Mike Huckabee made a surprise appearance at the Iowa Bandmasters Association meeting in Des Moines on Friday and made sure there was no mistaking his position on music and arts education. Radio Iowa documented his visit:
Huckabee: musical instruments can be "weapons of mass instruction"
Friday, May 11, 2007, 1:27 PM
By O.Kay Henderson
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says musical instruments can be "weapons of mass instruction" and schools should not be allowed to cut music and art education classes.
Back in 1999, when Huckabee was governor of Arkansas, he backed a phased-in plan which ultimate has forced every public school inArkansas to offer music and art education classes, taught by a trained instructor.
According to Huckabee, it is "stupid" and "pure nonsense" for schools to cut music and art classes because they stimulate a child's creativity. "The child today who is getting an education based solely on the transfer of information from one brain to the next without stimulating the processor, the operating system, the creative part of that child's brain, is a child who is getting left behind," Huckabee says.
Read the full story and listen to the speech!
Radio Iowa: Huckabee: musical instruments can be "weapons of mass instruction"