Play like a girl

"I grew up in a small, all-white Midwestern town and the “United States of America” that I was being taught about in school – the one in which we all believed in equality, freedom and justice for all, the one where Americans were the good guys and everybody in the world  loved us – was essentially reflected back to me except for some seemingly small inconsistencies.  Learning that black people had somehow been excluded from the equation did not make sense to me, and I couldn’t make that fit in to who I thought ‘we’ were. Also, when I was twelve, a teacher gave me John Hersey’s book Hiroshima to read for extra credit. Learning that our country had used such a horrible weapon on civilians also seemed incomprehensible to me. I really did believe in the ideal version of America that was presented to me in school. At the time I concluded that something had gone wrong somewhere, and because the school system was the thing right in front of me I decided the problem lay there. I could see that we did not educate according to democratic principles and I thought that if we did do that we would create a truly democratic country, the place where everyone really did have equal opportunity for participation and growth. That was before I understood that the school system was simply supporting the economic system, which is in no way democratic"


http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2011/08/wii-11-ann-hackler/

Mad inspiring interview with Ann Hackler, co-founder of The Institute For The Musical Arts in Massachusetts, a teaching, performing and recording facility dedicated to supporting girls and women in music and music-related business. 25 years of alternative education and successful DIY music feminism. RAD.