Bringing Education Back to Democracy

It began with an innocent interview. The thought to bring education back to democracy or democracy back to education was expressed brilliantly by an Artist. Out of the mouth of a master an old idea was born again. Wynton Marsalis reminds us of the danger of cuts and a cultural void. He observes what occurs when a country separates itself from is democratic roots and kills the creativity that is needed for a whole education.

In a conversation with Andrea Mitchell, of MSNBC, Grammy winner Wynton Marsalis was asked about music education; why is music the first program to go when budgets are tight. In truth, it is not just music that falls victim to the knife when blood is let from the curriculum. Regardless of the decades of research that affirms academic excellence is directly associated with the study of the Arts, any programs that nurtures creativity are often slaughtered in the kill-house we call “education reform.” Why might this be? Wynton Marsalis may have said it best.

Wynton Marsalis: That’s a deep profound ignorance that has pervaded the country since the first depression, the great depression. For some reason we don’t have the ability to understand centrality of arts to identity of a group of people. We smoke screen it with urban. I’ve been around this country 30 years and over 1,000 kids. our kids are malnourished when it comes to culture in all schools, black schools, white schools, or the integrated schools or integrated schools we have. It’s a failure to understand what the arts are about and prevents us from stepping into the 21st century. Instead of leading the world in education, we’re following because we can’t adjust our education system to be framed around what a democracy should have.

Andrea Mitchell:…and how do you express that, you did it brilliantly just now. how do we persuade political leaders that this is a an essential part of becoming an educated person?

Wynton Marsalis: It’s a matter of looking at historical precedent thinking about what our country has and has to be a greater degree of degree of agitation. We have to get out and vote more. I love sports but sports is not going to pass as culture. I joke with my kids, I put the TV on and say it’s time for American culture. I love sports but we need to get an understanding of who we are as a nation. it’s like I always liken it to bu bonic plague in Europe. They couldn’t figure out it was rats. We look all around and talk about education. The question is not education, but what is the quality of that education. When we use the term communication, education, what are you communicating? What we’re being taught is not going to teach us how to come to grips with the variegated — they don’t have a complex of myriad of problems as we have. we need another type of education that doesn’t exist on this planet. We have to create that.

Let us bring democracy back to education and education back to democracy.