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Can you match the quote to the philosopher? Part two [quiz]

In April this year, we questioned whether or not you could match the quote to the philosopher who said it. After demonstrating your impressive knowledge of philosophical quotations, we’ve come back to test your philosophy knowledge again. In this second installment of the quiz, we ask you if you can make the distinction between Aquinas, Hume, Sophocles, and Descartes?

Are you ready to test your knowledge of famous philosophical quotes? Take the quiz below to see if you can match the quotes to the correct philosopher.

Featured image credit: “Rome Colosseum”, by ahundt. Public domain via Pixabay.

Quiz image credit: “Column”, by unsplash. Public domain via Pixabay.

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From colony to modern state: a history of India’s foreign policy

Since the turn of the century, the number of scholars and practitioners with an in-depth knowledge of India has multiplied worldwide. Specifically, close attention has been paid to the country’s international relationships, international objectives, and policy implementations as a result of its relevance to a wide range of global actors.

But what accounts for India’s rapid ascension to the global stage? And why has its “two-decade long evolution” been a set of fits and starts rather than a straight line?

Modern India—though fragmented through most of the last three millennia into many smaller polities—gradually became a unified territorial entity under the authority of the British Raj. While the Raj tends to be remembered with a touch of nostalgia in the West, its legacy in India was far from an unalloyed blessing; it laid the institutional basis of a modern state and sought to integrate India with the global economy, but its economic record was at best mixed, its administrative performance frequently feckless, and its political stance deeply and permanently divisive.

When the British started their expansion in 1700, India accounted for 24-25% of global production, compared to the UK’s 11%. However, by 1947, India accounted for less than 2% of global wealth—despite having 345 million people to provide for—while Britain’s GDP had already exceeded it by half. Looked at another way, India’s GDP per capita remained essentially flat during the 200 years of British domination, while the UK’s GDP per capita increased five-fold.

While the colonial state did integrate India into the first wave of globalization and fostered some industrialization, India’s share of the global GDP and trade steadily diminished after independence until the 1980s. This, however, changed in the 1990s, when India’s private sector came into its own, boasting a number of highly successful business empires by the turn of the century. Moreover, under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India’s international profile fortunately grew in tandem with the country’s economic success.

Today, New Delhi articulates a strong claim to a greater role in global governance, which was achieved to a certain extent with the creation of the Group of 20 at the head of state level in 2008, and by the creation of new plurilateral forums such as the BRICS. However, numerous problems of international character, both political and economic, continue to undermine the country’s rising influence on the global stage.

Many of India’s biggest companies, for instance, seem to succeed better outside India than within due to the domestic burdens of bureaucracy, corruption, and frequent contestation, such as Mittal Steel. Additionally, up until recently, confused and contradictory policies in a number of fields suggest India’s weak capability to implement its international ambitions (in the instances when it was able to formulate them).

India’s global outlook, while hopeful, is still clouded by uncertainty over whether such systemic challenges will be overcome. Though the country’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has pledged Indian prosperity, not least due to greater international investment and trade, his confident style has not yet, beyond tone, yielded significant change in its international stance.

Even so, the growing global relevance of India could well evolve, as Modi is still in the very early stages of his government. Who is to say what changes will take place in the next few years—and beyond?

Image Credit: “Sri Lanka – India Bilateral Discussions” by Maithripala Sirisena. CC BY NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr.

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Managing high-risk pregnancies in obstetrics today

Every year, across the world 287,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth along with at least 2.6 million stillbirths, of which about 50% are intrapartum deaths. Among 133 million babies born alive each year, 2.8 million die in the first week of life. The latest MBRRACE reports of the UK show a maternal mortality rate of 10 per 100,000 women giving birth (December 2014) and an extended perinatal mortality rate of 6.0 per 1,000 total births, comprising 4.2 stillbirths per 1,000 total births and 1.8 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births (June 2015).

While there have been significant clinical and technical advances in the care of high-risk pregnancies in the last few decades in economically advantaged countries, the complexity of patients has also changed quite dramatically. The challenges are numerous and varied with rising rates of obesity, diabetes, a host of co-morbidities, older mothers, immigration patterns, and social deprivation. Increasing numbers of women who were once unable to become pregnant or were advised not to due to underlying health problems are now able to have children. High-risk pregnancies form a significant and increasing proportion of any pregnant population. Improved outcomes also mean that patient expectations are at an all-time high.

Several generations of Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in the UK have focused on improvements needed in intrapartum care. The most recent MBRRACE report (2014) has, for the first time, highlighted the vital role of high standard pre-conceptual and antenatal care for women with underlying co-morbidities. Three quarters of all women who died had coexisting medical complications. Pre-existing medical or mental health problems were the main contributors to both direct and indirect causes of maternal death. Timely recognition and diagnosis of a high-risk condition complicating pregnancy, the involvement of appropriate senior staff from multiple disciplines, and prompt treatment or action can make the difference between life and death.

‘Expectations.’ Acrylic on canvas. Harini Narayan, 2015.

Most high-risk pregnancies belong to one or more of three categories:

Where there is a pre-existent medical/mental condition that could have a serious impact on the maternal/fetal outcome of any pregnancy and where specific management plans with multi-speciality input are essential.
Where the pregnancy itself could cause worsening of a pre-existent medical/mental disorder which had hitherto remained stable or in remission.
Where complications experienced during a previous pregnancy/ies are likely to recur or those that develop de novo in the present pregnancy could adversely affect maternal/fetal outcomes.

There is often much misunderstanding about the label “high-risk pregnancy” amongst health care professionals as well as in pregnant women and their families. It can result in patient anxiety to unwarranted, unnecessary, and sometimes potentially risky interventions undertaken without valid obstetric indications. It often leads to community midwives disengaging almost entirely from the ongoing routine antenatal care with the mistaken impression that their own input is unnecessary. This denies the normality that exists even in the most complex of pregnancies.

F.W. Peabody, a US physician (1881-1927), stated “The treatment of a disease may be entirely impersonal; the care of a patient must be entirely personal.” The corollary is equally true. Once deemed ‘high risk,’ there is often unnecessary duplication of appointments, sometimes within the same week or even the same day between the hospital antenatal clinics and primary care, creating significant disruption and inconvenience for patients. A lack of coordinated and integrated care planning in a patchy service wastes valuable resources. All maternity units are working under serious financial and manpower constraints in an increasingly litigious environment. There is more pressure than ever on the NHS to ensure every penny is spent in the most effective way for patients to improve standards of care while reducing costs. Every antenatal appointment needs a valid purpose, every investigation must be clinically justifiable, and every intervention must be medically indicated.

’37 weeks and counting…’ Pastel on paper. Harini Narayan, 2014.

Challenging the status quo is bound to be difficult. The day-to day reality is that in most maternity units the antenatal care for women with high-risk pregnancy is of variable quality, often laced with conflicting advice. Trainees often find themselves in the dilemma of managing such patients depending on the consultant’s antenatal clinic in which they work. Individualized care pathways grounded in best practice, national guidelines, and centred on the woman with a specific high-risk condition are uncommon. Such care pathways should be designed to enable integrated and seamless care across primary, secondary, and, if indicated, in tertiary settings. Transforming structural and organisational norms is at the core of delivering a truly patient-centred service that starts from pre-pregnancy and continues to post-childbirth.

The crucial role of pre-pregnancy assessment and counselling services for women with pre-existing high-risk conditions is one that is often overlooked by commissioners and providers, quite apart from the woman herself. Does the obstetrician’s role end when the patient is discharged from the hospital? What about ‘after-sales customer care’? Does this extend to discussions about the most appropriate contraception suitable to her underlying medical condition? What about further multidisciplinary disease management and optimisation of health before the next pregnancy ‘just happens’? 

An informed patient who actively participates in the management of her pregnancy is one to be cherished. The keystone for this lies in providing clear and comprehensive information, thus starting the process of shared decision-making throughout pregnancy.

Featured image: Pregnant woman. (c) vadimguzhva via iStock.

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Step 5 to end military suicides: Enforce zero tolerance

This week is National Suicide Prevention Week, and we’ve invited John Bateson to write a series of articles on one group that is particularly vulnerable: military service members. Read Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and Step 4 of 5.

In June 2015, the results of a new study by the Department of Veterans Affairs were released. The study examined more than 170,000 suicides of adult men and women in 23 states between 2000 and 2010, and concluded that female military veterans kill themselves at a rate that is nearly six times higher than their civilian counterparts. The disparity is even greater for women 18 to 29—the primary age group in the military—where the suicide rate of female veterans is 11 times higher than for female non-veterans in that age range.

Women now constitute 18% of our fighting force—the highest percentage ever. They are expected to exhibit the same tough, aggressive warrior mentality as their male peers even though they tend to be more anxious about leaving children and spouses behind. They have to defy stereotypes, including those in which they are considered too fragile for military duty. They also have to deal with sexual harassment and sexual assaults far more often than female civilians.

In a 2010 study by the VA, 90% of female respondents reported that they had been sexually harassed while in the military. Incidences of rape among military personnel occur twice as often as in the civilian population, with 90% of victims being junior-ranking women whose average age is 21, while their assailants tend to be non-commissioned officers whose average age is 28.

Adding to the trauma for women, perpetrators often go unpunished, leaving victims to suffer in  silence. Only 6% of those accused of sexual assault in the military spend any time in jail.

In recent years the Department of Defense has promoted a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to sexual harassment and assaults; however, enforcement is lacking. Investigations still tend to be handled by the commander in charge rather than by independent military prosecutors, and commanders, to this point, have had the authority to reverse convictions, potentially rendering the outcome of any proceeding meaningless.

In “Why Soldiers Rape,” Helen Benedict recommends ways that the Pentagon can show more regard for women and lessen the abuse that they receive while in the service. Her suggestions include:

Making a greater effort to promote and honor female troops.
Teaching everyone that rape is torture and a war crime.
Expelling men who attack female comrades.
Banning pornography.
Refusing to admit recruits who have a history of sexual assault or domestic violence.

These and other changes, if enforced, would show that zero tolerance is exactly that. For the well-being of every woman who serves, as well as for the overall health of the military, sexual harassment and assaults must end.

Feature Image: Four F-15 Eagle pilots from the 3rd Wing walk to their respective jets at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, for the fini flight. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Predicting future cognition in preterm children with MRI

In the wake of the development of advanced neonatal intensive medical care, more and more children born preterm manage to beat the previously tough odds and survive the perils of infections and respiratory distress that are some of the common problems in the group. While this is one of the success stories of modern medicine, long-term follow-up of premature-born pediatric cohorts show that the obstacles don’t cease with the need of intensive medical care. Many children will experience cognitive problems that will impede their performance when they start school. Some children will perform on the level of their peers. Other children experience difficulties in reading and mathematics that also appear to persist as the children advance through school. A considerable interest has therefore risen to identify children at risk of difficulties early on in life in order to prevent or mitigate future problems.

One question that remains to be answered is the biological underpinnings of the cognitive difficulties experienced by preterm children. As many of the preterm children go through radiological evaluation it is clear that the risk persists despite the lack of intracranial bleedings or signs of hypoxic–ischemic brain injury. Clinical medicine thus lacks sufficient tools to adequately predict the late effects of preterm birth. On the other hand, the brain alterations causing difficulties in school must be assumed to be already present when the children have gone through the neonatal period, long before they manifest in school difficulties.

This discrepancy between the presence of assumed predictors of future cognitive difficulties and what clinical medicine today can assess calls for a change in the type of data we use and how it is analyzed. Basic neuroscience has, during the past decade, seen an increase in the application of advanced mathematical models to detect patterns in brain structure or activity that may not be visible to the naked human eye. Our group has previously shown that this approach makes it possible to predict cognitive development in children using diffusion MRI.

Our recently published study in Brain aimed to bring advanced analyses of MRI data to address the question of hidden predictors in preterm children. In a collaboration between researchers, psychologists, and physicians in Sweden, Australia, and the United States, our study drew from one of the world’s largest longitudinal cohorts of preterm children. We used neonatal diffusion MRI and regular MRI to measure early alterations in white matter development and local brain volume. This data was then processed in machine learning models and exploratory analysis to predict cognitive abilities much later, at five and seven years of age.

Brain scans courtesy of Henrik Ullman.

Not only could cognitive ability at five and seven years of age be predicted from the neonatal MRI, the effect also persisted after taking into account all clinical factors during the neonatal period that we previously know affect the prognosis of preterm children. While local brain volumes indicate some specificity for deep brain nuclei and insular cortex, the white matter analysis show that the best prediction is possible when looking for subtle patterns distributed over the brain. As subtle and distributed patterns of change in the brain are hard to see and grade by eye, these patterns may not have been described previously. Radiologists read MRI typically looking for the more well-known brain alterations associated with preterm birth.

The results illustrate how neonatal MRI of preterm children can be of practical benefit as it opens up a time window for interventions before the children start school. Clinical MRI scanners obtained the MRI data used in the study, and most larger hospitals are also equipped for this, promising a large availability to children. One of the criticisms of neuroimaging research is that, despite increasingly advanced methodology, few clinical applications have ensued. This study is a good example of what is possible in the interface between researchers and clinicians.

However, in order for predictive models such as these to reach the clinic, there has to be a substantial standardization in how data is gathered and processed, something that can only come about by continuous interest and efforts from all involved parties. Even though MRI is a non-invasive and harmless method, there is a risk that an early transition to the clinic before the method is sufficiently tested may inhibit its acceptance and future use. We hope that the study will raise enthusiasm for the clinical use of advanced neuroimaging for the benefit of preterm children in particular and for applications of advanced MRI models in radiology and neurology in general.

Featured image: Premature baby and hand of the doctor. (c) Pixelistanbul via iStock.

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10 things you need to know about the Magna Carta

This year marks the 800th anniversary of one of the most famous documents in history, the Magna Carta. The charter was agreed upon by King John at Runnymede, and has since become a symbol of liberty. Nicholas Vincent, author of Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction, tells us 10 things everyone should know about the Magna Carta:

The Magna Carta doesn’t actually say anything about democracy or mention democracy.
However, the document does talk about many of the things one would assume it would, like the jury.
The Magna Carta doesn’t include anything about habeas corpus.
It still legally matters as it was a totum of the rights of the citizen against the monarchy and then the state.
The Magna Carta is very vague when you want it to be more specific.
On the other hand, it is very specific when it could be more vague.
The Magna Carta was used in the eighteenth century to argue the rights of the revolutionaries in America
It was also used in argument by slave owners in Jamaica, who said that it endorsed slavery.
We know a lot more about the Magna Carta now than we did three or four years ago.
A lot is still to be learnt about the document. Historians hope to uncover more about the Magna Carta in the next few years.

Featured image credit: “Parchment”, by nile. Public domain via Pixabay.

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There are many excellent African leaders

A common perception is that Africa’s problems are caused by its leaders. In 2007, Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim even created a major cash prize through his charitable foundation as an incentive to African heads of state to treat their people fairly and equitably and not use their countries’ coffers for their personal enrichment. The Ibrahim Prize was intended to be an annual award, but was not dispersed in 2009, 2010, 2012, or 2013, because the prize committee could find no African Presidents worthy of it.

Although those at the highest levels in African politics often make the press for their foibles, one would be mistaken to conclude that Africa is bereft of excellent leaders. There are impressive innovators in the provision of healthcare, from Liberia’s Last Mile Health founder Raj Panjabi, to Nigeria’s inventor of the ‘hospital in a box,’ to Dr. Seyi Oyesola, and Somalia’s provider of healthcare to 90,000 in Mogadishu, Nobel Laureate nominee, Dr. Hawa Abdi. There are outstanding successes in education, from millionaire Ashesi University founder Patrick Awuah of Ghana to Fred Swaniker, founder of the excellent African Leadership Academy in South Africa. Ethiopian business leaders are exporting shoes, handbags, and injera (traditional flat bread) of the highest quality around the world. In the field of environmental conservation, leaders from Somalia’s Fatima Jibrell to Kenya’s Wangari Maathai and the DRC’s Corneille Ewango, have made lasting contributions to the protection of Africa’s flora and fauna.

Of those leaders making a positive difference, the largest and most dynamic group can be found among the continent’s youths. In August, 500 outstanding Africans, aged 25 to 35, completed a six-week Mandela Washington Fellowship program at one of 20 US universities. The Fellows were in the United States as part of President Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), created in 2010 to strengthen ties with African youths.

Africa’s leadership is changing for the better, and young people are leading the way.

This year, 40 of the Fellows came from South Africa, in addition to 40 from Nigeria and 30 from Zimbabwe, including Sizwile Nyamande, who was able to spend her birthday with President Obama. Other countries, including Somalia and The Gambia, had fewer representatives (three and six Fellows respectively), but no less impressive contingents of young leaders.

Short biographies are available for each of the 2015 and 2014 Fellows. Some examples of the specific leadership activities of the 2015 Fellows include the following:

Saliou Diao Barry observed foreign volunteers assisting people in his home country of Guinea and determined that he too would make a positive difference. He launched Project Village Wellness in 2012, which enables the unemployed to bring palm kernels that can be freely collected along the coast to machines that press them into salable palm oil. Mr. Barry’s organization won a national Energy Global Award in 2014 and provided employment to 731 people—680 women and 51 men—by 2015.
Amnah Ibuni was one of 21 Tanzanian Fellows. Ms. Ibuni grew up distressed by the number of young women in Zanzibar who were dropping out of school when they became pregnant. As a solution, she founded Sure Steps Nursery School, a place for young mothers to leave their children for half a day while they continued their education.
Fombah Kanneh is a politician making a positive difference in his community and the youngest elected official in Gambian history. He is leading a range of effective initiatives, from mangrove seedling planting to securing grants from non-governmental organizations and the World Bank, to improve local farming and education.
Kelvin Macharia , one of 25 Fellows hosted by Dartmouth College this year, is the inventor of a patented, effective organic insecticide and the founder of Sunrise Tracking, a company at the forefront of security technology. Using a tracking device that Mr. Macharia invented, a customer can send a text that stops a thief by disabling a stolen vehicle.

Whereas most of the Fellows return to their home countries after the initial six-week program, 20 percent of the Mandela Washington Fellows remain in the United States for additional specialized training. Jean Bosco Nzeyimana, one of six 2015 Fellows from Rwanda, is currently undertaking a professional development program at Wisconsin Biological Systems Engineering to strengthen his skills to effectively lead his company, Habona Biogas, which produces affordable and environmentally-friendly fuels from waste.

Africa has long been home to innovative and civic-minded youths. Supportive international programs and modern communication are helping to raise global awareness of young African leaders’ initiatives and organizations. Africa’s leadership is changing for the better, and young people are leading the way.

To learn more about other talented young leaders, follow or visit my weekly blog, African Development Successes. I will be featuring several of the Mandela Washington Fellows individually over the coming months.

Learn more by exploring the following Oxford Bibliographies entries, which have been made freely available for a short time:

Religion, Politics, and Civic Engagement in the United States
Civic/Political Participation

Image Credit: “Mandela Washington Fellows.” Public Domain via US Government.

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The garden palaces of Europe and Asia [interactive map]

In 1682, the French court moved from Paris to the former royal hunting lodge of Versailles, which had been transformed under the supervision of Louis XIV into Europe’s most splendid palace, one which moreover was set in a stunning park that stretched all the way to the horizon.  Versailles established a fashion for palaces surrounded by ample gardens that most major European courts would soon imitate.  These parks provided appropriate backdrops for elaborately spectacles staged to impress visiting diplomats hunts as well as secluded settings for flirting.

There were important Italian and Spanish precedents for the garden setting of Versailles, of which Louis XIV, whose mother was a Spanish princess and whose grandmother was a Medici, would have been well aware.  Moreover Louis appropriated key members of the team that had just completed Vaux-le-Vicomte for his superintendent of finance Nicolas Fouquet.  But the garden palace was by no means an exclusively European phenomenon.  Courts well to the east (and in the case of Nasrid Spain, to the south) had long favored garden palaces.  Many of the splendid Asian examples of garden palaces predate Versailles, which was novel in a global context only for its scale.  Significant differences remain, however, between the Islamic and East Asian examples, in which a series of relatively modest buildings are typically surrounded by gardens, and the larger, more enclosed European buildings, designed for the most part for cooler climates, although smaller, outlying pavilions soon became common here, too.

The similarities between these palaces demonstrate the importance in early modern Asia as well as Europe of the absolutist ruler who controlled an increasingly centralized state and of the rituals, conducted in carefully controlled settings, that both symbolized and cemented that rule.  At the same time gardens often also offered a welcome escape from the stiff etiquette that controlled behavior at these courts.

Featured image: Changdeok Palace (창덕궁) Seoul, South Korea, by Anne Dirkse (CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

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Step 4 to end military suicides: Expedite treatment

This week is National Suicide Prevention Week, and we’ve invited John Bateson to write a series of articles on one group that is particularly vulnerable: military service members. Read Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 of 5.

In 1789, President George Washington said, “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” Judging by this standard, we are failing.

In 2014, stories of long waits at hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs domi­nated the news, along with accounts of veterans killing themselves in dismay because they couldn’t see a doctor. The former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, was forced to resign; a new secretary, Robert McDonald, was hired; and numerous other VA health officials were let go. Problem solved? Not exactly.

In June 2015, the New York Times reported that more veterans were on waiting lists than a year earlier. Also, the VA was facing a $3 billion budget shortfall, leading to the prospect of even longer delays. The worsening problem wasn’t due to ineptitude or negligence; it was due to sky­rocketing demand. In the past year, VA doctors and nurses handled more than 7 million patient visits—2.7 million more than they handled in any previous year. In addition, they authorized outside referrals for 900,000 other patients. If that was the peak it might be manageable, but the workload continues to soar. Not only are new veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan flooding VA hospitals and clinics but they tend to have multiple needs that can’t be treated quickly or easily.

The VA has a big mandate. Among other things, it’s the largest health care provider in the country. That doesn’t excuse the fact that many veterans still wait months for their claims to be processed, however, or to get a medical appointment.

Many veterans who served their country with pride now feel abandoned. The biggest impediment for them in transitioning to civilian life is receiving health care and compensation for injuries they suffered that are related to their military service. Both must be provided sooner rather than later. If nothing else, first-time claims should be handled before second-, third-, and fourth-time claims, and veterans claiming 100% disability should have their cases reviewed before those who are claiming 10 or 20% disability, although the latter can’t be ignored. Veterans who have reapplied either because their initial claims were denied or because they are seeking increased benefits as a result of their condition worsening need to be cared for as well.

Prior to 1990, Congress considered closing down the whole VA health care system and giving veterans vouchers to use at private facilities because of substandard treatment at VA hospitals. Over the next 15 years, changes were implemented that resulted in improved care, greater consumer satisfaction, and a 2006 award from Harvard University for “Innovations in American Government.” Today, though, the onslaught of new patients is taxing the VA far beyond its current capacity. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the idea of a different system of care for veterans, one in which treatment and claims can be expedited so that needs are met promptly. It won’t be cheap, but then the VA with its total budget of $140 billion and 335,000 employees, including 22,000 mental health specialists, isn’t cheap, either.

Feature Image: American flags by Lipton Sale. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

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The direct link between income and impact: savvy music teachers

On the surface, the suggestion that the best independent music teachers are those who earn the most money seems ludicrous. No obvious, mathematical correlation can be drawn between fiscal and pedagogical success. We have all encountered incredible educators who struggle to make ends meet, or financially comfortable ones who are mediocre instructors at best.

Yet I argue that there is indeed a parallel. When done right, impact and income are closely related bedfellows. Savvy music teachers find ways to make them both go up, in harmony.

How is this claim supported? It is difficult to devote 100% of attention to teaching excellence when tormented by problematic personal finance. Economic woes trigger a host of problems, inducing stress, strained relationships, and zapped enthusiasm. Individuals forced to take supplementary “day jobs” they despise just to get by, or those with unmanageable schedules and an unbalanced life, are unlikely to have time or energy to go the extra mile for students.

On the flip side, a sound financial model increases likelihood that teachers find the psychological space to offer their best. It provides a foundation for maintaining a studio, organizing meaningful activities, pursuing professional development, and tackling passion projects, in addition to fulfilling personal desires such as buying a house or raising a family.

Is there a more direct correlation? There is if you do things right. In order to increase impact, savvy music teachers are known for employing teaching tools and strategies that expand beyond the average studio. As a result, their offerings are differentiated in innovative and meaningful ways, which translates to more students and higher fees. In addition, they offer a variety of products and services beyond lessons that enhance learning and revenue. Independent music teachers looking for a raise have an opportunity: imagine new, valuable musical experiences. Connect those initiatives to a sound economic model and, voila, both earnings and value rise.

While writing my most recent book, I had the good opportunity to interview more than 150 independent teachers from across the globe. Typically, I would contact them with a particular angle in mind: curriculum, policies, tuition model, studio management, etc. During these talks, however, the conversation often strayed in wonderful ways, exploring peripheral issues that were also parts of the model. We discussed challenge, opportunities, frustrations, and solutions.

As a rule, instructors with inventive business models matched them with creative teaching approaches, and vice versa. For example, music teachers who generated substantial incomes were more likely to integrate improvisation, technology, and multiple musical genres than those who didn’t. That was a fascinating lesson. It seems that creativity is a transferrable skill. Those who master it benefit in a host of ways, creating simultaneous wins for themselves, students, and communities.

Income and impact; money and meaning. These terms may not be synonymous, but for savvy music teachers, they are closely related.

Featured image: Piano. CC0 via Pixabay.

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