Why there should be Arts in Liberal Arts

[idad]

<p>This video of Wynton Marsalis' testimony to Congress is quite profound. He makes a brilliant case for why education in the arts is important for everyone.</p>

<p>Wynton</a> Marsalis testifies before a Congressional Committee on Vimeo</p>

[idad]

<p>I am surprised no one has commented on this. I found it to be eye opening and quite important.</p>

[Northstarmom]

<p>Thanks for posting that link.</p>

[MarathonMan88]

<p>Thanks for the link.</p>

<p>Here’s another recent talk on the importance of the arts that makes slightly different points. It does a good job of making concrete two really difficult ideas: the nature of the seemingly ineffable quality of the arts, and the fact that they are not mere reflections of a culture–they actually shape our experience of the world.</p>

<p>If you need a teaser as incentive, the opening’s reference to SAT scores should grab readers of this forum:</p>

<p>

I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school—she said, “you’re WASTING your SAT scores.” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they LOVED music, they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function.

</p>

<p>[Karl</a> Paulnack to the Boston Conservatory Freshman Class From the Top Green Room](<a href=“http://greenroom.fromthetop.org/2009/03/11/karl-paulnack-to-the-boston-conservatory-freshman-class/]Karl”>http://greenroom.fromthetop.org/2009/03/11/karl-paulnack-to-the-boston-conservatory-freshman-class/)</p>

[idad]

<p>Very nice, I forwarded it to my musician son. Or, as he would say, I’m not a musician Dad, I’m a drummer.</p>

[gadad]

<p>

the fact that they are not mere reflections of a culture–they actually shape our experience of the world

</p>

<p>Where else in our curriculum or our schools do we teach striving for a higher and higher degree of excellence that has no limit? If you give me a subject test, I make 100 on the test and I’ve done as well as I can do. I’ve mastered the questions on that test. If I’m an athlete, I won’t play a perfect game, but I’ll probably be satisfied as long as we win. Artists never achieve total mastery - regardless of how excellent they become, they’re always striving to achieve more. What would become of a culture that doesn’t teach each generation to continually pursue greater and greater excellence?</p>

[Dad_o_2]

<p>

If you give me a subject test, I make 100 on the test and I’ve done as well as I can do. I’ve mastered the questions on that test.

</p>

<p>Think that might be oversimplifying our educational system a wee bit? The musical equivalent to that statement is “I hit all the notes right in Guitar Hero. Now I’ve mastered Stairway to Heaven.”</p>

<p>

Artists never achieve total mastery - regardless of how excellent they become, they’re always striving to achieve more. What would become of a culture that doesn’t teach each generation to continually pursue greater and greater excellence?

</p>

<p>The culture you hypothesize wouldn’t have written the Iliad, painted the Mona Lisa, or composed Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Neither would it have have invented the automobile, the ipod, the cotton gin, or the computer you are reading this on. It wouldn’t have discovered penicillin, eradicated polio, or decoded the human genome. It wouldn’t have won eight gold medals in Beijing or landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River. It wouldn’t have liberated Auschwitz, wouldn’t have walked on the moon, wouldn’t have developed calculus, string theory, or general relativity. </p>

<p>True learning and education in all areas goes far beyond the rote memorization of subject matter, just as music goes beyond the notes on a staff and art goes beyond the crayons in a box. To claim that the arts are the only path by which excellence can be instilled is dogmatic and condescending.</p>