Soft Skills that can work in Love - Navigating Valentine's day with Arts integration

This is a shoutout for navigating Valentine's Day using Arts Ed research as missive from New Education Options.  This nonprofit is using "sticky" software to share its activities and "socio-emotional" findings to spur a happy audience to celebrate new successes on this popular holiday.

Culled from the ARTSblog of Americans for the Arts these are 10 skills with infinite applications to help your romantic life.  Extracted from rigorous and relevant research reviewing the impact of the arts on students (K-12), these categories, from the mouths of babes, can spur self-love and romantic love both driven by communication and vulnerability.   (List of skills from Strauss with comments in a-I list below)

Whether starting with a first date, a blind date, a follow-up phone call, or a hello, as the author of this psa and a newbie to new kinds of e-contacts, I've been struck by our nonprofit's (NEO's) entry as a nonprofit into social media and learning by "what I don't know that I don't know".  

If crowdfunding or new relationship courting takes risks, we've succeeded.  But we still don't know that we've raised enough yet.  We did "show up and ask" at a new level with new tools.

We've promoted a new artist and the Oahu watershed. 

To get to operating dollars, well, we'll still need lists, sponsors, partners, further fine tooling. 

What's clear is….it's all relational.  Blunder or not, it's like Seth Godin's Purple Cow paradigm……if it works,  it's all heart palpitating, and  creative to get attention.  

Whatever the outcome for our campaign or your Valentine's celebration today, romance requires focus, participation and a sense of fun.

Besides romance novels, e-cards, and pheromones,  most of us did not get sex ed.  Society seems to have a dearth of the sweet instruction that integrates body-mind and spirit.   Whether shivering in a yoga class or waiting for a shipment of roses, receiving call from someone we have a secret crush on, the Saint of the Day is little help in what to do next.  This great education article reminded me that risk taking is inherent in gain (platitude "nothing ventured…nothing gained)… and in neurology.."the neurons that fire together, wire together".

Romance may well be a kind of praxis that is essential...so practice makes perfect.

From  an "Answer Sheet Article" by Valerie Strauss, January 22, 2013, from the Washington Post, the research might also inform your romantic attributes.

Your own romantic comedy could arise today (similar to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)  from admitting how you feel or how your actions affect other people.

To paraphrase, Art and Life begin with actions. By being loving and taking risks, and being creative…it could get messy.  So if you are confused, embarrassed, flummoxed, or wanting….take hold of your sweet venture as an act of creativity.  Risking is a "regular part of the process of learning in the arts and mistakes are made" (Strauss)

From one of the readers: "The benefits far outweigh the irritation of a little mess."

quote from Tamura on the comment page of the same article)

Here's your list…..Arts in Ed builds the following skills:

a)    Creativity (risking a possibility or responding when one is suggested with pluck)

b)    Problem Solving (going the extra mile to make someone happy)

c)    Perseverance (hanging in there)

d)    Focus (giving attention)

e)    Non-Verbal Communication (reading cues)

f)    Receiving Constructive Feedback (Listening to others and hearing them  from the heart)

g)    Collaboration (working as a team)

h)    Dedication (celebrating, respecting, cherishing the whole, the history, and the opportunity)

i)    Accountability (practicing integrity, admitting mistakes, taking responsibility)

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Background:

New Education Options, Inc. is a California nonprofit public benefit educational corporation working with STEM, STEAM, water, and conservation in a state with a huge drought.  We are working on our first Valentines crowdfunding project with Letsfund.it in Fresno.  We sing about the water cycle and use arts integration in teaching science.

Call to Action:

Our valentine would underwrite scholarships for Title 1 students at an Elementary School in Lake Balboa.   We want to inspire reading books and send our Principal river rafting on the LA River.  Please take a look today on our link or share it.

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day from WaterBuddy afterschool or soon outdoors paddling along Lake Balboa looking forward to FoLAR's upcoming River Rover.   

Wish:

From our enterprises in Fresno, on the web (1607 have seen the video) and along the LA River and other waterways……….'May your own adventures navigating romance be hearty, healthy, happy, and stay afloat.'

Links to Explore:

Our first crowdfunding for schools campaign- Aloha from the HeART (Help us raise $7200 for student scholarships for STEM/arts programs. NEO's listed under United Way of Greater LA, Arrowhead United Way, and write us at info@littldrip.org since the campaign itself may be over and the task just begun…..)

Our first campaign- "Aloha from the HeART":

http://letsfund.it/index.php?r=campaigns/view&id=321

Other work:

LA City Stormwater- River Flowing

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=311827

The Wind in the Willows in California

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=24294

Our Watershed, Edith Roosevelt and the Kids and Teddy, Kenneth Grahame

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=311795

ABOUT CLEVELAND MEDIA ARTS ACADEMY:

Cleveland Media Academy Arts in Education PD film by Daisy, Lexi, Salam, and Jenny…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nxhz6Izi0k

******Please look up their TIME club crowd funding campaign for the international youth summit at SOKA University, an act of courage and heart to bring students here to California from all over the world.  Click on us tonight and then share theirs because they are raising $350K to bring together a cadre of film makers http://iyms.info/iyms/)  As they say in their posts, "passion is great" http://vimeo.com/72134498).  LA's the Place this year….get them to AV to the campus on time.