As a parent to a Teacher of Music

Thinking about Art makes me think tangentially about other things in general -but the process has become a helpful one.

As a parent I have been unable, for various reasons (reasonable and unreasonable) to provide the right conditions for my children to "listen" and to become good listeners of classical music. This lack comes with not having the context of classical music while growing up and what you "had" while growing up- radio and movies filled the void . They took the place of art and also made it a habit hard to break. Thus, I am aware of how there is a lack in my own understanding of the classical form and how much it is a good thing to have.

Good art essentially is hard work producing beauty. A singer works hard and so does a painter. Stuff that comes out as talent and in-born is a rarity in real life. The appreciation of artists that I have is a learned one that I acquired from my artist friends.

Having listened/watched to performances I have this take from the experience- that the artists have the feeling of having "arrived" of being content with what they have i.e., their art form. It is usually good artists who have this in them. By good I mean not necessarily a moral good but rather someone who is able to draw you into their work of art with more than just an advertisement or a cursory call. Good artists also have a huge repository of hours of practice that hones their skill.

A singer-friend artist in his 40s learns from a teacher in India and loves it immensely. For singers, it is the power of breath that they acquire when training to sing. I am trying to provide this for my children through their art classes. It is something that no one will be able to take away from them- ever. It is an attempt at finding and providing alternative forms of feeling grounded and centered and this remains situated within you!

Then there is also the aspect of what children actually want to do. They may not be the best judge of that question, but at certain points in time, this question to them has helped us in providing a balance between what we think is right for them and what they think they- "love". This has helped us in setting boundaries and letting go- not perfectly orchestrated like it sounds- but still a workable scenario has evolved down the line.

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Idea of Play

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/the-art-of-distraction.html An Excerpt: "An appeal to the pseudo-certainties of science might seem finally to settle any question. But this is a moral issue rather than a scientific one; values are at stake here — not facts. It is in the irritating human realm where the interesting difficulties are, and where one might have to really think about and deal with an individual’s history, circumstances and reactions. It is the attempted standardization of a human being and of a notion of achievement that is limiting, prescriptive and bullying." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STYU-iz8bUQ&feature=player_embedded Jill Vialet and play to make progress. http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=65656 on deadlines kill creativity

Civic Engagement for High Schoolers

This is a project to encourage Seniors and eligible Juniors at the High Schools to vote during election time in the Fall. The process involves the following steps that can be taken on by volunteers at the High School: 1. Bring the registration papers to their focus and help them become voters. This process involves getting in touch with the high school authorities to take permission, publicize about the sign-up program and be ready to register the students during school hours. 2. Another aspect of this process would be to create videos to explain the mechanics of voting and the importance of it on how to do it while in the voting booth. 3. An added initiative would be- if most students are going to be in college the following year, then they will need to be made aware of the process of voting by mail. All this in an effort to boost civic participation at a young age.

Ootsav and the bringing together of the community.

This is what the people said via Ootsav! 2015- Of course I support the library! Because people like us do things like this! People came out and supported the effort by the community. I was quietly surprised when I saw the ambush of the volunteers at the first volunteer meeting at the library. We did not have a clear agenda for the day of (we had one for the meeting). We did not know how and what we would do eventually- but we all knew one thing- we all wanted to give back to the community. To give back to the library in manifold ways, in ways that cannot be quantified. Paraphrasing Seth Godin- the reason for the existence of donors/ volunteers and non-profits is that we don't know how to solve some problems in the world. Problems that are unprecedented -like the economic recession and what it did to our economy and then to our library. When we move to volunteer and fundraising for a cause, we take risks which don't make profitable sense. This risk basically pu...

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