Art is just a three-letter word...

i was offended when my piano student blurted out: "How can someone earn $8000 being a piano teacher. It's not like it's something as constructive as what engineers do." Before your eyes pop out, i'm not the $8k teacher in question.
I was angry and what she said certainly got me thinking: How many people think like her? Viewing music as something frivolous, something not constructive, something that should play second fiddle to fledgling and hopefully soon-to-be-booming industries like biomed, services etc. She's an intelligent woman over 30 and is learning music herself. If she thinks like that, what about people who have absolutely no inclinations to music? Of course, i can't use her case to extrapolate across our nation of 4 million smiles, but that thought just knocked me out completely.
Flat.
Cold.
If you think music/ piano is masak masak, go try it out yourself. Playing a beautiful piece is not as easy as you think. It's not just about putting your fingers on the keyboard such that it goes do-re-me.
There's technique. There's feel. There's soul. There's musicality.
And you think $8k can help you to attain that? I say, think again.