Wynton Marsalis on the Value of Music Education

This originally appeared in the first edition of the Broader Minded Beat newsletter.

We loved the USA Today op-ed by famed jazz performer Wynton Marsalis and Harvard President Drew Faust on the value of arts education, which we daresay embodies the Broader Minded approach to music study. Check out this quote:

“Many of today’s students will hold jobs that have not yet been invented, deploying skills not yet defined…we must also enable them to ask the right questions to shape the world to come.

“We need education that nurtures judgment as well as mastery, ethics and values as well as analysis. We need learning that will enable students to interpret complexity, to adapt, and to make sense of lives they never anticipated. We need a way of teaching that encourages them to develop understanding of those different from themselves, enabling constructive collaborations across national and cultural origins and identities.

“In other words, we need learning that incorporates what the arts teach us.”

“Faust/Marsalis:The Art of Learning“ (USA Today; December 31, 2013)

Watch an NAfME exclusive interview with Marsalis