Last night, I had the opportunity to see a performance by students at
Rosie's Theater Kids, a program that introduces kids from low income New
York City public schools to musical theater, then invites particularly
interested kids from the schools to participate in long term musical
theater training and arts and academic advising. For the last ten years,
the program has introduced thousands of kids to the New York theater
that many of us take for granted. The performance was impressive, and
equally as impressive was the fact that many of the kids personally
thanked us (a Children's Media Association group) for coming. The talk
back with the kids and with the staff made it clear that this is more than just a
music and dance school. It is a place that gives kids not only the
skills but the character to go with them. This approach resonates right
down to the "effort-based" audition process. What matters most is not
the kids' innate talent, but their eagerness to learn and to be part of a
team.
The whole experience made me think a lot about how we consider our
coworkers. How many times do we offer up respect to the person who might
have a particular talent, but not to the person who is able to bring
out other people's talents? How often do we focus only on quantifiable
accomplishments and ignore those that are less concrete? Obviously, real
life can't always be like a kids' enrichment program, but the mindset
behind Rosie's Theater Kids would open our workplaces to a whole new set
of skills and talents--things that might go unnoticed in traditional
workplace operation. An atmosphere where effort is rewarded would pay us
all back, and I, for one, would like to see that.
And see more from
Rosie's Theater Kids.
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