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Community Spirit
September 10, 2010
Good enough never is.
-Debbie Fields
-Debbie Fields
In her book, The DNA of Leadership (Avon, MA: Platinum Press, 2006), Judith Glaser describes how an extreme example of community spirit in Bali:
"The Balinese believe that art represents spirit and is a representation of collective thought. From childhood, each person is trained to be a dancer, musician, mask-maker, or artist in one of the many crafts that are honored in Bali. This is done to express spirituality and creativity, rather than as a means of making money. Although many Balinese create a living from their art, it serves a more important function: allowing their culture and history to flow from generation to generation. Children are taught to be part of the collective whole, and villages have master workshops that go back for generations.
"To be a master artisan, one must be able to see how each art is related to the other. Thus, a mask-maker must understand the dancer who will wear the mask. The dancer needs to understand the significance of the story in order to bring the story to life.
"It is not uncommon to watch a temple celebration and see performers from age eight to eighty working together. Members contribute all they can to ensure the success of the group. A wonderful example is the gamelan, the Indonesian version of an orchestra. Each instrument is tuned to its neighbor, making the whole gamelan a self-contained, coherent musical unit, played as a single instrument rather than a collection."
Most early childhood teachers enter the field with the goal of making a difference. If you or your peers are losing some of the initial idealism, our popular book, From My Side: Being A Child, can help you recharge your motivation. Sure to be treasured, this beautiful hardcover book celebrates the authors' lifelong travels to countries throughout the world. Over 200 full-color photographs illustrate how children learn from their environment when they are engaged in everyday life activities. Ideal for home and school, educators and parents.
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsGood Shepherd Christian Academy
Gulfport, Mississippi, United States
I like the Quote" Make the best Better". In child care we need to have this in front of us daily.
Heading for Success
New Prague, MN, United States
I have a comment on the attached quote to today's (09/10/2010) ExchangeEveryDay. Although "good enough" implies doing the minimum to get by, it is also a prevalent concept and term in infant and early childhood development (i.e., "The Good Enough Mom/Parent"). Research shows that in order to foster health development for your infant/child you simply need to be a "good enough" parent, not a perfect parent. Current lay press coverage of parenting leaves many parents feeling anxious and inadequate. Yet we know that all of us make mistakes, we simply need to work at correcting them and trying to avoid repeating them. As long as we are doing this, "good enough" is "perfect" to foster healthy development. I guess I just wanted to vent a little as I didn't really like the quote for the day. But 9 times out of 10, I love the quote you select and your articles. Thanks!
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