Most teachers have heard, and indignantly bristle, at the mean-spirited phrase, Those who can do, do. Those who can't do, teach. But the dilemma facing public schools — with the realization that the arts might be important, if not essential, in cultivating the imagination and creativity of our children in order to reverse the blind progress of a culture gone mad with greed and individual success — is that they need artists to teach the arts. And artists, by their very nature, do not respond to institutionalized fear as motivation. The world has become a place of terror and uncertainty, fueled by institutions that have learned the secret of controlling their members quite effectively by using fear. Although our government has the monopoly on this strategy, most institutions are operating within that same paradigm.

Creativity is the opposite of conformity and is nurtured by a supportive, positive environment that allows students to engage in creative play and honest communication; a place where their fears and vulnerabilities are, at least, acknowledged and not ridiculed.

Teachers of the arts are no less affected by a punitive and stifling system than are their students.

Parker Palmer, in his groundbreaking book, The Courage To Teach, passionately believes that "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."

Palmer has been a sane voice for those of us in the profession who believe teaching is a "vocation of the heart, and many teachers may lose heart because of the troubled, sometimes toxic systems in which they work." Taking a closer look at the word "integrity" reminds us that it is not just about telling the truth; it is about integration and wholeness, while integrity's antonyms are dishonesty, division and fragility.

We can't blame the system entirely for this data-driven, dispassionate approach to administering education. After all, it was modeled on the prison system and now has been usurped, mainly by the corporate, profit-driven business model that rewards only what can be measured by specific, material outcomes, and punishes — or, at best ignores — what cannot be easily measured: the growth of the soul, which is the most valuable untapped natural resource available to us.

To not honor and integrate the wholeness of the arts would be an exercise in futility and guaranteed failure.

What the true artist has to offer is imagination: a call to envision a different reality, a reality that is about leading with our hearts and not our heads. Most of the ills in the world have been created by highly educated people with advanced degrees who lead with their minds. David Orr, the author of Earth In Mind: On Education, Environment, and Human Prospect, believes, "It is a matter of no small consequence that the only people that have lived sustainably on the planet for any length of time could not read, or like the Amish, do not make a fetish of reading." He goes on to explain that, "education is no guarantee of decency, prudence or wisdom. This is not an argument for ignorance, but rather a statement that the worth of education must now be measured against the standards of decency and survival — the issues now looming so large before us in the 21st century. It is not education, but education of a certain kind, that will save us. We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the . . . solemn injunction, "If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."

An understanding of the creative impulse and an honoring of our artistic drive are essential in shifting the current climate of disconnected apathy, and lack of compassion. The artist has only her story to convey, and if our stories are no longer valued, then a vision for the future has been obscured by willful neglect, and the outcome will be no less than disastrous.

Artist Gary Snyder reminds us that "art is the creative play of the human mind." If we are to cultivate the future minds of humanity in order to build a saner, sustainable, compassionate and peaceful planet, creativity must be honored, understood and nurtured in its entirety. Again to David Orr:

"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind."

Linda Starkweather is a teacher of theater at the Eastridge High School's School of Performing Arts in Irondequoit.