Would you like to know what the presidential candidates say about music education? I did a little survey. You will be surprised by the results!
First, let me mention that I found it jarring to hear from my wife that in a recent focus group discussing education, nearly everyone seemed obsessed about making sure our state’s educational system helped kids get jobs. Almost as if they viewed colleges as vocational schools.
This is obsolete. Education shouldn’t help kids get jobs; it should help kids create jobs.
The creative thinking and discipline and communication skills learned through music education can help people invent something, start a new business, work for themselves–or just help them understand themselves and the fast-changing world we live in enough to identify the right companies and positions for themselves, and even shape existing jobs so they can really shine and make a difference.
OK, so which presidential candidates have made music and the arts part of their campaign?
McCain, Obama, Clinton, Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani do not even mention the arts or music in their issues statements. The most outspoken advocate of the arts is, in fact, Huckabee. Here’s what the candidates say:
Richardson (no longer running): “Put the arts and music back into education. To retain this critical education element, I will invest up to $500 million in arts and music education programs.”
Edwards: “No Child Left Behind has lost its way by imposing cheap standardized tests, narrowing the curriculum at the expense of science, history, and the arts and mandating unproven cookie-cutter reforms on schools.”
Kucinich: “The current Administration wants to box our young people in with standardized tests and a limited focus on math and science. These days, American students are tested to an extent that is unprecedented in American history and unparalleled anywhere in the world. Education must emphasize creative and critical thinking, not just test taking.”
Huckabee: “Music and the arts are not extraneous, extra-curricular, or expendable – I believe they are essential… Art and music are the secret, effective weapons that will help us to be competitive and creative. It is crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain. We all know the cliché of thinking outside the box: I want our children to be so creative that they think outside the cardboard factory. Art and music are as important as math and science because the dreamers and visionaries among us take the rough straw of an idea and spin it into the gold of new businesses and jobs. It is as important to identify and encourage children with artistic talent as it is those with athletic ability. Our future economy depends on a creative generation.”
Huckabee plays bass. By the way, Alan Greenspan played jazz with legendary Stan Getz before turning to economics. Bill Clinton played sax. What other high achievers have played music? Add a comment below, it would be nice to know!
Albert Einstein, who played violin, once said: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Thanks for the article. Music is the universal language. Music classes, including guitar classes, gives the students who feel they do not belong a place in the school. Music is also very mathematical. I have also been told by top corporate CEOs’ that their best computer programmers are the programmers that also read music and play an instrument.
Given the most recent brain research, it is continually SHOCKING to me that so many districts are opting to cut their music programs. I constantly tell my orchestra students that I am really teaching THINKING class although it looks like music class. We talk as a group about the importance of music on brain function and how THAT is the real “secret” benefit of staying in music as long as possible.
I disagree. I think education should help kids get jobs as well as create jobs. Creating jobs for every new student is a hard thing to do.
-Jane
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@Jane: My post was probably too concise. What I mean by “creating” jobs is not just inventing new ones, starting a company, etc., but also shaping existing jobs to be more relevant and meaningful, and therefore more successful; and also spotting job opportunities that have a future for the person needing a job, as well as for the organization offering it and for the community where it’s located. What I think of as merely “getting” a job is sending out resumes, looking in the newspaper, taking a job opening and being told what to do–the traditional notion of what it means to get a job. Or training for a job and then going out to fill an empty position. This will be less useful as our economy changes and we compete with workers round the world via internet, and as local businesses compete against chain stores and multinationals. Creative thinking, problemsolving, a sense of self esteem, and communication skills, all a strong part of music education but not always present in the “3 R’s”, will help build an adaptable and successful person.
Of course i’m a little biased, but I think that learning music is one of the most important things in terms of developing creative powers and learning how to be successful. The analogy for learning my instrument, for instance, applies to EVERYTHING. First, start with a complex and insurmountable skill. Second, divide it into the smallest available parts. Third, hone all parts repeatedly, daily, for years and years and years. Fourth, put all of the parts together again and you have mastery. Learning an instrument is how I learned about life itself.