Good article!

Sadly, we are now swimming against the tide, with so many people being disenfranchised due to the right wing agenda in this nation. So instead of finding a child’s passion or teaching according to how a student learns, more and more books are being banned and the walls are being purposely closed in. So many teachers are more concerned with safety and not upsetting the left or the right that there is little time left for actual teaching. School officials and governing bodies will never do what is right by everyone, and even worse, as bureaucrats they are the opposite of the out-of-the-box thinkers that you have lauded in your article. We have a big mess on our hands.

But you’re right: We have to first recognize the problem and then move toward a solution. But the solution begins at home, because the individual is a microcosm of society. If millions of individuals, i.e., parents, are moving toward progress in education and the fundamentals of creative thinking then so too will the bureaucracy have to follow suit.

It seems to me that without the arts then we remain a soulless nation. Science is wonderful and has solved most of our most pressing issues from transportation to infrastructures to housing to food production (though this one is questionable), but science isn’t a panacea for our problems. Our mental, emotional, and spiritual needs to be equally met; otherwise what is life other than a robotic existence?