Anchors and Global Warming

We all need stability in our lives. We all need to be grounded or rooted. In the currents that run through our professional lives it's important to have an anchor to keep us from drifting. Depending on the size of the vessel, anchors can big or small. For music educators, small anchors may be particular pieces of music or particular styles/genres of music. Those big anchors may be a particular pedagogy or curriculum that has stood the test of time. With all the changes that take place over the course of a career we might lose our focus if not for a curriculum that is steadfast and true.


Imagine that, as a young professional, you anchor your career in "this way of doing things" or "that way of thinking." And, with the gentle ebb and flow of the tides things are peachy-keen, they are copacetic. You have a solid anchor and an anchor chain that allows you to move up and down with the tide.


But what happens when the currents of change become more noticeable? What happens when, due to global warming, the oceans of your professional life rises? Your anchor and your anchor chain are fixed and inflexible. They cannot move and your ship is trapped in the rising waters with few options.  It's a scary thing to see the world rise about you, slowly filling your professional boat with the waters of a sea of change. You do what you can but the reality is that your ship will sink.


Lucy Green, among others, asks us to consider adding a bungee cord to our anchor chains. The global economy and the 21st Century Learner are melting the polar icecaps of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century pedagogy, causing things to change dramatically. By adding a nice length of very flexible cord to our anchors we can more easily rise with the waters that will force us to think differently about how to anchor the value of music in the hearts and minds of our students and our nation.