Stone Soup Leadership Institute

Category: R.PK-12.2 (Reading | Key Ideas & Details)

Teaching Jazz, Creating Community

Wynton Marsalis is best known as an award-winning jazz musician. But for students in the thousands of schools he’s visited, he’s a role model telling them to “take your freedom and put it into the service of somebody else’s.” Young people like Roberto Perez in Washington D.C. have learned from Wynton how jazz can be a metaphor for creating democracy. “What a kid learns from jazz is how to express his individuality without stepping on somebody else’s,” says Wynton. ·”Being a good neighbor, that’s what jazz is all about.”

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Fulfilling Martin’s Dream

When Frank Carr heard Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, it was a turning point in his life. Returning to Chicago, he challenged his business colleagues to join him in opening doors of opportunity to “all God’s children” so they could succeed in the. corporate world. His vision led to the national organization, INROADS which provides mentors and internships for over 6,000 young people like Juan, a young Mexican immigrant who was given a chance to succeed. Now a manager at Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Juan says” There is so much talent in our youth. We all need to take the time to harvest it and help them realize their dreams.”

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