What are your career plans? Have you secured an internship? What’s the pay scale for graduates in that major? All important questions, but just as important are things like music, the arts, thinking critically, and expanding your horizons by studying subjects unrelated to your chosen vocation.

I was reminded of these broader concerns when I recently attended a concert of the Symphonic Winds at the University of Minnesota-Morris — a hidden public education gem in the middle of the Minnesota prairie. The ensemble is full of college students pursuing various courses of studies — science, social science, education, and, of course, music. Our world is increasingly interdisciplinary in its issues, and the liberal arts are critical to creating the problem-solvers of tomorrow.

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”

~ Albert Einstein

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”

~ Plato

Take a moment to appreciate and support music and the arts, and the richness it adds to your life.

~ Kat