Resolutions for the Teaching Artist

The holidays are about wrapped up. A new year is upon us. Have you made your New Year's resolutions yet? Not the usual ones, the ones everybody makes to decrease their vices and increase their virtues. I'm talking about the resolutions that will directly affect your life as a Teaching Artist in 2011. Here are a few of mine. Feel free to adopt any that work for you, and I welcome your own resolutions as a Teaching Artist as well. Please share yours in the comments section and we will all learn something. Oh, and I hope you lose weight this year as well.

1) I resolve to continue my own work as an artist this year. I won't promise to finish my epic trilogy this year, but I am going to keep plugging away at my writing. Whatever your art form, your students will benefit from you engaging in your ongoing work.

2) I resolve to be an advocate for arts education whereever and whenever the opportunity presents itself. I will strive to view these conversations both private and public as divine appointments for the benefit of my students. I will strive to be patient with those who don't yet understand why arts education matters for every person.

3) I resolve to meet difficulty with grace and good humor. I will strive to see the good, to be thankful for progress and to reject cynicism. I will maintain my belief that my work is important even when it seems invisible to the world.

4) I resolve to be grateful. I will strive for good will toward every student and colleague, recognizing that often the most apparently indifferent person turns out to be the one who will most benefit from what I have to offer.

5) I resolve to encourage other Teaching Artists. I will strive to remember how others have helped me in difficult times, and I will welcome the opportunity to pass that on to others.

Happy New Year!

Sisyphus at the Precipice

Outside, the rain is falling. The long days of summer live only in memory, and for those Teaching Artists who work in schools, the initial fervor of the new school year has faded into the daily grind of classes, rehearsals, assessments and grades.

We stand at the precipice of danger. The vast bulk of the school year stretches ahead, and even now some may feel that there is more work to be done than ever. Like Sisyphus, we already feel the weight of rolling that boulder up the hill of another year.

Rarely does that boulder have anything to do with our students. Far from it; as Teaching Artists we draw our energy and our satisfaction from our time with our students. Rather, the boulder we push valiantly against seems more often to be made of administrative duties, budget realities, inadequate facilities and colleagues who don’t always understand or value what we do. We are in danger of letting that boulder roll right back over us, leaving us flattened in its path.

We can’t escape the boulder entirely, but we can lighten it to a less unwieldy weight. We can begin by practicing the presumption of good will. The moment we begin to presume the best, the boulder gets, if not smaller, at least far more manageable.

Here are a few suggestions:

To practice the presumption of good will, I must strive to:

o Believe that all of my colleagues, both in the arts and throughout the school community, are acting in good faith.
o Listen.
o Not assume I know all the issues factored into any given decision.
o Not assume I know what other people think.
o Not base my opinion of any group-students, parents, colleagues- on the most critical, disgruntled or loudest 20%.
o Believe that the success of others does not diminish me.

As Teaching Artists, we can endeavor to be resilient in the face of adversity, cheerful when challenged, and strive to positively impact our community because we believe in our work. We believe in our students. We know that art matters.