I attended an event tonight entitled, “Can Design Change the World?” This is a part of a speaker series called “Policy and a Pint.”

Policy and a Pint^® is an event series co-sponsored by the Citizens League and 89.3 The Current, that engages young people in important conversations about public policy in Minnesota.

Three designers answered questions asked of them by a host who was broadcast on 89.3. The designers spent about half an hour speaking amongst themselves and the host, and then another half an hour taking questions for audience members.

One of the guest designers mentioned that after the fourth grade, the level of creativity (however that is determined, I am not sure) plummets. Each of the designers spoke to the importance of cultivating creativity in our education systems, and that design is a practice of imagination and implementation that each and every person does on a daily basis.

As we all know by now, I am not an architect or a fashion designer or a stylist. But, I was intrigued by one of the questions: “How or why is design practical?” One of the guests responded by speaking to the fact that most people require at least two if not three means through which to learn a skill — audio, visual, and experiential. A way that design supports the learning process is by bringing to reality technology that provides tools for such ways of learning to take place, i.e., the iPad and its apps that many of us music therapists, teachers, and students use in a variety of ways.

If only there were a way to keep music and art in schools…