archival find—family letter #14

my nephew in college 1980 informs
grandparents he’s writing a manual
for his former h.s. band leader to
emphasize to parents that despite  
budget cuts and the “back-to-basics”
drive that music, arts, are not mere
frivolity; I quote a portion: “The
difficult idea to get across is how
important aesthetic experience is  
for high school kids. An outlet for all  
those turbulent adolescent emotions
—but try explaining that to a bunch
of folks who don’t already know it?
How to begin? How to define aesthetic in  
concrete terms without sounding like  
you’re talking down, or from some  
dream world that hardly anyone can  
relate to? The booklet is supposed to
point out how music theory, fine arts,  
help kids think, analyze, as much as  
physics or math problems and often  
offer much more . . . ” Tom continues,
but you get his gist.  He’s now teaching
fifth grade, I trust his charges are
enjoying liberal arts: as the gryphon
and mock turtle avow, we all need to
study Laughing and Grief; and we
know well that Arts abound in these

©2019 Jacqueline Jackson