The Future is Coming! The Future is Coming!

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. ~Lewis Carroll

The future is coming- whether you like it or not.  As Teaching Artists, we strive to honor the accumulated wisdom of the past, and work diligently to pass at least some of that wisdom on to our students.  However, it is incumbent upon us to spend at least as much time thinking about the future, and our students' role in that future.  The National Association of Independent Schools puts it this way:

At first glance, it seems surprising that the arts play such an integral role in schools of the future. But on second thought, it makes perfect sense.

Clearly, the arts promote creative thinking, teach flexibility and adaptability, and encourage risk-taking. The arts also develop self-expression and communication skills. Perhaps most important, at a time when students are developing a sense of personal identity, the arts provide a safe environment for students to “try-on” different identities and roles.


Public performance is the most terrifying thing most of us ever face. Perhaps for this reason, the intensity of the arts, especially the performing arts, fosters discipline, a work ethic, and the realization that practice trumps talent.

Similar to good athletic programs, well-managed arts programs focus on developing individual competence while simultaneously fostering an esprit de corps that aspires to the highest levels of teamwork.

Finally, these noteworthy schools support the investment in arts programs because the arts provide moments of beauty and  fulfillment that relieve stress and fill young hearts with hope and joy.

From A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future © 2010 National Association of Independent Schools