This discussion reminds me very much of time that I spent, immediately upon graduation from college, working as a music therapy assistant in a county run facility. I was, I believe, exceptional in my ability to draw participation from the clientele (a mix of seniors and accident victims with a “no-recovery” prognosis). However my time was limited to 2-3 hours of program time in an 8 hour day. Why? because the rest of my time was spent filing paperwork and reports on whether Mary in the 7th wheelchair from the left had wiggled her finger during that day’s session (I can’t tell you how many times I reported movement in a completely paralyzed limb). Was the paperwork unnecessary? of course it was necessary – both from a medical and public accountability point of view. Was it efficient to have the person running the program and engaging the clientele attempting to track those things at the same time? an emphatic No. Or to use the majority of a talented program leader’s time for assessment? In only a few months time I became overly frustrated with the limitations placed on my impact and sought other opportunities.

Similarly, in reading Ms. Reeder’s bio one notices that like so many of us who “stick it out” in the arts, she’s had to wear an extraordinary number of hats and develop a dizzying diversity of skills. This is the nature of the beast – I tell my composition students to plan on a breakdown of 70% of their time being spent on “business” issues and 30% on creativity and writing (at least until they’ve joined the elite in our field and become successful enough to hire assistants). Like Ms. Reeder and Mr. Gorby, I find the prevailing systems and models to be incredibly frustrating. However, precisely for the reasons that they have both detailed so eloquently, I don’t believe it’s time to reinvent the wheel – it’s time to surround it with an aerodynamic shell and move it with a powerful and fuel efficient engine.

I know – difficult task. But perhaps fodder for future articles… or roundtable, think-tank, Learning Network Leadership Conference, discussions.