Not "Tapping Out"....

Rather, I'm "leaning into" the right things.

So: grateful to see the enlightened, thorough, and well-measured discussions about the origins of "taking a knee", those discussions including historical context. Yes, I do have thoughts (would I NOT? *WINK*) - no, I'm not chiming in.

Why not, you may ask?
1. I know myself, and I know that I can definitely be a "willow tree in the wind", that being that I can bend with every little breeze or large blast.
2. I have about seventy kids who deserve the best of me, and there's no way that I can serve them with the best of myself if I allow myself to get distracted and involved in everything.
3. I am now - hopefully - finding a real, substantive way to contribute to "the work" and need my mental faculties for that. Otherwise - well, in case y'all don't remember, there was a little blog post that I fired off in December 2015 titled "Tapping Out". That can't happen right now.

Today - tremendously impressed by my kids, and even moreso by one family in particular that is currently searching for an instrument. Glad to have been able to offer them direction and advice that was echoed by another teacher before they spent a considerable amount of money on an instrument at a shop that said "We have this for rental, and this one for sale." Needless to say, this family went to a shop that specializes in stringed instruments and found what they needed - as well as found out that what the general musical instrument shop offered was not the "standard offer".

While I'm not tryin' to tell anyone what to do: should you as an educator encounter a family that is in the market for an instrument, please make sure that you send them to a STRINGED INSTRUMENT shop as opposed to a "general musical equipment store". At a stringed instrument shop, your families will be shown all of the options afforded to them, including rent-to-own options, that general music stores may not share.

Why is this? A stringed instrument shop that is dealing from student instrument rentals to SCARAMPELLA and HILL sales will not cheat a family looking for an advanced student instrument. They simply don't have to.

#energygoingTHERE