So you may have noticed that I haven't been posting often....or really at all. I'm going to try to nip that in the bud though, before it gets out of hand and I'm suddenly rediscovering this blog after forgetting about it for a year. Which is just my way of saying I'll try to post more often.
This month was, if possible, even more busy than April. We have all our final projects getting assigned/due (specific cause of stress: English), and Ultimate got more intense (I hate shin splints so so much now). It was just plain old HOT last week, which always makes me lethargic and prone to slacking. And to top all that off, our bathroom is being re-done, which means I have to take little mini-shower things in the bathroom on the first floor...bleh.
AND, meanwhile, there's been all sorts crap created by the cuts going on within the school district.
They've already shut down a school because of low-enrollment, and, as always, there is talk of cutting the arts, because that's the first to go when times get hard. And this year, they did it. They're cutting music in the elementary level, which means all sorts of teachers are getting displaced who have seniority over some of the teachers in the junior highs and high schools - which in turn means that those less-senior teachers are being laid off in favor of the older teachers. And when I say "less-senior" I don't mean 5 or 6 years; teachers with up to eleven years of experience are being affected.
And so this brings up two issures: the first is the age-old question: which is more important, seniority, or good teaching? There are some really great teachers who are going; the choir director at Central, who is our school's choir program, and who is also half of the entire music department (yup, we have two teachers for all the choirs, all the bands, and orchestra) has been informed she has been laid off. Not only will a new choir teacher be coming from an elementary level, and probably be unprepared to teach high school students, they will have to deal with a much smaller group next year; approximately half of the concert choir is graduating this year.
Our band director has talked to us about all this; he has told us that, while nothing is final yet, there is a possibility that if things continue next year, he may be next. He's been at Central for 14 years; he went to school there, and he directs not only our concert/symphonic band, but also the freshman band, the orchestra, and jazz band. He has also told us that though he may be safe for this year, and maybe even the next, if things continue as they are, and he can't rely on his job safety, he may have to look for another, more stable job elsewhere (i.e., at a private school), because he has a family, and he needs to look out for them.
I'm going to be honest: if he leaves, I'll probably quit. So will about half the band and orchestra most likely, and it's easy to imagine how that would continue to devolve: the program would suffer, and being in band would no longer be a point of pride for those in it. It might take years before the program is brought back to the level it's at now.
The impact on the program because of these new teachers wouldn't be the only problem either, which brings me to the second issue: elementary music being cut.
Most students in band (this isn't as true for orchestra) only begin their instrument because of band in elementary school. Without that class, we never would have picked up our instrument on our own. Obviously, students will still join band in junior high, but they've just lost two, possibly three years of practice on their instrument. Where before they at least had some knowledge, now they have none. Of course the junior high and high school programs will suffer! You've got students with less experience, and probably less of a connection to their instrument in your band now!
And so suddenly, the quality of your band has just gone down dramatically.Which usually (not always, but generally) makes it less fun to play in. It is fun to be in a good band; it's nice to be able to feel pride in the way you sound. When your band doesn't sound very good, there's less incentive to stay in it. And so the program continues to suffer.
There are some people who say so what? Isn't the education of our children in areas like math and reading and science more important anyway? I can't even begin to address that in this post; already it's way too long. Obviously, I disagree, and many of the reasons why are adressed in Karl Paulnack's welcome adress to the parents of incoming students to the Boston Conservatory of Music.
And so those are my thoughts, and I'm going to end with a quote:
Music is the manifestation of the human spirit, similar to language. Its greatest practitioners have conveyed to mankind things not possible to say in any other language. If we do not want these things to remain dead treasures, we must do our utmost to make the greatest possible number of people understand their idiom. --Zoltán Kodály
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