Everyone agrees that a choir needs four main vocal ranges. The soprano takes care of the high female range. The alto contributes the low female vocal range. The tenor (hello, Pavarotti) is the high adult male voice, and the bass is the low adult male voice. If one of these roles are missing, the output isn’t as rich or moving as it could be.
A picture book is no different. Sure, there are two names on the cover: the illustrator who draws the pictures and the author who writes the words, but there’s a cast of people who are critical to bringing the book to the world (editor, publisher, designer, printer etc).
When it comes to school and work, though, we seem to have a different mindset. From a very early age, each of us is supposed to be individually wonderful at everything – maths, science, history, geography, art. Right from the beginning, we’re trained toward an individualist mindset. Instead of spending time and energy identifying and honing an individual’s strengths, and teaching us how to work together to produce rich and moving output, as is the default in a choir, we spend exponentially more time and energy teaching kids to be good at everything. If you’re weak at maths, we get tutored for it. But we (or, at least I) don’t go to after school art classes if we can see a kid has a propensity toward expression with colour, shape and line.
A strengths-based approach to growth, paired with a focus on working together, not only means that individuals can spend more time doing what they’re good at (and therefore more likely to enjoy it), but we’re able to create the richest and most moving music, together – something greater than the sum of its parts.