Surprise!

Last week Penguin Girl went to play at the state piano competition. We got there a little late and she had to rush through her warm-up. When she came out after her performance, she was in tears. She bawled, "I messed up so bad!" We had a long talk about how making a few mistakes was not something to cry over. Actually, she only made her mistakes in one of the three pieces so she played two very well. And we talked about things she could do next time so that she could improve.

Today was her first lesson since the competition. Penguin Girl has been known to get teary at her lessons so I thought I'd better warn her teacher in advance that she was very disappointed about how she played. Mrs. L asked Penguin Girl to describe her mistakes and also talked about things to do for next time. Then Mrs. L reached for a big manila envelope and, with a flourish, pulled out a certificate for Penguin Girl. It had a gold seal on it and a rating of Superior! Mrs. L said that typically a mistake means that you don't get rated Superior so Penguin Girl must have played extremely well otherwise. Mrs. L even made a photocopy of the judge's comments for her to keep in her scrapbook. Penguin Girl was so surprised and so pleased. She had been convinced that she did very poorly. 

Mrs. L kept Penguin Girl's rating a secret all week. I think it was very clever of her to let Penguin Girl reflect on her disappointment so that she could then feel as if her hard work paid off in the end. I really enjoy lessons with Mrs. L. She's an amazing teacher. If I'd had such a wonderful music teacher as a child, I'd probably still be playing.