It could be wab4cor was speaking about administrative support for music in schools rather than 'lack-luster' teaching. I have a friend who recently retired from managing school music programs for a district in Sacramento. She was very much in favor and lobbied very hard for her teachers and their efforts in working with emerging musicians, but she constantly had to fight the district administration's efforts to cut back on music classes and money for those programs. She believes that they will not stop until all music is out of the schools.
Fred On 10/29/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Original Message: > > > from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: "Don't blame the music stores for the lack of > Kopprasch, how about the lack-luster music programs in our public > schools." > > Please don't paint all programs with the same broad brush. Have you ever > taught music as a regular teacher (as opposed to substitute or private > lessons) in a modern middle or high school. The number of issues is myriad > and I won't go into all of them, but I'll share a few of my own > experiences. I will say over the years that I specialized in taking on > problem programs and rebuilding them. The last school where I taught, > anyone could take band at any time, whether or not they had any previous > instruction. Each year, I would have students who have never played thrown > into the band with kids who had already been playing at least three years. > When was I supposed to take the time to work with them to get them up to > speed? After school you say. Ah, but you see that's the time for jazz > band, > honors band coaching, and detention. Oh, did I forget to tell you that I > was only employed half-time, teaching a full day every other day and had > 72 > students in band and 95 students in chorus plus guitar and piano classes? > Oh so I should take a more advanced student and send them to a practice > room? Well, you see, we shared a room with the middle school and my > rehearsal time was the middle school teacher's time to do her small group > lessons (rote coaching of performance tunes) in the one and only practice > room. > > The school prior to that had the same policy of students dropping in with > no prior experience and while I had some students who would have been good > at coaching, there was no place to send them. The good thing about that > school is that I was full-time, but what did full time entail? In my case > it involved doing band (concert and marching), chorus, piano I, piano II > (concurrently), guitar I and guitar II (concurrently) as a half-day at the > high school and then teaching elementary music (not band) at five > elemetaries for the balance of the day, keeping in mind that the > elementaries ended their day one and a half hours after the high school > which killed any after school rehearsals (jazz band was 7-9 p.m. two > nights > per week). Lunch was in the car on the way to the school where I was > supposed to be fifteen minutes before my last class ended at the high > school. > > My point here in all of this is not to rant and complain about how tough I > had it, but to paint a realistic picture of what many band directors go > through. Not all situations were that ridiculous. Some permitted me to > group the band students by ability and I actually had three or more > bands-including beginning band, but those were the exceptions. Many school > districts place more emphasis on numbers than on quality and teaching and > they tie both funding and whether or not someone is to be rehired on those > numbers. > > So before you go slamming on all band directors and lack-lustre, why don't > you walk that proverbial mile in their shoes and see what the real story > is. > > Dana Twiss, Litchfield, Maine > Retired band director and now museum curator > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web - Check your email from the web at > http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web > > > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/fbaucom%40gmail.com > _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
