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Finnigan Launches Institute For School-Based Instruction

While Cassidy spent the decade teaching individuals to juggle in the privacy of their own homes, the Juggling Institute has concentrated on teaching them in a traditional learning environment - schools.

The Juggling Institute is the broadest based school instructional program in the USA , with about a dozen certified instructors teaching juggling from California to Florida - and now even in France . The institute may have taught as many as a million children to juggle in the past decade. But instructors aim for a higher goal. The institute's motto is, "Juggling is our cover, we really teach success!"

Dave Finnigan, the population-plannerturned-juggler, envisioned the Juggling Institute in 1977 as a logical extension of his new prop manufacturing business, Jugglebug. He floated the idea to a room full of interested people at the IJA's Eugene convention. Mike Vondruska, the first person who followed Finnigan's dream, is now its guiding light himself.

Vondruska's Illinois Juggling Institute employs himself and two other people fulltime. Last year he presented 110 school shows and picked up many personal appearances through the contacts he gained in the Institute. "You can't make it by just teaching," he said. However, between the school shows, private parties and equipment sales, the Illinois Juggling Institute grossed $100,000 last year.

The relatively low number of people who have stuck with the program and large number who have been interested but not signed on the dotted line testifies to the fact that it takes specific skills to be successful.

Finnigan said, "It doesn't take great juggling skill, but you have to have an innate love of teaching, a lot of patience and good business sense."

Vondruska elaborated: "A lot of people think it looks good, but to make it a business you have to treat it like a business. That's where people bog down."

In addition, he warned that the business is no place for grouches. He said, "You have to be people-oriented, you have to be Mr. Nice Guy. Your ability to handle a room full of kids with control is also a very high priority with the administration. But the program works. Eight out of ten administrators will tell us this is the best program they've had."

Finnigan no longer presents programs in schools, preferring the gracious title of "professor emeritus" of the Juggling Institute. However, he is happy to lead the Institute effort in setting up booths and giving demonstrations at major conventions of physical education teachers throughout the country. Finnigan cites these appearances as the Institute's main contribution to the field. Physical education instructors who previously did not consider juggling as a skill their students could learn now have gotten used to seeing it in the context of more traditional phys ed offerings.

Finnigan said - "I'm hoping we can convince all the phys ed teachers to teach juggling themselves and work ourselves out of a job!"

People seeking certification as a Juggling Institute instructor pay a $400 one-time

fee and spend a week with Vondruska learning the business by helping him produce school shows. Outside of that instruction, individuals have no further formal link with the Juggling Institute and are free to conduct business in their home area as they please.

Tom Sparough of Cincinnati, Ohio, called the Juggling Institute a network rather than a franchise. As did many, he started out in a small way and watched his business grow to the point that he went fulltime with it a year ago. "The bookings just kept increasing," he said. Sparough charges $200 for a 45-minute school assembly show and 45-minute workshop for up to 80 children. However, instructors set their own fees. Vondruska charges $250 for a half-day workshop and $325 for a full day. Most Juggling Institute work occurs in elementary and junior high schools.

Finnigan holds dear the dream of 100 Juggling Institute certified instructors across the United States. "If you've got a metropolitan area of a million or 800 schools within a couple hour's drive, you can make it," he said. "I hope it will grow faster once people realize this is a way they can make their hobby into their living."

Current full-time Juggling Institute certified instructors are: Detmar Straub in Chico, Calif.; Larry and Barbara Kluger in Oakland, Calif.; Jahnathon Whitfield in Los Angeles, Vondruska and Sparough.

Sparough.is happy he got involved. "My wife says I'm happier now, and I have time for other projects. I'm back in school getting a master's degree in psychology."