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May/June 2005 Spirituality
Interview With Zack

by Heather Teach and Don Gaconnet

Zack is a spiritually aware teen living in the greater Portland metropolitan area who has presented his views of the educational system to local teachers and the district administration in recent forums. During this interview, Zack, who wishes to be refered to only by his first name, made his feelings known about labels, creativity in the school system and the power of music.

How do you feel about the term Indigo?

Labels are limiting. I really don’t like labels of any kind because they limit what people can be. They can take away from who someone really is. It limits what someone can gain out of something. The term Indigo is just a term that people are using to try an understand something. It’s had its purpose; it’s served its purpose. Indigo is a cool color though.

You recently spoke at a forum with school officials, what did you discuss during the forum?

I spoke about how the school system needs to allow people to expand and be creative and not box people in. The school district is under a lot of pressure to push people through the system and follow the standards the government has setup. They think these standards are what people should be following, but it takes away from the creativity. I think the school systems need to allow people to be creative, because that’s what learning is, creativity and using your imagination.

So you spoke to them about going above and beyond the standards instead of forcing people through the system?

Instead of trying to push people to the standards, let the standards just be the effect of actually allowing people to be creative. The standards would automatically happen as a result. They could be teaching in a new way. Instead of trying to force people, let them learn in a more natural way.

Do you have any ideas on how they could teach differently?

No not really, I just know that it needs to change and the government standards need to change too.

What about music? Someone told me that you have some creative ideas about what music is. What are they?

Music is a way of channeling different things into this reality. You can channel emotion, and you can channel different realities if you really take the time to feel it. A lot of music is stuck on stories, but if you think about the pure aspects of music - more the physics behind it - like you can almost experience things you could not experience without music…different realities almost. It’s not just the frequencies, it goes beyond that. It’s like when you talk there is more meaning to it than just the words. It’s like poetry. You have all this stuff packed into one space, all this information packed into one package, but the thing about music is that you are actually experiencing it; it’s like you are really experiencing it. You can hear it, you can feel it and you can experience it. It also has unlimited possibilities with what you can do with it. I think music is probably one of the most important things there is for everything.

So you are talking about multi-dimensional experiences using music?

Yeah, one of the cool things about music is that you can experience things through music and not have to experience it for real. You can learn thing from music you could not learn from one perspective. You can learn from different perspectives with music without having to be in those perspectives. If music is experience, you can learn from your experiences at a far greater level through music and learn so much more than is available in normal everyday life. Music takes you places.

What is your message for the world?

I don’t know. Everyone is experiencing what they are experiencing right now. I would talk to anyone who will listen.