Klarinet Archive - Posting 000724.txt from 1998/04

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: was budget cutbacks
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 20:23:49 -0400

At 10:27 AM 4/14/98 -0500, Roger Garrett wrote:
>On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Mark Charette wrote:
>> At least you _have_ an orchestra! At our school district there is no
>> orchestra, and the high school band director is also the 8th grade
>> band director at the middle school.
>
>Many districts are losing their string programs all together. The social
>aspects of the band are pulling students away from wanting to study
>strings....however, if the string program is strong, it will always draw
>some of the best and brightest. My wife teaches elementary and jr. high
>strings in Bloomington. Not only have 35 of the 40 students continued to
>the high school each year, they do so with excellent skills....better than
>those of the band students (of course, I am not prejudice here).
>
>The job of the HS band director is often to take one or two of the bands
>at the lower levels.....eg., 6th grade or 7th grade. It is fairly strange
>to have the 8th grade band run by the high school teacher however......
>
Reality check: Out here in the hinterlands, there aren't many string
programs to lose. In a week of visiting schools all day every day, I have
only two districts that have string programs (at least one of which is
safe). Most of the band directors I visit run both high school and junior
high band programs. Some of them have to do choir, too! Some schools put
together 30, 50 or 75-piece marching bands only by having football players
march, too. (At one class D school I visit, the first chair trumpet player
in the band is also the star quarterback and a standout starting basketball
player. Both teams finished #2 in the state.) These are schools where the
parents who aren't on welfare earn most of their money from farming,
hunting, and fishing. Their idea of a great violinist is Roy Clark! There
will NEVER be string programs there. It is too bad, but a fact of life.
They are lucky to have shoestring band programs. While such programs are
relatively unlikely to produce great professional musicians (but anything
is possible), they can still do a lot to instill musical values and all
those mental improvements ascribed to musical education. Appreciate them
for what they are. There is no fallback.

P.S. My own son's band director also does 8th grade through high school.
Fortunately, the lady who does 6th and 7th grade band is TERRIFIC!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.