As spring blooms and the school year winds down, calendars fill with recitals, performances, and end-of-year showcases. Whether it’s a preschool concert, a kindergarten play, or a dance recital, these events are sweet ways to celebrate the year and show off what children have been learning.

For many first-time parents, it’s a moment of pride—and sometimes a little anxiety—as they watch their child take the stage. It’s understandable that adults want this moment of payoff for a year’s hard work. Not only the child’s hard work of learning, but for the adult’s hard work of juggling schedules, shuttling children to practices, paying tuition and costuming fees, and more.

🎭 The Pressure to Perform

With all that pressure to perform, there is usually a less shiny side of the coin. When the goal of a year’s learning is a spring recital, the weekly learning model shifts.

It takes the focus off of child-centered, developmentally appropriate, pedagogically sound learning and shifts it to rote practice with the goal of performance.

It’s the artist’s equivalent of teaching to the test. With the rise in standardized testing, all experienced teachers will tell you that it has altered their teaching—and not for the better. The pressure is now on passing a test, not on learning. It changes the locus of motivation from an internal to an external source.

🧠 Why Process Comes First at Kindermusik

That’s why at Kindermusik we do not have recitals. We firmly stand on the side of process over performance. When a child is allowed to learn without the pressure of performance, their learning is faster, easier, and more joyful. 🌈

💖 Our Goal at Song of the Heart Studios

At Song of the Heart Studios, our goal isn’t a polished performance.

🎵 It’s a curious, confident, capable child who knows that how they learn matters just as much—maybe even more—than what they show.