Inspired by an article in Fast Company on Bill Strickland, last week’s post discussed free agent language teachers as potential social entrepreneurs. Here’s yet another role for teachers, inspired by Strickland’s comparison of artists and entrepreneurs (and note how learning is characterized):

The use of art to change students’ attitudes is at the heart of Strickland’s vision of education. The goal is not to produce artists. It’s to find an individually tailored approach to learning that will redirect troubled young people, and get them into college and on to productive lives. But Strickland does see a connection between the creativity instilled by a love of the arts, and the skills needed for business success in the new economy.

“Artists are by nature entrepreneurs, they’re just not called that,” Strickland says. “They have the ability to visualize something that doesn’t exist, to look at a canvas and see a painting. Entrepreneurs do that. That’s what makes them different from businesspeople. Businesspeople are essentially administrators. Entrepreneurs are by definition visionaries. Entrepreneurs and artists are interchangeable in many ways. The hip companies know that.”

Three things come to mind with this great observation:

+ The entrepreneur/artist comparison reflects the increasing recognition of the importance of design in business (see Tom Peters, Steve Jobs, et al)

+ I’m not sure I agree with the entrepreneur vs.” business people” distinction. Who says you can’t be a visionary administrator? Can’t you take an entrepreneurial attitude when faced with fixing a bloated bureaucracy? I agree that, largely, this distinction may be true as a descriptive statement, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

+ Entrepreneurs as artists…I think the point here is that any profession can bring artistry into its practice (even administration!). So, how can teachers be artists in the classroom (or outside of it)? Leave your ideas as comments or a post of your own, and we’ll revisit this later this week.