Speaker 1: Personally with Llogan Fuelsman.
Speaker 2: It's been the series of change makers.
Speaker 3: Last week, now Harbison was on sharing his story all
Speaker 3: the way from Thailand. This week, I have on Kaye Toll.
Speaker 3: She's another change maker in the world. And I've always
Speaker 3: found it so awesome when people take time out of
Speaker 3: their life to dedicate it to a cause, and that's
Speaker 3: exactly what Kaylee has done. She's a co founder of
Speaker 3: Let Music, Film My World. They're dedicated to making sure
Speaker 3: every student in America has access to music education. So
Speaker 3: let's get into this interview so you can hear why
Speaker 3: music is such an important part of our lives. I'm
Speaker 3: joined this week by Kaylee Toll. She's one of the
Speaker 3: co founders of Let Music, Film My World. And I'm
Speaker 3: so excited to have you join and share your story.
Speaker 2: How are you? Thank you for having me. I'm really good.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm especially good. I've got this dog.
Speaker 2: Right here, Remy, Miss Remy, the therapy dog who's keeping
Speaker 2: me company, keeping me warm. Thank you for this. You
Speaker 2: should have led with this.
Speaker 3: I know this is the real reason everybody comes is
Speaker 3: to get therapy, as honestly, and I totally get it.
Speaker 3: I get therapy every day, so I totally enjoy this experience. Well, Killy,
Speaker 3: I want to hear your story and why you are
Speaker 3: a co founder of this incredible project.
Speaker 1: Well, a few years ago, in twenty twenty three, John
Speaker 1: and Rassic Grammy nominated artist to Fight for Fighting and
Speaker 1: I connected and we came up with this concept about
Speaker 1: how to do good work right now in music education,
Speaker 1: which means getting teachers into schools where there aren't any,
Speaker 1: getting music educators into schools where there aren't any, and
Speaker 1: also how to do more storytelling about why music matters,
Speaker 1: because it's so much more than a nice to have.
Speaker 2: It sounds good, kids like.
Speaker 1: It, we like it, but actually the research is pretty
Speaker 1: robust about the value of music to young people, and
Speaker 1: we can talk more about that later, but we really
Speaker 1: wanted to transform some of the storytelling so that more
Speaker 1: Americans could recognize that music education is an incredibly valuable
Speaker 1: and highly underutilized tool that we need now more than ever.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So you did you ever have experience in your
Speaker 3: young life, in your I guess even just beyond being young,
Speaker 3: but as you were getting older that music really played
Speaker 3: a significant.
Speaker 2: Role for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, growing up on my mom's side, of the family,
Speaker 1: in particular, my mom was one of seven. We always
Speaker 1: were doing something musical. I have a lot of memories
Speaker 1: of gathering with the cousins that my grandparents house in
Speaker 1: or Inda, California, and everyone would find something that would
Speaker 1: turn into an instrument. Some people would have real instruments
Speaker 1: like a guitar, but most of us would just have
Speaker 1: something that would make noise.
Speaker 2: Some people would sing.
Speaker 1: And this feeling of everyone can contribute, everyone's a part
Speaker 1: of this, and that together we're making something special really
Speaker 1: stuck with me. And I think the creative outlet, the
Speaker 1: feeling of belonging and the playfulness of that as a
Speaker 1: young person is so valuable. Because there's no doubt that
Speaker 1: curriculum that we have, you know, math and science, we
Speaker 1: need all of that, But when we think about the
Speaker 1: skills for the future and what the future of work
Speaker 1: is going to look like, we really need young people
Speaker 1: that have the ability to be collaborative and resilient and
Speaker 1: have critical thinking skills and a lot of innovation and
Speaker 1: create activity. And so we need to provide young people
Speaker 1: in school the tools that would help them build out
Speaker 1: in music education, music and the arts are those avenues.
Speaker 3: I love that you were mentioning talking about in the
Speaker 3: school experience, because I often think about what my experience
Speaker 3: was like growing up, and I was very lucky that
Speaker 3: I had significant music education. I was in choir and
Speaker 3: we did music programs, and so much of our curriculum
Speaker 3: every single year had to include some form of music,
Speaker 3: and I think it played a really big role in
Speaker 3: the creative side of.
Speaker 2: Me, to understand.
Speaker 3: I mean, heck, there was even a moment in time
Speaker 3: when I wanted to be a singer.
Speaker 2: That was like my purpose in life. Who didn't want that?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Didn't we all want that at some point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you see, like the famous people are like, I
Speaker 3: want to be a star to.
Speaker 2: Do that, and then you realize, oh, actually it's quite hard.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, my think very thankfully, my mother tried
Speaker 3: very gently to let me down that that was just
Speaker 3: the whole process in itself for her. But I really
Speaker 3: do think of so many of those moments, and I
Speaker 3: remember them. You know, you really don't remember a lot
Speaker 3: of your stories growing up as a kid, but I
Speaker 3: can remember that I was singing on the stage about
Speaker 3: the barn. There was this old TV show with a barn.
Speaker 3: I think his name is Ed there was a horse.
Speaker 3: And I know that's like so many very random details,
Speaker 3: but I remember that we did this old school play
Speaker 3: of like these old songs and I had a solo
Speaker 3: and I was so excited.
Speaker 2: Such a big deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you get you practice, and it's you learn
Speaker 3: and develop so many skills.
Speaker 2: You try, you fail. You have to put yourself out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you have to have the confidence to go
Speaker 3: out on stage and sing in front of all these
Speaker 3: people you don't know. And then when it happens, you
Speaker 3: build this confidence up within yourself, even if you're not
Speaker 3: doing a solo.
Speaker 2: It's so nerve racking.
Speaker 1: And then you learn that you're a part of a team,
Speaker 1: that it's not always about you front and center. And
Speaker 1: when I think about why music and the arts, music
Speaker 1: education in particular is so important, it makes me think
Speaker 1: of just going back to the core of why are
Speaker 1: we sending kids to school.
Speaker 2: In the first place. Why is education important? And I
Speaker 2: think when you.
Speaker 1: Really boil it down, it matters because we're preparing young
Speaker 1: people to succeed as adults. We want young people to
Speaker 1: thrive now, to learn now. We want them to get
Speaker 1: good grades, we want them to show up at school.
Speaker 1: We don't want them to get in trouble.
Speaker 2: But why.
Speaker 1: It's because we want to prepare them for adulthood, for
Speaker 1: joining the workforce. And I think we have to get
Speaker 1: back to thinking a little more out of the box
Speaker 1: about what that looks like for today. And I think
Speaker 1: we could be doing better. And it's not a partisan issue.
Speaker 1: I mean something that's backed so robustly by research. I
Speaker 1: mean the thing about music education that is, there's two
Speaker 1: things that stand out to me. One it's not an
Speaker 1: issue of invention, it's actually an implementation problem, which is
Speaker 1: to say, we already know that music is an incredibly
Speaker 1: effective tool for young people for mental health, for academic performance,
Speaker 1: for workforce readiness, but we don't do the best job
Speaker 1: at implementing that evenly across the US and the number
Speaker 1: of you know, there's four million students that don't have
Speaker 1: access to music education in America.
Speaker 2: It sounds bad and.
Speaker 1: It's not great, but that's just scratching the surface because
Speaker 1: what we really have to look at is what can
Speaker 1: we be doing through music education that's preparing young people
Speaker 1: to succeed. So it's just one music class really going
Speaker 1: to do that. And then the other piece that is
Speaker 1: a part of this is how this is a totally
Speaker 1: nonpartisan issue because it's backed by data. It's not just
Speaker 1: someone saying, you know, this is something that's nice to have.
Speaker 1: Believe me, the research is so clear. I mean, the
Speaker 1: fact that students involved in music education and the arts
Speaker 1: are five times more likely to graduate high school is
Speaker 1: mind blowing.
Speaker 3: That's a crazy number that I didn't even.
Speaker 2: Or wouldn't even correlate.
Speaker 3: So why do you think that is Being in this
Speaker 3: and working with this organization for so long, why do
Speaker 3: you think music does play such a significant impact in
Speaker 3: kids graduating.
Speaker 1: I think we have to be realistic that success and
Speaker 1: innovation takes all kinds, and you just don't always know
Speaker 1: how you're going to capture someone's imagination and really light
Speaker 1: up their potential. For some kids, that can be math
Speaker 1: and science and history. I loved history, but I also
Speaker 1: really loved music, and I had the opportunity to have
Speaker 1: that in school.
Speaker 2: So I think.
Speaker 1: Why the research reflects that students that participate in music
Speaker 1: and the arts have a much higher likelihood of graduating
Speaker 1: high school is because it's one of many tools that
Speaker 1: we know delivered.
Speaker 2: Music education delivers, and.
Speaker 1: That's what we should be focused on now more than ever.
Speaker 1: I mean, America's so focused on efficiency, making sure that
Speaker 1: we spend our money wisely on the economy, and we
Speaker 1: should be and we should be focused on how do
Speaker 1: we do those things? And we shouldn't discard we shouldn't
Speaker 1: discard viable avenues to do that when we know that
Speaker 1: they're actually pretty simple. They already exist. We don't have
Speaker 1: to start from scratch. We just have to do a
Speaker 1: better job at making music education in this case, available
Speaker 1: to every student in America.
Speaker 2: Why do you feel like music?
Speaker 3: I'm picturing especially the movie and maybe you've probably seen
Speaker 3: it with Kevin James, where he goes in and he
Speaker 3: becomes a boxer to save the school program, the music program.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a hilarious movie, but this is exactly
Speaker 2: what he's doing.
Speaker 3: Is he knows that the music teacher is about to
Speaker 3: have a kid, and they're all in this big meeting
Speaker 3: with the principal and he's like, we're about to cut
Speaker 3: the music program completely, and he's like, we can't do that,
Speaker 3: and then he like blurts out, okay, well he's pregnant
Speaker 3: or his wife's pregnant.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 3: He's like, we got to save it, he decides to
Speaker 3: become a boxer to raise money for the music program,
Speaker 3: and it's this whole storyline. And I love this movie,
Speaker 3: but I'm picturing that right now. Because music programs are
Speaker 3: often the first thing to get cut when funding is
Speaker 3: getting cut, why do you feel like it becomes not
Speaker 3: an important tool for us to use, Like we have
Speaker 3: the research, we have the numbers, but why is it
Speaker 3: the first thing people reach for to say no more.
Speaker 1: I think we do what's easy, often not always what's
Speaker 1: right these it's state by state, so every state, which
Speaker 1: I think is totally reasonable, has their own standards for
Speaker 1: education and implements that accordingly. I think if we looked
Speaker 1: at what really delivered for young people and really considered
Speaker 1: the facts, it would be impossible to cut music in
Speaker 1: the arts. But I think that's a tougher route then
Speaker 1: to cut something that may not be as protected, may
Speaker 1: not have as much history at that school, may not
Speaker 1: have as strong of a support system or a lobbying
Speaker 1: based But for example, the first school that John and
Speaker 1: I went into in Chicago, called Farragut Career Academy in
Speaker 1: the Little Village neighborhood, they had had a music program,
Speaker 1: a couple years prior lost it due to funding exactly
Speaker 1: as you're describing and what we did when we went
Speaker 1: into that school. In addition to John working with a
Speaker 1: group of kids to write this original song that music
Speaker 1: film My World, he taught them about the music industry.
Speaker 1: They interacted with seasoned industry professionals to learn about all
Speaker 1: the different things that can be done in music education. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't have to just be the musician.
Speaker 3: It's the most fun one, I think, but you know like.
Speaker 4: That, there's a lot of avenues or it's not even
Speaker 4: an avenue in music, but it's about what you can
Speaker 4: learn through music and the things that we heard from the.
Speaker 1: Students about how they felt during these two months.
Speaker 2: Or so that we were with them.
Speaker 1: They felt connected with their peers, They wanted to come
Speaker 1: to school, they felt like they had a safe space
Speaker 1: to try new things. And if school isn't meant to
Speaker 1: be that, I don't know what it is meant to be.
Speaker 1: We want young people to go to school feeling confident,
Speaker 1: open minded, curious and engaged, and that's just not going
Speaker 1: to look the same for every student. So I think,
Speaker 1: why is that the case? Why is music and the
Speaker 1: arts often cut I think just because it's easy, but
Speaker 1: not because it's right, and not because the data backs.
Speaker 3: It up and does not make you just kind of
Speaker 3: so mad that we do do what's easy often instead
Speaker 3: of the right thing in understanding what's the most beneficial
Speaker 3: for kids in the programs.
Speaker 1: Well, usually when I get mad, I get really active.
Speaker 1: My family calls me turbulently active. We talked before this
Speaker 1: it's not always a good thing. So then it makes
Speaker 1: me wonder, Okay, if this is the case, what are
Speaker 1: we missing, what's not going right? Why are we making
Speaker 1: it so easy for music education to get cut? And
Speaker 1: that's where I think the storytelling really comes in music
Speaker 1: education isn't just about the short term impacts. Those are
Speaker 1: well documented. They are really powerful. Of course, we want
Speaker 1: students to show up to school. Of course, we want
Speaker 1: them to get good grades. We don't want them to
Speaker 1: get in trouble.
Speaker 2: But that really.
Speaker 1: Matter only because of what comes next. And that's the
Speaker 1: part of the story that I think we can talk
Speaker 1: more about in this space, which is preparing young people
Speaker 1: to thrive, creating better humans, and really arming our young
Speaker 1: people with the tools that they need to be successful
Speaker 1: after graduation with whatever they do you hear a little.
Speaker 2: Bit less about that, a little bit less.
Speaker 1: About the medium to long term economic outcomes, and there
Speaker 1: is less research in that space. Where funding new research
Speaker 1: through NORC at the University of Chicago, which is an
Speaker 1: important part of this because it should always be data driven.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't just be about the emotion. But that's the
Speaker 1: part of the story. I think we can do a
Speaker 1: better job building.
Speaker 3: Okay, So let's get into that then a little bit,
Speaker 3: because I'd love to. And I'm so curious because I
Speaker 3: don't even have the tools or information to start to
Speaker 3: dive into that place. But I'm just curious why this
Speaker 3: is such an important piece of this for you with
Speaker 3: this organization, because understanding how music plays a role, I
Speaker 3: can understand.
Speaker 2: I love music.
Speaker 3: I know how it makes me feel. I know I
Speaker 3: can listen to music to get through certain times, and
Speaker 3: I know that music helps me.
Speaker 2: And I know that.
Speaker 3: Learning instruments is good for my brain, like I know
Speaker 3: those pieces. But why is this part so important for
Speaker 3: you guys at this stage.
Speaker 1: So I spent the first part of my career a
Speaker 1: little over a decade in government service, and I had
Speaker 1: the chance to travel and work all over the world,
Speaker 1: saw many different cultures, a lot of different ways that
Speaker 1: things were done, that people lived their lives, and.
Speaker 2: Saw good bad, saw it all.
Speaker 1: And then when I came back to the US and
Speaker 1: decided that I wanted to stay here at home for
Speaker 1: some time, what I realized was that the outside in
Speaker 1: perspective that I had had for so long how to
Speaker 1: keep the US safe, strong, prosperous from the outside in,
Speaker 1: was just a part of the puzzle. And in fact,
Speaker 1: there's so much that needs to be done here at
Speaker 1: home to keep us safe, strong, and prosperous, and I
Speaker 1: got really curious about what that looks like. When I
Speaker 1: set up our family office a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: The main thing that we focused on across a couple
Speaker 1: of different industries is human potential, and we look for
Speaker 1: opportunities where human potential is not being leveraged, is being missed,
Speaker 1: where there's really an opportunity to redesign, rewire, where business
Speaker 1: as usual just isn't going to cut it anymore. And
Speaker 1: so we started in workforce, and the whole idea was
Speaker 1: we need to engage overlook talent because the consequences for
Speaker 1: our economy are significant. It's not just about the human story.
Speaker 1: That's an important part, but it's also about what will
Speaker 1: continue to keep our country strong and functional and successful
Speaker 1: for the future to come. So we started a couple
Speaker 1: of different initiatives in that space, and the biggest feedback
Speaker 1: that we heard from employers was.
Speaker 2: That new hires weren't work ready. And when we dug.
Speaker 1: Into that, what we learned was that was about executive
Speaker 1: functioning and of these twenty first century skills, so resiliency,
Speaker 1: thinking out of the box, working on a team, collaboration,
Speaker 1: those are not taught in the certification program. Those are
Speaker 1: not taught in the degree program that's required for that
Speaker 1: person to apply to and get the job.
Speaker 2: So then we started to think out of the.
Speaker 1: Box ourselves, how can we go upstream what currently exists
Speaker 1: that we can help leverage, grow and expand. And I
Speaker 1: dove into music education, not at all at the expense
Speaker 1: of arts, but mainly eating the elephant kind of issue
Speaker 1: where I was like, you got to start somewhere.
Speaker 2: There's a lot going on in this space.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like how do we narrow this down and just
Speaker 3: really start to take a chunk out of this exactly?
Speaker 1: And once I started to read a lot about what
Speaker 1: we already knew when it comes to music education, how
Speaker 1: it delivers for young people and the benefits in the
Speaker 1: short and medium term.
Speaker 2: I was shocked.
Speaker 1: That we weren't seeing more success in this space. And
Speaker 1: that comes back again, I think to the way that
Speaker 1: we do storytelling, and sometimes you have to just shake
Speaker 1: it up a little bit. And that's what let Music
Speaker 1: Fill my World is doing. And we're doing it through
Speaker 1: great partnerships and a coalition with many other organizations.
Speaker 2: That exist in this space.
Speaker 1: Because as a nonprofit that's fully funded, we have a
Speaker 1: little more flexibility to be creative and to try to
Speaker 1: build really broad partnerships with organizations that have been doing
Speaker 1: this for a long time. I've had many successes, but we're.
Speaker 2: Talking about here is scale.
Speaker 1: So how do we get to a point where every
Speaker 1: student in America has access to music education, where it's
Speaker 1: obvious to all Americans how valuable.
Speaker 2: Music education is in school.
Speaker 1: That's a part of it too. Who elects the individuals
Speaker 1: that are making legislative choices about music and the arts.
Speaker 1: We all do, so it's our responsibility to be educated
Speaker 1: about this topic. But people have a million things on
Speaker 1: their mind all the time. You can't expect people to
Speaker 1: focus and zoom in on just one issue that you
Speaker 1: might care about. So we've got to make a little noise,
Speaker 1: and we're doing that through the Music Matters Challenge. We're
Speaker 1: doing that through this Power of Music series that we.
Speaker 2: Have going on.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is it's a good news story.
Speaker 1: We know that music education works. It's available to us.
Speaker 1: We can do a better job, but we have to
Speaker 1: do it to other well.
Speaker 3: In hearing you talk about this in understanding, there's a
Speaker 3: few different pieces to this that I want to address,
Speaker 3: but understanding people as a whole, and I think understanding
Speaker 3: the younger generations coming up have had different educational experiences.
Speaker 2: Than a lot of us have had.
Speaker 3: And just as I mentioned how I had music, I
Speaker 3: also played a lot of sports. I also got to
Speaker 3: be involved in a lot of different activities in different programs,
Speaker 3: And as you're talking about this, I don't think I
Speaker 3: ever realized how much that played a role in who
Speaker 3: I became as an adult. I was involved actively in
Speaker 3: a volunteer organization. I was actively involved with animal organizations.
Speaker 3: I was actively involved in music programs. I was actively
Speaker 3: part of sports.
Speaker 2: I played every sport.
Speaker 3: I tried to learn to play multiple instruments. I think
Speaker 3: I had piano and guitar lessons all the time, but
Speaker 3: there was so much that I.
Speaker 2: Got to be exposed to exposure.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm thinking of me as a human being now,
Speaker 3: and had I not had so much of that different exposure,
Speaker 3: I would be a completely different person and I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be the worker that I am because of those different
Speaker 3: moments of exposure and different things in my life. And
Speaker 3: I feel really lucky right now in this moment talking
Speaker 3: to you, that I did have those experiences. But to
Speaker 3: your point, we're in a different place in time, and
Speaker 3: that exposure isn't happening well.
Speaker 1: And it's happening in some places, but it's not happening evenly,
Speaker 1: and the result is we're leaving a lot of young
Speaker 1: minds behind and you just never know who is going
Speaker 1: to come up with the next incredible idea, who is
Speaker 1: going to be a powerful social entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: You don't know.
Speaker 1: But what you can know for sure is that if
Speaker 1: you're not providing all of these different outlets for young
Speaker 1: people in every community to explore, to innovate, to try
Speaker 1: new things, to be creative, it's very unlikely that you're
Speaker 1: going to see the same outcomes from those communities, so
Speaker 1: that this isn't a conversation about equity at its core,
Speaker 1: this is really a conversation about doing better for all
Speaker 1: of America, because when we do better for that person,
Speaker 1: it's also better for me. We don't need to get
Speaker 1: caught up in this being like a fleeting social movement.
Speaker 2: It's not.
Speaker 1: This is about results, and that's why it's a nonpartisan issue.
Speaker 1: This is about doing something that works for young people
Speaker 1: that will be effective in schools so that the moment
Speaker 1: graduation comes around, whether they pursue something in the music
Speaker 1: industry and the entertainment industry or something completely different, that
Speaker 1: they feel ready and prepared. And that isn't happening well
Speaker 1: across the country. There's some positive trends for mental health
Speaker 1: for young people in particular, but there's other trends that
Speaker 1: are really concerning about young people being optimistic for the future,
Speaker 1: feeling prepared.
Speaker 2: And we need to.
Speaker 1: Deliver for young people by investing in the resources that
Speaker 1: we know will help them succeed.
Speaker 2: And music education is not a panacea.
Speaker 1: I'm not over here saying like this is the end all,
Speaker 1: be all, this is all that we need. I'm no hippie,
Speaker 1: but we have to do what works, and we know
Speaker 1: that music education delivers for students. So we need to
Speaker 1: ensure that every student in America has access to music
Speaker 1: education in school. And it has to be in school
Speaker 1: because we don't know what will happen after school with
Speaker 1: families with different priorities. What is the time of it,
Speaker 1: can a family afford it, There's a million different considerations.
Speaker 1: But if this is within school hours, we know that
Speaker 1: a student will have access to it well.
Speaker 3: And that's such a big topic of conversation too, right,
Speaker 3: because there are kids who they only get access to
Speaker 3: things when they go to school, especially within the public
Speaker 3: education side of things. So I'm assuming that's also where
Speaker 3: you guys are trying to help fill that void, is
Speaker 3: making sure these schools that have less resources, that have
Speaker 3: lower income areas that just don't have the access that
Speaker 3: other places do, are getting the access to things that
Speaker 3: they need.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that's part of this too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the focus of Let Music Fill My World,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, is to ensure that every student in
Speaker 1: America has access to music education in school. And what
Speaker 1: we're doing is directly funding on an annual basis at
Speaker 1: least one school for a period of three years. Why
Speaker 1: three years so that there's time to build up the
Speaker 1: program and prove how and where it's working for students.
Speaker 1: And each year we fund at least one school. We
Speaker 1: started in Chicago. We have selected the next school, which
Speaker 1: we'll be announcing shortly, which is on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and then the Music Matters Challenge will help us pick
Speaker 1: the next school. So you need the teacher in the
Speaker 1: school for sure, right you have to have that, but
Speaker 1: you also need other things. You need instruments, you need curriculum,
Speaker 1: and there are many incredible organizations that already exist that
Speaker 1: are doing that. But the tough part is you need
Speaker 1: the teacher, you need the space, you need, the time
Speaker 1: allocated at the school. There's competing priorities.
Speaker 2: But I think the.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is if Americans recognize the value of music
Speaker 1: education to our young people, to our children, then we'll
Speaker 1: demand that music education is accessible and available to all students.
Speaker 1: And that brings us back to the storytelling. You can't
Speaker 1: just want something to have and think it's really important
Speaker 1: and then get mad that it doesn't work right.
Speaker 2: You gotta work hard towards it.
Speaker 1: And many organizations have been doing that, have seen some progress.
Speaker 1: But what I think that we can do and we
Speaker 1: are hoping to support through let Music Feel my World,
Speaker 1: is to try to reframe the discussion a little bit,
Speaker 1: make it more about those medium to long term economic outcomes.
Speaker 2: How is this helping young.
Speaker 1: People succeed after graduation with what comes next?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, and you're talking about this too, and I
Speaker 3: feel like it would be important to also share what
Speaker 3: have you guys been able to see kids who have
Speaker 3: gotten access to music education and then the difference it
Speaker 3: made in their life as they started to grow up
Speaker 3: and get a little bit older, And like, have you
Speaker 3: guys been able to see some of that.
Speaker 2: Transition yet in the work that you're doing so far?
Speaker 1: At Fairy Good Career Academy, we've been working with Principal Nanavati,
Speaker 1: who grew up in India and shared that in his education,
Speaker 1: music and the arts was a total standard and how
Speaker 1: much it contributed to his worldview and his success as
Speaker 1: an educator. And last year we hired mister Vanderkrabn who
Speaker 1: is their full time music educator. So the feedback that
Speaker 1: we've gotten so far from Farragut within this short time
Speaker 1: frame has been anecdotal, but for what it's worth. The
Speaker 1: attendances up, disciplinary infractions are down, and students are performing
Speaker 1: better academically, and those are the results that we would
Speaker 1: expect to see, so we're seeing them. Will continue to
Speaker 1: monitor and to measure, and the idea is that by
Speaker 1: providing the consistency of funding over three years, that the
Speaker 1: program will prove itself to the community and be able
Speaker 1: to make a strong case for securing future funding. So
Speaker 1: we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We're not
Speaker 1: going to abandon them, but what we hope is that
Speaker 1: we can create a more sustainable approach that will result
Speaker 1: in onward funding that's not philanthropic in nature, so that
Speaker 1: it can truly be more sustainable for that community.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and just something that becomes a basis. It's something
Speaker 3: that has to be included. It's not a question of if.
Speaker 3: So much of what you're talking about too, revolves around
Speaker 3: just the education of this alone, understanding how music plays
Speaker 3: a role, why it's important, how in general exposure to
Speaker 3: just different types of things plays a role. Yeah, in
Speaker 3: all human beings, especially as you're young, in your learning
Speaker 3: and understanding the world around you. I think that's a
Speaker 3: huge piece too. A lot of this too, is just
Speaker 3: getting people to hear the story right. It's what you
Speaker 3: were saying, is the storytelling.
Speaker 1: And I think it was Plato that famously said you
Speaker 1: discover more about a person in one hour of play
Speaker 1: than one year of conversation. And lessons like that we
Speaker 1: really have to think about when it comes to education,
Speaker 1: because what do you want from a teacher in a school.
Speaker 1: You want them to understand your child. You want them
Speaker 1: to have an idea of what's needed to help your
Speaker 1: child succeed. And so whether that's a kind of play,
Speaker 1: whether we're talking about music and the arts, recess sports,
Speaker 1: that it shouldn't come music education need not come at
Speaker 1: the expense of some kind of physical activity. I was
Speaker 1: an athlete growing up, like you, tried so many different
Speaker 1: sports and that was hugely valuable for me growing up
Speaker 1: and learning a lot of important lessons. But we have
Speaker 1: to think a little bit differently about what should be
Speaker 1: included on a regular basis for every student and ensure
Speaker 1: that we're making those decisions based on what is working,
Speaker 1: not just how it's been. It's really hard to change
Speaker 1: institutional investments, but we have to do it when we're
Speaker 1: not delivering for our young people, because those are our
Speaker 1: future leaders, and we should be doing everything that we
Speaker 1: can to make the investments necessary now so that when
Speaker 1: they enter their workforce that I'm not talking with an
Speaker 1: employer saying this seems like a great candidate. They had
Speaker 1: all the qualifications, but they just aren't work ready.
Speaker 2: I mean, how devastating.
Speaker 1: They have invested so much in a student and a
Speaker 1: young person, no doubt they're working their tail off, and
Speaker 1: then they get into that role, that career and they're
Speaker 1: missing key skills that will make it much harder for
Speaker 1: them to excel.
Speaker 3: And it's a piece to the puzzle that we haven't
Speaker 3: been talking about when it comes to lacking younger people
Speaker 3: in the workforce and what that looks like. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've worked with younger people and there's no shortage of
Speaker 3: some of them where I'm just like, I feel like
Speaker 3: we had drastically different educations of understanding what hard work
Speaker 3: and time and effort looks like. And that's okay, It's
Speaker 3: just there's a missing piece. And this is that missing
Speaker 3: piece to the puzzle that I think is missing in
Speaker 3: the conversation around education and careers and what we need
Speaker 3: to evolve to do better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and that's a part of the conversation, which
Speaker 1: is the future of work. So we think we have
Speaker 1: a good sense of what jobs look like now, although
Speaker 1: we're seeing a lot of changes in many industries, but
Speaker 1: what will be required in the future of work. We
Speaker 1: will need to constantly reskill ourselves and reinvent how we
Speaker 1: show up professionally because many jobs will change, some will disappear,
Speaker 1: some will just evolve. And if we don't have a
Speaker 1: workforce that has that kind of resiliency and agility, it's
Speaker 1: we're gonna be in a world of.
Speaker 2: Pain and it will be our own doing.
Speaker 1: There's some things that you can prepare for and some
Speaker 1: things you just can't. But what we can do a
Speaker 1: better job preparing for are those skills that when push
Speaker 1: comes to shove, when a new obstacle comes up, when
Speaker 1: something unexpected happens with work, that you can pivot. And
Speaker 1: I agree with you, I'm not convinced that we are
Speaker 1: doing enough, in particular for new people joining the workforce
Speaker 1: to give them those skills so that when something comes
Speaker 1: up they say, Okay, I can take this on.
Speaker 3: It is It is a drastically different experience that I
Speaker 3: have and I've witnessed not only being over people, but
Speaker 3: working with people. It's a different type of work ethic
Speaker 3: that until you and I were even having this conversation,
Speaker 3: I would have never equated to the young version of
Speaker 3: me and the skills and things that I learned. And
Speaker 3: that's why this conversation is important, because again we're not
Speaker 3: having it. There's not a lot of this happening out
Speaker 3: in the space of understanding. Yeah, I think we like
Speaker 3: to forget that so many pieces of the puzzle have
Speaker 3: to come together for something to really work. More often
Speaker 3: than not, we just have a few pieces and we're
Speaker 3: trying to shove it together and make something work without
Speaker 3: understanding the entire picture absolutely well.
Speaker 1: And that is a little bit related to this invention
Speaker 1: versus implementation point, which is it feels easier sometimes, and
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why this is true to say, well,
Speaker 1: we need to invent something. It's got to be something
Speaker 1: new that's going to solve this. But a lot of
Speaker 1: times we do have all the puzzle pieces just as
Speaker 1: you said, we're just not putting them together either at
Speaker 1: all or well, and then the result is our poor outcomes.
Speaker 1: And then we say there must be something new that
Speaker 1: we can invent here, and I'm no enemy of invention.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of cases where we do need innovation. I
Speaker 1: don't think that this is one of them, at least
Speaker 1: not now. I think we can do a lot better
Speaker 1: with what we have, and then if needed, we can
Speaker 1: position ourselves so much more strongly to say, Okay, now
Speaker 1: every student in America has access to music education in school.
Speaker 1: These are the outcomes that we're seeing, and this is
Speaker 1: how we could do even more and build on it.
Speaker 1: But we're not even at part one yet because we're
Speaker 1: still missing out on providing too many young people to
Speaker 1: few young people with the benefits of music education.
Speaker 3: Well, and to your point, invention is something that's so exciting, right,
Speaker 3: It's something that makes change easier, I think to digest. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because it's new and cool, and people want new and cool.
Speaker 3: But what they don't want is something they've already had
Speaker 3: just a little bit shifted. Yeah, because change is hard.
Speaker 2: Change makes people uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: But when you make it bright, new and shiny, oh,
Speaker 3: it's like I would equate it to like an iPhone
Speaker 3: user going to Android or Android going to iPhone, it's like, oh, bright, new, shiny,
Speaker 3: I've never touched this, but it's.
Speaker 2: Been around forever.
Speaker 3: But it's some new idea, a new invention that sparks
Speaker 3: a change. And I think that's so interesting that is
Speaker 3: where we are at as a society, that the only
Speaker 3: way we're allowing change is if it is bright, new
Speaker 3: and shiny, instead of just saying, how can we do
Speaker 3: better with what we have?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's harder. It's no doubt, it's more difficult.
Speaker 1: That route feels more difficult. Is it more difficult in
Speaker 1: the long term, And I'm not so sure, But in
Speaker 1: the moment, it feels like a much easier solution just
Speaker 1: to find something new. But now, at this time in
Speaker 1: our country, we're in a period of great transition, and
Speaker 1: no matter what your political leanings are, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of us can agree there's a lot of areas
Speaker 1: where we can do better. And so let's start with
Speaker 1: an area that is not political at all. It's about
Speaker 1: helping young people succeed, and it's not even about more money.
Speaker 1: It's about doing well with what we have and showing results.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard to argue against that.
Speaker 3: It should be right, it should be something that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep trying to frame it like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and it should be though, and as
Speaker 3: I'm sitting here and we're talking about it and music
Speaker 3: is one and sharing your background of where you started
Speaker 3: to where this kind of came built out of. I
Speaker 3: often think I went to Europe for the first time
Speaker 3: over Christmas my year, and I was so fascinated that
Speaker 3: we went to three different countries and everybody that we
Speaker 3: met spoke multiple languages. And then there was me. There
Speaker 3: was me, and I'm an American and I'm like, I had
Speaker 3: a basically minored in French. I have one language that's
Speaker 3: mostly gone because I know it is. But it was
Speaker 3: always fascinating to me that they always found it so
Speaker 3: important to find ways to communicate with the entire world,
Speaker 3: but we never did. We never found it.
Speaker 1: And it's not just communication, it's connection, it's understanding. And
Speaker 1: I mean, we're such an interconnected world now. I think
Speaker 1: that's such an astute observation.
Speaker 3: It connects to this in the sense of why are
Speaker 3: we also lacking this? Why are we finding is so
Speaker 3: not important to understand other languages to communicate with other
Speaker 3: humans that are literally on our planet. Listen, I'm fascinated
Speaker 3: by space and technology.
Speaker 2: I hope we find aliens someday.
Speaker 3: But yes, I would love to speak to aliens someday,
Speaker 3: but I'd also just like to be able to speak
Speaker 3: to other people that are currently on this planet and
Speaker 3: understand their language and who they are and their cultures.
Speaker 3: And it's just to me tie you so much into
Speaker 3: this of we're just missing so many pieces that we
Speaker 3: could have that could easily be part of our education,
Speaker 3: that could easily be part of our experiences as kids,
Speaker 3: and we're just missing it. And this is a huge
Speaker 3: part of that. Music education is that And this is
Speaker 3: another one, And that's like you said, no, you can't
Speaker 3: bite off every single pieces or a whole lot of them.
Speaker 3: I recognize that we're just lacking so much in so
Speaker 3: many different areas where we really could do better if
Speaker 3: we just took that one step, which is the step
Speaker 3: that you guys are taking within music education.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's having that curiosity and being willing to try
Speaker 1: hard things.
Speaker 2: And I don't think that.
Speaker 1: Let me put it this way, I think those are
Speaker 1: skills that you can learn. Maybe some people come out
Speaker 1: that way and that's wonderful, but I do think you
Speaker 1: can also foster a sense of curiosity and magic and
Speaker 1: awe for the world around you. But it's about exposure,
Speaker 1: it's about seeing new things, and it's about challenging what
Speaker 1: you think you know. In my case, after September eleventh,
Speaker 1: I decided that I wanted to go into foreign government service.
Speaker 1: And it was because I thought there must have been
Speaker 1: a way that we could have done this better, that
Speaker 1: we could have avoided this great tragedy, that we could
Speaker 1: have responded.
Speaker 2: With less.
Speaker 1: Chaos, with less destruction, with more success. And those sentiments
Speaker 1: came from a place that I would never have thought of,
Speaker 1: which is I had built in already the desire to learn,
Speaker 1: to be curious, to be willing to do hard things,
Speaker 1: and to know that it's worth it. You don't always
Speaker 1: know where you're going to end up, but we want to.
Speaker 1: What we need to foster in young people is a
Speaker 1: desire to find out and not an apathy and a disconnectedness.
Speaker 1: So again, I do not think that music is a panacea,
Speaker 1: but I do think that whatever we're doing right now
Speaker 1: is not working as well as it could, and that
Speaker 1: really concerns me. I mean, as a mother of a
Speaker 1: seven year old and one more on the way I
Speaker 1: think about what we might be able to provide as
Speaker 1: a family, and then what my children will encounter in
Speaker 1: the world and their peers and the people that they
Speaker 1: interact with. And there should in our country, the greatest
Speaker 1: country in the world, there should be a baseline.
Speaker 2: Level of education that is quality and.
Speaker 1: Accessible and includes the key opportunities and skills that we
Speaker 1: think are necessary for today, not for twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: not fifty years ago, but for right now, for what
Speaker 1: we see coming down the pike when it comes to workforce,
Speaker 1: the international challenges that we see, and I think that
Speaker 1: that's going to require a little bit of a redesign.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a little scary, it's not going
Speaker 1: to be easy, but we have to do it.
Speaker 3: You talking about this reminded me of something that I
Speaker 3: say often, especially on this podcast, is once we know better,
Speaker 3: we should do better. And that's a really hard thing
Speaker 3: to come to terms with because it's easy to know
Speaker 3: better and.
Speaker 2: Still do the same thing.
Speaker 3: But once you know it, and once you're aware of it,
Speaker 3: you should want this desire to do better and anything
Speaker 3: in this and what we're talking about in the mental
Speaker 3: health and relationships, everything that we talk about in subjects
Speaker 3: on this podcast, but it goes back to that curiosity
Speaker 3: of I want to evolve, I want to be a
Speaker 3: better person, I want to be curious, I want to
Speaker 3: be open minded, I want to change the world, and
Speaker 3: I do think so much of that started. I'm really
Speaker 3: having this is kind of a therapy session.
Speaker 2: For me right now. Kayley, I'm not sure what you're doing.
Speaker 2: And you also get remy it's kind of not fair.
Speaker 2: I know she came over here, but.
Speaker 3: I'm just realizing how much so much of my childhood
Speaker 3: played a role, not just in the mental health side,
Speaker 3: which is really where the focus has been, but just
Speaker 3: in the exposure that you have, not just with your families,
Speaker 3: not just with the people year around, but in the
Speaker 3: things that you experience and what you see, what you
Speaker 3: get to be involved with. And it's crazy to look
Speaker 3: at that and not have ever put the pieces to
Speaker 3: that puzzle together until this moment. Yeah, and you hope
Speaker 3: that for other people, though you and I know there
Speaker 3: was many of people that I grew up with that
Speaker 3: did not have the same exposures that I did, or
Speaker 3: we had vastly different resources and different lifestyles. And that's
Speaker 3: part of economics and understanding how the world works. But
Speaker 3: what you guys are doing to try and level the
Speaker 3: playing field is really important.
Speaker 1: And again it maybe I think describing its leveling the
Speaker 1: playing field is true, but it's it's incomplete because it's
Speaker 1: leveling the playing field not just because it's a good
Speaker 1: thing it is, but because it's effective and because we
Speaker 1: want to be results driven. So you're not just doing
Speaker 1: something because it's the right thing to do, You're doing
Speaker 1: it also because it's the smart thing to do.
Speaker 2: And I think the more that we can.
Speaker 1: Tell that part of the story, which is I think
Speaker 1: we've been focused a little more on the former doing
Speaker 1: the right thing by providing equitable music education.
Speaker 2: That's true, but what about the why?
Speaker 1: And that's what we've been so excited about through let
Speaker 1: Music Film my world is to highlight stories where people
Speaker 1: are sharing. Now I'm in this role, I'm an executive,
Speaker 1: I'm a doctor, I'm in the music industry, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and this is how music that universal language, that place
Speaker 1: that I had where I could just be myself. This
Speaker 1: is how music led me to that, and I love that.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really.
Speaker 1: Great opportunity for us to shake it up a little
Speaker 1: bit and tell more stories because, as I said before, Ultimately,
Speaker 1: we need Americans to believe and support and fight for
Speaker 1: having the kind of education system that every student in
Speaker 1: our country deserves, and to me, that must be inclusive
Speaker 1: of music education.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely does.
Speaker 3: And you couldn't have said it more eloquently, which is
Speaker 3: also why I love like throwing things out there because
Speaker 3: it always makes people go on random things, and I
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 2: It's my favorite part.
Speaker 3: I like to end the podcast with you sharing something
Speaker 3: maybe that we haven't been able to touch on, or
Speaker 3: a piece of advice or inspiration or whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: The floor is open to yours to share, to end
Speaker 3: us on something that is really just close to your heart,
Speaker 3: or maybe it's on your mind right now, whatever that
Speaker 3: thing is.
Speaker 1: The first thing that comes to mind. So I'm a
Speaker 1: big reader, like an annoying like my husband's always.
Speaker 2: Just like why are you always?
Speaker 1: Like I read all the time. But nonfiction and fiction,
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. I think that's another wonderful avenue
Speaker 1: for curiosity and understanding the world around you. And there's
Speaker 1: this book by Matt Haig called The Midnight Library, and
Speaker 1: in it he said, to visit a new world, you
Speaker 1: don't need a spaceship all you have to do is
Speaker 1: change your mind. And I love that because I think
Speaker 1: it's not only applicable to what we're talking about, which
Speaker 1: is to say, you don't need the shiny invention of
Speaker 1: a spaceship. You actually can visit a new world through
Speaker 1: the implementation and doing better and using what you have.
Speaker 2: But it's so true for other parts of life.
Speaker 1: That it is often more difficult to change your mind,
Speaker 1: to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to see things
Speaker 1: from a different perspective. But we have to work so
Speaker 1: hard to try to do it, not because it's the
Speaker 1: right thing, but because it's the smart thing. We will
Speaker 1: be better people, better family members, better employees if we
Speaker 1: can see things holistically and have the curiosity city to
Speaker 1: challenge our world views. And that is what our young
Speaker 1: people need, and we should be providing in every single
Speaker 1: school in America by providing music education to all of
Speaker 1: our students.
Speaker 3: I love that that quote's going to stick with me
Speaker 3: for a while. I think that's super impassive to read
Speaker 3: the book I need to now. I mean that one
Speaker 3: quote gets me. I always love I love a book.
Speaker 3: I'm like you. I like books that challenge my views.
Speaker 3: I like books that just give me a different perspective.
Speaker 3: It's important and it's necessary, but I also know that
Speaker 3: that's hard for people to do, and it's hard to well.
Speaker 2: Everyone has their own way.
Speaker 1: Not everyone's a reader, you know, but there's so many
Speaker 1: different ways that you can get that same feeling. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you can read a book and then
Speaker 1: there's one quote or one part and it just stops
Speaker 1: you in your tracks and you're like, hang on a second, yes.
Speaker 2: Right, And music does that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why music is such an amazing tool and
Speaker 1: a universal language. We don't have to speak the same language.
Speaker 1: Music doesn't even a piece of music doesn't even have
Speaker 1: to have words at all, and we can both hear
Speaker 1: it and both experience something powerful that might be totally
Speaker 1: different by the way, but could still connect us.
Speaker 2: And that's amazing.
Speaker 1: There are not that many things in the world that
Speaker 1: can connect people so seamlessly with such distinct backgrounds.
Speaker 3: No, and you know, honestly, my whole life, when I
Speaker 3: especially doing social media and stuff at this point in
Speaker 3: my career, I've always said there's two things that most
Speaker 3: people universally don't necessarily argue over, and it's food and music,
Speaker 3: which I find very interesting.
Speaker 1: I think that's true. And I would also add magic.
Speaker 1: Everybody loves magic, and it doesn't matter how old you are.
Speaker 1: You don't have to speak the language. But magic is
Speaker 1: something that completely changes what you think is possible, and
Speaker 1: that's a really cool thing.
Speaker 2: Music can do the same. Food can do the same too.
Speaker 1: You eat something and your just your mind is blown.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, and your whole idea of something changes, like
Speaker 3: why have I never thought of that?
Speaker 1: But there are a couple things in that category and
Speaker 1: those are really special.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the more that we can create opportunities for people
Speaker 1: of all ages, all walks of life to have those
Speaker 1: transformative experiences that connect us, that challenge the way that
Speaker 1: we see the world around us, we will all be
Speaker 1: better for it.
Speaker 3: I definitely agree. Well, Kayleie, thank you for sharing your mind,
Speaker 3: your experience, your story. It was so fun to hear
Speaker 3: from you and also just connect with you because I
Speaker 3: think we are two very much women who are leadership driven.
Speaker 3: And I think there's a special place when you have
Speaker 3: this drive behind you to want to be a leader
Speaker 3: and want to change the world and do things for
Speaker 3: the better. Yes, and it's cool to connect with somebody
Speaker 3: that has a similar mindset in that because it's also
Speaker 3: hard to find, it's also cute, excited.
Speaker 2: I feel the same.
Speaker 1: You can do good, and you can do well, and
Speaker 1: you can bring people along with you. Life is full
Speaker 1: of support. It's never what we expect it no.
Speaker 3: And the minute that we stop expecting certain things is
Speaker 3: a minute everything turns to magic.
Speaker 2: Kind of like you. I love that. I can't imagine
Speaker 2: a better way to end. Oh, it's perfect. Well, Kaylee,
Speaker 2: thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3: Kaylee's knowledge on this topic and education in general, what's
Speaker 3: cool to hear, Like I said, change Maker.
Speaker 2: That concludes a series, So make sure you.
Speaker 3: Follow Let Music Film My World on Instagram to follow
Speaker 3: the work they're doing and for ways to get involved.
Speaker 3: Next week is our series with the senior living community
Speaker 3: that I volunteer out here in Town Apes Garden. We'll
Speaker 3: hear from some of the incredible employees and then some
Speaker 3: of the residents who are eighty and above. Subscribe so
Speaker 3: you don't miss it. I'm so happy you're here. As always,
Speaker 3: I'll talk with you guys next week.