Edumacation…….

Today I noticed a very scary article that was posted on ArtsJournal on Friday. The US society has gotten to the point where there are some States spending more on prisons then they are on higher education. If this doesn’t scare the livin’ bejesus out of you then……….

Art always exists. No matter what the situation we human beings have this innate desire to create something beautiful just for the reason to create something beautiful. There was music in the Nazi concentration camps. There was music in Mao’s China. Ditto for the cotton fields of the Confederacy, the mines of apartheid South Africa, the gulags of Siberia, etc. etc. There was, of course, “official” art in all those places as well. The same goes for education. Those who are free thinking and who believe strongly in the rights of the individual tend to end up in the apparatus of repressive governments where they receive a very different form of education. They learn that the State is not by itself moral, ethical, legitimate. Instead, it is the qualities of the people who have their hands of the levers of government who are measured by these social standards. Once these people are discredited the political prisoner no longer can fear his/her own beliefs and then only has to fear for their own physical safety. Thus the Political Prisoner is born and the downfall of the regime is ensured. No matter what the problems are that they face today, Russia, China, The USA, and South Africa are profoundly different than they were when all the aforementioned happen.

But in a perverse way how a country deals with their prison system is a measuring stick for it’s future. Repressive regimes use their prisons to protect their power from the radicals, the political prisoners. But making a martyr out of a person, history proves, is a very bad idea. “Yes we can”-ism has been around for a long, long while, and their’s nothing like hanging your hat on a dead hero to foster a revolution. But the question in the USA is – if we aren’t locking up political prisoners (and with the Asses of Evil still in power I’d say that’s a pretty open question) then who are we locking up? And what effect is that going to have on the rest of our society?

There is a sign in the window of one of my neighbors which reads: “Fund the basis of Democracy – Support Public Education.” Now admittedly, I live in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, not exactly a bastion of the Conservative movement in America. It’s a point of pride to brag about how many of your neighbors own a Prius (besides yourself, of course). But this is also indicative of the Minnesota way.

As a working conductor you see a lot of the world, and a lot of your own country, and you notice those places that have a high standard of living. Folks, I live in the Twin Cities for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest is education. These Scandahoovians are downright serious about learning. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting another small liberal arts college in the Twin Cities, and the University of Minnesota system is very strong. My kids go to public school, an idea I wouldn’t even consider in many places in the USA. Call me a hypocrite all you like but I was lucky enough to attend a great secondary school and that has made all the difference in my life. I’ve also taken orchestras into some public schools around the country where I was utterly convinced there was no learning going on. That scares me, and I am determined that my kids have a great education, something that is possible in the public schools here.

And here’s the link – in the ranking of the states when it comes to the ratio of spending between higher education and prisons Minnesota had the greatest bias towards education. It is possible for anybody to get a good education. Put that in the front end of the societal hopper and out the back you get a great place for an artist to live. A short list of what the Twin Cities has to offer –

Two great orchestras; Opera; Schubert Club recitals; two competing training orchestra programs; multiple community orchestras; degree programs in the Liberal Arts colleges; a vibrant jazz and rock scene; competing World Music series; etc., etc., etc…….

I could go on and on just in the music category. I won’t even touch Theatre, Visual, whatever. You can make a decent living here as a musician, especially if you’re any good. You might not be funding that second home in Boca Raton but you’ll get by, be able to raise a family, and generally enjoy life. If you’re in a title chair of one of those biggies though – life is good. Can anyone doubt that there is a link between having a strong educational focus and a community that fosters the arts? The more educated one is the more likely that person is going to attend a symphony, or put their kids on an instrument, or check out the jazz scene, or actually know who Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was, or just do something that will put money into the pocket of someone who makes their living creating art!

Every artist in the USA should be profoundly alarmed at the news of the higher education:prison spending ratio. If this trend continues it will have a very negative effect on our ability to make a decent living while pursuing our artistic dreams. Frankly, I think it’s quite hard enough as it is. No reason to make it harder. Perhaps a new sign in the window – “Support the basis of Democracy and Artistic Freedom – Support Public Education.”

Actually, that’s too big for the window. I’m thinking bumpersticker…. right next to the Obama/08 one.