At a fabulous presentation tonight about parenting from Julie Lythcott-Haims, I was reminded that sometimes winning the long game means failing the short game.
(In her context, it was that often we need to let our children fail now so that they can succeed later.)
We need to let our students struggle with sight reading on their own, so they can learn to read music better over time.
We need to do that first run of a piece without music – sooner rather than later – so that we can discover and fix our problem spots.
There are countless examples, and I think it’s a consistent challenge for all of us who strive to be supportive, nurturing, positive teachers: play the long game to win by losing the short game. Stay silent and let our students fail now rather than later.