Teachers Ladders Of Society Quotes

Mitchell Maxwell’s Maxims • You have to create your own professional path. There’s no longer a roadmap for an artistic career. • Follow your heart and the money will follow. • Create a benchmark of your own progress. If you never look down while you’re climbing the ladder you won’t know how far you’ve come. • Don’t define success by net worth, define it by character. Success, as it’s measured by society, is a fleeting condition. • Affirm your value. Tell the world “I am an artist,” not “I want to be an artist.” • You must actively live your dream. Wishing and hoping for someday doesn’t make it happen. Get out there and get involved. • When you look into the abyss you find your character. • Young people too often let the fear of failure keep them from trying. You have to get bloody, sweaty and rejected in order to succeed. • Get your face out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. Close your e-mail and pick up the phone. Personal contact still speaks loudest. • No one is entitled to act entitled. Be willing to work hard. • If you’re going to buck the norm you’re going to have to embrace the challenges. • You have to love the journey if you’re going to work in the arts. • Only listen to people who agree with your vision. • A little anxiety is good but don’t let it become fear, fear makes you inert. • Find your own unique voice. Leave your individual imprint on the world, not a copy of someone else. • Draw strength from your mistakes; they can be your best teacher.

My priority was getting into university. The notion that that was essential was fundamental to Russian and Soviet education. It testified to class in a society that loudly proclaimed equality for all. If you were accepted, you were clever, had studied hard, and, most likely, came from a good family. If you didn't get in, you were obviously stupid. By the time I was to enroll, universities had begun to give their students a reprieve from the army for the duration of their studies. If you went into the military, you were really stupid. Soviet society, which hypocritically extolled the working-man, in reality drew a line making it clear that people with higher education were in the top tier and those without it were second class. This was done, most likely, to incentivize all members of society, whatever their origins, to try for higher education, which was not a bad idea. The road to success was inscribed on every wall and in every textbook: "Study, study, and again, study," as the great Lenin instructed us. "You aren't completely stupid, are you? If you want to climb the social ladder, to get to the top-study!" The positive hero in every Soviet film is a factory worker who goes to night school. In practice this didn't work out well. The long-term consequence was a catastrophic fall in the prestige of any profession associated with manual labor, even the most highly skilled. To be a PTUshnik, a student at a vocational school or college, became synonymous with being a dunce. It was nothing out of the ordinary for a teacher to tell a student, "You, Petrov, are a half-wit and fit only for vocational college." The implication was that after becoming a plumber, electrician, or factory worker, Petrov would join the army of losers and alcoholics with no prospects in life. This inevitably led to intense pressure on schoolchildren. Not going into higher education was shameful.