It's been a week! Busy, fun, hard, rewarding, and frustrating. I'm struggling to find something inspiring this week, so I am going to ask a question - and I'd love to hear your answers!
How do YOU get kids to really take personal responsibility? To really own something and work so hard until they master it?
I have an ensemble that meets twice a week outside of the school day to rehearse. We travel to festivals to perform, and the students enjoy it. But it seems to be recreational to some of them - like most of our ensembles, right? We have kids that are really serious and committed. We have kids that just like to play. We have kids whose parents are "making me do this".
This group has students from the first two categories. I struggle to get the "just like to play" kids to take the personal responsibility required to make our group better. I've been passive about it (not a good approach). I've been threatening - the old "we won't go anywhere if you don't get these parts learned" (works once or twice a lifetime, it seems). I've even tried to be inspiring - show them young people who have mastered this art form, play some recordings, talk about great artists...
What strategies do you use? What ideas do you have? I'm not going to say I've never had to deal with this, because I have. I guess as I get older, it becomes more frustrating. Then that frustration translates to the kids, and we're all miserable.
I don't want that! I want to foster the love for this art form inside of them. I want to help them get better. I want to help them have more pride and ownership in this.
It's going to be hard for me to hit the "Publish" button on this one. But sometimes we need help.
I'm listening - what do you do?
Have a great week!
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