How many years have you been teaching piano?

I am fairly new to piano teaching. I am now coming up on rounding off my second year. Due to this, I am constantly learning new things about the teaching world.

Regardless of my methods (Music is like language, you have to have precedence in judgement)

I recently had a great conversation with a fellow piano teacher that I have been networking with in Arizona. We were speaking of the dreaded economy that has effected each and every business person lately. To be more concentrated about the issue, we were discussing more candidly about how the sad drop in the economy has effected private piano teachers.

Oddly enough, Dan and I were on the same page. A teacher with MUCH more experience than me was on the same page with me about how to deal with the financial value of our profession! To his credit, This individual has been teaching 20 years! He had even made a joke saying, "When I first started teaching (ouch-20+ years ago!)".

I completely commend him. When I find out that someone has been contributing to education for this long, it gives me hope for my own career. We were talking about the value of your method of teaching. When the economy is bad, sometimes business will panic and lower their prices to the point of desperation. My thoughts?

If you know that you are offering a service or product that is of great value, there is no need to do this. It is understandable to try to adjust to what is happening in the day and age, yet you know that someone is "That much more serious" about their own or their childs musical education if they are still willing to pay the deserved priceless quote of education.