Are We Ready?

Hi Glenn:

The weekend is long gone and I’ve had lots of time to consider your questions over cranberries and pie.  Since my answers will obviously be limited by my specific set of experiences, I hope other TAs will use our dialogue as a springboard to join the conversation. 

I feel quite close to your list of the critical issues, Glenn. I think it's important for the community of Teaching Artists to have some agreement about what our priorities are. I'll post my list and invite others to post theirs in the comments section. 

Critical Issues for Teaching Artists

1.       Professionalization

• Training emerging TA's to enter the field.
• Providing Professional Development opportunities for experienced TA's.
• Managing the risks and rewards of professionalization for the Teaching Artist– standardization, certification and job security versus the more flexible freelance arrangements.

2.      Healthcare

• How do I get it?
• How do I keep it?
• How does not having it affect the quality of my work?

3.      Pay Scale and Structure

• Explaining to those who do the hiring that $25/hour is not enough money since I am paying rent in New York City and who’s paying for my healthcare again? Oh, I am? Well, then $25/hr is definitely not enough money.
• Am I freelancer or am I on staff? This affects my tax liability, my ability to get unemployment compensation, my ability to afford the aforementioned health insurance and my ability to plan for retirement.

4.      Developing a Community of Teaching Artists/Educators:

• Developing a common vocabulary for our work.
• Developing a common understanding of our role and responsibilities;
• Developing Core Values and Habits of Mind.
• Teaching Artist to Teaching Artist communication and networking.
• Peer to peer learning and mentoring.
• Advocacy Network – getting TAs involved in setting the agenda and lobbying.

Dale's earlier post of the conference report from Class Acts 99, which I reference below, gave me serious pause. It's a reminder that this kind of discussion must be directed toward taking action steps. Great minds have already grappled with these issues and drafted some powerful calls for change. The hard work is in pushing for that change day by day--advocacy. That's the work that ATA and others are doing on our behalf and we need to step up as advocates for ourselves.

Dale asked it last week and it's worth asking again.

Are we ready?

Are we?