Leaving Lockdown Limbo

16.07.20 – Darrell Priestley

Why education is now more important than ever.

So, where are we all now? Well, actually it’s hard to say. At best, probably somewhere in-between. En route to normal life, you might say. But we are all still working out what that looks like.

Most of us are simply nostalgic for the reassuring elements of normal life to assert themselves, but many of us have had a chance to reflect, and perhaps we don’t need everything to be quite how it was before after all.

Some things, though, are more concrete. Education, for the young, represents the path to ‘becoming’, of growing into a world of wonderful potential. For older students, meanwhile, education represents renewal, of reaffirming who you are and that you still have something to offer in life. But for everyone, education is vital, at all stages of life.

At this time, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, the need to feel strong, independent and capable requires us to be confident, and we can feed that with learning. Many of us will choose at this time to make changes to our lifestyle, to adjust our priorities. That makes this a time of opportunity. Seen positively, this is a great time to assert ourselves, step forward, and learn something new. Learning music is a fantastic response to the pandemic, because of how music makes us feel – enthused, vital, confident and optimistic. Perhaps this will be the difference that makes us ready to face a world that it is still too early to know.