Children need the freedom to play and create at the piano. Or any instrument. But, they also need some structure and clarity. Otherwise, they'll forever be playing around. Not developing skills and finding their voices. Even the greatest jazz musicians needed to learn scales, theory, technique, and reading skills. Parents need clarity from the music teacher to understand where all this is going. What the plan is. What they can expect. How to recognize what "success" looks like. And the lives of students, parents, and teachers are so much more complicated than they were just a couple decades ago, it's easy for it all to become ambiguous. And that's where we fall off the wagon. Freedom, clarity, and ambiguity. The challenge is to find the balance.