“The real secret is, I didn’t make them, I asked them. And in the very act of asking people, I connected with them…”
My daddy told me, “If you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no.” I’m not suggesting this is original with my amazing dad, but I will give him credit for knowing the right advice at the right time. Unfortunately, like most good advice we receive, it settles to the bottoms of our confidence toolboxes, and we forget how to self-talk encouragement and friendship to ourselves. When I spoke with my wonderful admins recently, I tried something new: I asked for some conditions that I know are best for students, and–here’s the revelation: good for me, too, and my workspace/happiness. These conditions are arein alignment with their visions, too. We (women) are trained from birth not to ask for help: we run from archetypal misconceptions that lead to sexism at least, and misogyny at worst.
And constraints are put on educators, too. Recently my district made stipulations to sites like Donors Choose, requiring more bureacratic obstacles than most teachers have time to overcome. And I think back to my art major period, and giving away almost every piece of art I made. My friends didn’t do that: if you wanted a piece of art you paid for it, with no apologies or explanations.
The personal question for me is, do I wrangle my own cultural, ‘southern lady’ independent, never-ask-for-help norms, or do I just say, ‘you know what…I make good stuff, and deserve to be paid for it?’
So: what do I need? I need to support this addiction to teaching. How am I going to do that?
Well:
- Ask: use sites like Patreon and PayPal donations. If Amanda &#C!ing Palmer can do it, and she won the wife lottery of being married to Neil Gaiman, (yes, yes, he won, too…) then so can I. (My personal mixed feelings about Amanda Palmer–well, conflicted for sure. Has there ever been a woman so well-known, open, and exposed who wrote so painfully and ridiculously about her emotions about her art and motherhood? *eye roll* These ‘how do I balance motherhood and ALL OF LIFE conversations need a heavy-duty shift.)
- Make: Create content and units
- Share: For fee-based and for free: see how this source-funding thing works, or doesn’t. I’m beginning to suspect I am well behind the curve on this one, and funding-fatigue is setting in. Here’s to hoping there’s still a little bit left.
Link to Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?ty=h&u=2689518
And I’m linking books to Amazon, like many other teachers/bloggers do. If you need a book, please link it from this site.
I’m still working on the Patreon page: please have patience. It is Mother’s Day after all, and I already help fund these two of these projects: