Performance is “the proof of the pudding,” so to speak.  It is the ultimate test of what one has achieved in a specific arena.  As my husband says, “Performance is directly proportional to the amount and quality of the practice given to it.”  That is one of the major reasons Lawton Academy was established with a greater emphasis upon the arts compared with most schools.

    A student can lie to himself, his parents, and the teachers about how much time he put into writing or completing an assignment.  However, it is quite difficult to play a piece of music correctly without previous practice.  (Yes, there are those who play naturally by ear…but that gift has its limitations.  That person cannot play the music unless he/she has first heard someone else perform it!)

    When rehearsals get down to days before the actual performance, students who have not prepared their part find themselves causing the entire performance to be put on hold as they struggle to get someone to give them the lines they were to learn previously!  It is a very humbling experience, for no amount of lies, no gift of creativity, can rescue the person from the shame and frustration of the moment.

    Gifted people, as we have so often said, tend to put things off until the last possible moment.  That is why so many students find this humiliating performance situation no picnic in the park.  In many academic areas, the gifted can often “pull it off” with a little extra effort.  This just isn’t possible in a fine arts performance where many other people are involved.  It is a valuable lesson to be learned.

    So why is this so important?  Is it not far better to have the humiliating experience in a school play, rather than during the actual flight in a spacecraft heading to the moon or Mars?  It is too late to say, “I should’ve practiced that maneuver more!” 

    In my art classes, many students always “ride on the coat-tails”  of others.  Students will talk and socialize every art period…sketching now and then…throwing that piece in the trash, and then say to me, “I tried my best.”  Sometimes, a creative idea may not come to a child.  However, I am always there helping those who bring me questions and who seek my input.  Yet, when one of my students hits upon a really clever idea, everyone is there to copy!  Yes, imitation is the highest form of flattery.  But God gave each of us a brain and mind that is capable of far more than any computer.  No two people experience “life” in the same way.  Each has his own take on it!  That is what makes art greater than “simple” photography.

    This week I had a student who solved a spacing problem in her art piece.  She is only a fifth grader, but her solution was absolutely brilliant.  I now have a new tool in my teaching repertoire to pass on to other students who might face a similar situation.  The difference between her achievement and that of many others…she has given up recesses and lunch breaks to come to my art class and seek as many different solutions to her problem as she could conjure up in her mind.  Now, many are seeking to pattern their performances after hers.    

-        Kay