Which comes first, the art or the artist?

At first I thought they were standing on a pile of chicken nuggets, which would be a profoundly disturbing variant of the chicken-or-the-egg metaphor. (Image by congerdesign)

It’s a major stressor for lots of inexperienced teachers:

“How do I get kids to calm down in order to start the day’s lesson?”

A pattern of ignoring chaos leads to more of it. In this spirit, experienced teachers will suggest that the teacher not do anything until order is established. They should wait for appropriate behavior if it takes the whole class period.

But this means that the teacher’s only option for establishing order is a militaristic insistence that the students must listen and obey out of respect or fear. And if the teacher hasn’t already established respect, all she’s got is fear, which really doesn’t work on Gen Z. She’ll end up spending the whole class period dealing with tests to her authority, which she will probably lose.

Therefore, instead of waiting until the students are behaving appropriately before beginning the lesson, the teacher should lead with an activity that is structured enough to promote good behavior.

As her students get used to the routine, it will become easier and easier to calm them down and get them engaged.

These kinds of chicken-or-the-egg situations show up everywhere. We might think that we have to be out of debt before starting a business, or perfectly confident in ourselves before embarking on a relationship. We want to have an audience before we share creative work, and friends to travel with before we go on an international trip. We want to be fully mature before we start a family and have a clear vision before making art.

Well…I’m certainly not against being responsible or practical. It’s not a bad idea to get your ducks in a row and do your due diligence before you make big financial decisions or other major changes to your life. But not every course has a prerequisite.

The business that you begin as a bootstrapped operation, moonlighting on the nights and weekends, could be your very ticket out of debt.

The right partner can help you embrace and appreciate your quirks.

Sharing creative work is how you build an audience, and going on an international trip is not a bad way to make friends.

Nothing like having a child to make you grow up fast.

And making art is how you get better at making art and develop your artistic vision — no way around it.

It’s nice when the conditions are just right to do our work, but they don’t need to be. We can start where we are, with what we have, and build from there.

Does your kid need to pull their grades up before participating in a beloved sport? If your goal is a happy, self-actualized kid (and future adult), I would suggest that the sport, not the grades, is the best way to reach it.

Likewise, I’ve seen anxiety disorders eased considerably by a change in school environment (even though going to a new school is, itself, anxiety-inducing). I’ve seen nervous music students become confident performers by getting onstage. I’ve seen shy kids become the life of the party by trying a new activity.

It may be tempting to think that art is only for artists — it lets us off the hook. In fact, it’s true that only artists make art, but that’s because we become artists when we make art.

As usual, this post ends up with joy and fulfillment: It comes from seeing the end in mind and believing that we can make it happen, even if the kids aren’t listening and the room isn’t clean and we messed up last time. We either have what it takes — or we’ll quickly find it.