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Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” I guarantee that if you think you are an average teacher and think you will only have average students, then that is exactly what you’ll have.

In 1964, a researcher told teachers at a San Francisco elementary school that small groups of children in each classroom were poised to “bloom” academically. By the end of the year those students had increased their IQ scores by more than 27 points—far above their peers. But those students had been chosen at random.

When the teachers believed these children had special promise, the teachers treated those students differently. This is called the Pygmalion effect, or a self-fulfilling prophecy. What we believe influences what we do, which impacts the beliefs and actions of others.

Researchers determined that the teachers treated the identified students with more warmth, friendliness, and attentiveness than they did the other students. They spent more time and energy on the perceived “bloomers,” and they gave those students more feedback than the students they perceived as average.

The take-away for private music teachers is that when we look at each child we teach as an average student, we typecast and limit that child and guarantee that they will, in fact, be an average student.

The same holds true for our self-views. If we believe that we have limited skills, and therefore a limited influence on our students, we become teachers who look for excuses and complain about students not practicing, not listening, and being average.

We need to look at each student as a “bloomer,” giving each student our all and setting high, but achievable, standards for every one of them. That change of attitude is what turns average students into exceptional ones.