On building community, Part I

I'm working on a mission mantra, "Building community by sharing in creative experiences."

Creative experience through art, music, and--yes--the STEM fields, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

I was thinking the other day that if we tried to teach music the way we try to teach math, there would be as few musicians as there are now mathematicians ... or those who we label "mathematicians".

Can't you see the music teacher telling the child, "You can't pick up an instrument until you can write a music score." Or the music person at a jazz club, "You can't be certified as a musician and play in a group until you pass a test on writing a music score."

And of course, we know that most people go about their days measuring centimeters and meters or inches and feet ... ounces and pounds or grams; counting their chickens and quarts or litres of milk, or gallons or liters of gasoline. Figuring out bus, train, and plane schedules.

Women who comfortably operate simultaneously their stove, blender, dishwasher, washing machine, and a host of other technically manipulated pieces of equipment in their kitchens alone, are too often considered technically inept. And I'm not even addressing our experiences in various wars when women have replaced men in highly technical jobs.

But I ramble away from the mantra. I'll get back to it in Part II.