

I actually remember noticing this shifting dynamic in the University world first. Once-upon-a-time, summer music programs were something SOME performance majors took part in.  I would say by at least 2010 or so, I’d noticed a dramatic up-tick in the number of college music majors who felt like they HAD to go complete summer study somewhere.  Auditioning for these countless summer programs has become a big part of the academic year for music majors. I’ve heard many faculty members advise students that they NEED to have summer programs listed on their applications for school and work if they wanted to be taken seriously.

When *I* was in college, I always thought summer music study was a luxury; something you got to do if you didn’t need to work all summer. Now, it feels like an expected extension of the university experience.

So that’s music major life… but let’s get back to our pre-college students.

If you know me, you know I’m very leery of coming off as the old crotchety lady who’s ranting about “kids these days” and how “back in my day things were better”.  I am, actually, a big fan of kids these days, and I know all-too-well that we look back on the past with rose-colored glasses. I believe we HAVE made some improvements in the 21^st century. So this is not a rant about how we’re destroying summer.

I’m not even necessarily FRUSTRATED with the changes that have come to summer.  Well, okay…maybe I am a little bit…but that’s not the point for today.

I have worked with a record number of teachers this year who felt like the rug was pulled out from under them when it came to summer participation. I’m talking about teachers all over the gamut: those who offer summer lesson packages, summer camps, regular business-as-usual types of lessons… you name it, I’ve talked to a teacher who lost sleep over how they were going to pay the bills this summer.

There was a time when the most obvious solution was to offer innovative summer offerings.  Run some camps, offer special performance opportunities, experiment with promotions, whatever.  We are a creative profession, and lots of teachers made good money with their creative programming.

I’m certainly not saying that doesn’t still work today. But I will DEFINITELY say: it’s a LOT harder to do that now.

…and it goes back to something I said earlier.  The message to parents and students is this: summer is your time to do all the things you don’t have time to do during the school year. And, since lessons ARE a part of the academic year, this leaves families less-concerned with music offerings and more interested in prioritizing opportunities that ONLY come up in the summer.

Again: some of you are leveraging this BEAUTIFULLY.  And – if you were fortunate to begin your summer offerings long enough ago that they are now an institution of sorts?  If your summer offerings are so deeply a part of your studio culture that your enrollment is still solid each summer?  Hats off to you, my friend.  You are doing great work. Pat yourself on the back for me.

Let me tell you the trend I’ve seen in my own studio:  Probably 7 or 8 years ago, I began offering multiple summer packages for my students. They could choose different numbers of lessons or pay a holding fee to guarantee their spot in the fall roster.  The holding fee is not cheap, but it’s less than the smallest lesson package offered.

When I first started offering a summer holding fee, I had 2 or 3 students take me up on that. I knew there was a general sentiment of, “why would we pay for lessons we’re not getting?”

…but I will tell you this: every single year, the number of families who take me up on the summer holding fee has increased.  This year, in fact, almost 2/3^rds of my studio paid the holding fee and opted out of lessons for June and July.

That number caught me a little off-guard. It made for a nice, quiet summer, but it also stretched my budget plans thinner than I would have liked.

And that’s why I want to talk about this NOW. This episode is releasing on August 11^th, and NOW is the time to hatch your plans for next summer.

I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, but I want you to cover your financial bases. I want you to assume whatever income you hope to make next summer is actually going to be less than that. I’m a big fan of “plan for the worst and hope for the best”. Right?  Well, that’s basically my advice to you today.

Here’s the economic aspect of this whole manic-summer problem: You know those superstars in our profession who were making big bucks running summer camps several years ago?  Their stories live on in internet infamy and give a lot of other teachers ideas as to how they can earn big summer money, too. Well, other industries caught on.

THIS IS WHY I’m not only blaming parents for over-crowding summer schedules.  There are very real concerns with trying to keep your children safe and occupied for the summer – especially when both parents are working. That’s a legitimate problem. Add to that pressure from every media source imaginable that tells parents they HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY to nurture every possible passion and develop every necessary life skill in these summer months? And then TOP THAT with every industry trying to make quick summer money on specialized camp offerings?  Sigh. That’s what it’s like to be a parent in 21^st century America, folks!

JUST LIKE music studios found good summer cashflow through camps all those years ago, every community organization is trying to get in on the same financial boost in these summer months.

And – with a lot of schools beginning earlier in August – we’re down to, again, 8 or 9 weeks to cram ALL THE THINGS in. This is why your students have terrible attendance in the summer.  Or, even if they come, this is why their practice is often not up to expectation.

So to keep this from becoming another Teacher Rant, what are we going to do about this?

First of all, you’re going to take a hard look at your finances. Yep, we’re going there.  You are going to decide how much income you NEED for the summer months, and you’re going to figure out how you are going to squirrel that away throughout this year.

DON’T BE LIKE ME, friends, because this is what happens to me every year: I think I’m doing GREAT at having solid summer savings… and then tax time hits in March and I end up owing WAY more than I thought I would, and POOF! Away goes my summer money.  So, as you factor your summer savings, make sure you allow an adequate buffer for taxes.  (ahem)

There are other ways to be proactive about this. Some of you have moved to a flat rate, 12-month tuition model, where families pay the same rate every month, no questions asked. Likewise, some of you do a 10-month tuition rate where summer offerings are already factored in, and you budget accordingly for the remaining two months.

By no means am I saying to cancel any summer offerings you have planned; far from it!  But I would cast my vote that offering something DIFFERENT than the normal lesson experience is going to have the best shot.

Aside from budgeting throughout the year, reconsidering your tuition structures, and re-imagining your summer offerings, I’ll just say this: there is NO SHAME in taking on different work for those summer months. It can actually be quite refreshing.

This is something Melissa Slocum and I talked about last summer, in episode 178. Melissa is the poster child for Summering Differently and I just love her take on this subject. I’ve taken extensive mental notes on her summer plans and think she’s really onto something.  I’ll link episode 178 in the shownotes for today’s episode so you can go back and listen to our conversation about her summers in Door County.

Suffice to say, mixing things up and doing something OTHER THAN TEACHING in the summer months can be an enlightening and rejuvenating experience. It doesn’t mean you’re failing as a teacher. It just gives you another lens to apply to the world, and that will only HELP your teaching in the long run.

So, friends: that’s the gist of what I want to share with you today.  If you felt like summer was a struggle: in terms of enrollment, commitment, scheduling, any and all of the above… you are not alone. It is not you; it’s the state of summer.

Your studio families aren’t purposely prioritizing other experiences; they’re just buying into the scarcity hype of summer. Years ago, there was this big push online about how we parents only get 18 summers with our kids. 18 summers and they’re gone. Do you know how that messes with a parents’ brain? Do you KNOW the pressure that puts on every moment of every summer day?  Ugh. I just hate that. There’s SO much guilt and pressure on parents to give our kids every opportunity. I try hard not to fall for it, but I’m a sucker, too.  AND – let’s not forget this – the kids we get in piano lessons ARE generally the “joining” type. They are the kids who have a lot of interests and WANT to explore a lot of things.

…and I hate to tell you, but child psychologists say this is a GOOD THING. Lisa Damour – an expert in teens who I adore – says she wants kids to “belly up to the extra-curricular buffet”. Adolescents and teens SHOULD be trying lots of things. It’s actually very healthy.

The question is: are we going to be the ones drawing lines in the sand? Are we going to be the joy-killers who make demands of our students?  Will we win the battle but lose the war?  Maybe we won’t even win the battle… I don’t know…

Anyway. This could easily spiral out on me here, so I’ll wrap us up here with a toast:

Studio Teacher Friends from all around the world: today we raise our glasses and ponder the evolution of SUMMER. May we continue to bring about life-changing musical study while also adapting to the changing world around us. Let’s embrace the importance of asking uncomfortable questions, and normalize experimentation as we look for the best paths forward. I celebrate the resilience of the music teaching profession with each of you today and say Hear, Hear!

Thanks for joining me today for this wandering thought process through 21^st century American summers!  If you live in another part of the world, I would LOVE to know if you experience any of the same trends, or if we just sound totally crazy over here. If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment directly on this episode, or you can always email me at [email protected].

Let me offer up a SPECIAL thank you to my SuperFriends on Patreon. This show is only possible due to their support. If you want to ensure these episodes keep coming your way, I’d love to see you become a Beyond Measure SuperFriend. That link is in today’s shownotes, or you can simply head to ChristinaWhitlock.com/support.

Thanks a million, SuperFriends!  I’ll be back in your ears next week. Onward and upward!