ESPrit de Corps

So in my last blog post (also my first blog post), I talked about how starting up a blog was not dissimilar to a first kiss. Well - since the post was from a month ago, I guess I set myself up as the guy who didn’t call the next day. Trust me, it wasn’t you, it was me.

As with many people for whom July means fireworks, mosquito bites and ESP, I’ve been overwhelmed with wrapping up the school year and getting ready for this get-together. The amazing thing is that with all the thought and preparation that I’d done leading up to this, I’m still finding that I have to step up my game. This isn’t exactly a shock for me or anyone who’s heard me go on and on for the last couple of months. Indeed, it’s exhilarating and slightly exhausting and the impetus I need to take my arts education experience to the next level.

The focus of Summer Seminar 2008 is Habits of Mind, which was codified by Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick in a four-book series. Those who attended last year remember Eric Booth’s exciting talk about his own reworking of that and other theories that he calls Habits of Mind of Creative Engagement. Faculty and Fellows (I am proudly serving as one of the latter) have been asked to incorporate it into their work here. So many on the list hit home when I think about what I want to achieve as an artist and educator, including ‘listening with understanding and empathy‘ and ‘responding with wonderment and awe‘.

It was two other Habits, however, that have really hit me the hardest this past week. The one bandied about at today’s meeting of Faculty and Fellows was ‘persisting‘. Is that because it’s the shortest one? It’s a one-word Habit that says it all. Or is it because no one survives in the arts without having a giant helping of it? Maybe it’s because, as educators, it’s the one tool in our toolkit that we have left after all others have failed us. I believe that the answer is, quite simply, yes. When faced with a serious shortage of supplies for my drumming workshop, my friend and colleague helped me produce them (hence the photo of Home Depot’s Mr. July). He helped me by demonstrating what persistence looked like at that particular junction. As if that wasn’t enough, he also put it another way - ‘you get out of it what you put in to it’.        

The other Habit is the one that I’ve identified as the reason why I love making music so much. It’s evident in almost every great endeavor I’ve ever undertaken in my life, personally and professionally. I’ve sometimes seen it in the most fleeting of my interactions and is always present in the deepest of my friendships. It was all over the room today at our meeting. The Habit, ‘working well with others‘, is partially defined as a ‘commitment to collaboration’. This is apparent in every gorgeous performance of a Mozart symphony, every loving marriage and in every great educator’s relationship with their students.

Not a bad thing to strive for.