MIckey Hart: There's a Fire on the Mountain

[kas125]

Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, about why the music and the arts in our schools matter -


The drumbeat of politicians sounding the alarm about the need to rethink how we educate children in this country is music to my ears. But the rhythm of the conversation, which tends to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, is missing a beat: STEM needs an A, for the Arts.

How did I learn this? The hard way... I hated science in high school. Technology? Engineering? Math? Why would I ever need this? Little did I realize that music was also about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, all rolled into one. As I began to fulfill my dreams these skills became my allies, my new instrument.

The more I studied music the more I recognized rhythmic patterns in nature and the relationship between the vibrations of a drum and the geometry of the universe. When my old friend Bill Graham was "recycling" concert tickets twice, and then paying us for half, I learned to count. Math class in session. When the Grateful Dead needed a quality sound system to deliver our sonic payload, I learned electronics and speaker design. Engineering class in session. When the Deadheads recorded and distributed our performances worldwide, I learned about computer networks. Technology class in session.

Now the kid who hated science and math in high school works with the Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist George Smoot, collaborating on how to create music from the epic events created in the forming of the universe -- from the Big Bang to the galaxies, the stars and the planets.

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The rest is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mickey-hart/theres-a-fire-on-the-moun_b_839285.html?ref=fb&src=sp

[AndyTiedye]

1. k/r

[dbt]

2. Leave it to ye Minstrels and Fooles

to be talking sense at Court whilst the Peasants watch fires spread across the moors.