Klarinet Archive - Posting 000726.txt from 1998/04

From: "Suzi Crookshank" <suzic@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Illinois Music Teachers {LONG}
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 07:52:38 -0400

Hi, I am not a music ed teacher, but I am a product of the Illinois
public school system. In my school district (West Aurora #129) we began
band in fifth grade, then went to jr. high for 2 years, and then high
school. When I was in elementary school I had a different teacher for
fifth and sixth grade (our district has a problem keeping elementary band
teachers for more than a couple years). The first one I don't remember
much. so that probably means she wasn't that good of a teacher. My sixth
grade teacher was a clarinet player and I remember her very nicely (and she
was a good teacher). Our two jr. high band directors (one at each middle
school, there will be a third middle school next school year) are married,
so there's plenty of communtication between them. Our 2 middle school
bands met once a week before school started (early morning band was what it
was called) to rehearse and had 2 concerts a year. Starting in 7th grade
we got to go to the IHSA solo and Ensemble contest. Only students who took
private lessons went to compete as soloists, anyone else who wanted to go
was put in a quartet or something. We had to do some fund raisers and in
eighth grade we got to on a trip to St. Louis' Six Flags over Great
America. We played there and in the rotunda of the capitol building on the
way down. Throughout elementary school we were familiar with the jr. high
and high school band teachers because they all had to teach at at least one
of the elementary schools too. We had like one full-time elementary
teacher that taught at three of the
elementary schools, and all the others (four in all) taught at the others
(I can't remember how many there are in our district -- 8 I think). There
were also a choir at each elementary school and a choir at each of the
middle schools. And all the elementary schools had a general music class
that we went to twice a week (we sang along to We Are The World a lot I
remember, learned how to play recorders, and played rhythm games).
Then, in high school we had a Freshman Band that did a few parades and
concerts. It was mostly a concert band, the marching was kind of an
introduction, a side-thing. Then, for sophomores through seniors we had
the Concert Band (mostly made up of musical underachievers), the Symphonic
Band (the Good Band), the Blackhawk Marching Band (for football games and
judged parades, but no stupid mmb contests -- we all had to be in it -- the
concert bands started after football season), and Freshman, Concert, and A
Capella Choirs (later a Girls' and Boy's choir were added, and at one time
we had a show choir that was replaced by the two other ones). We also had
a voluntary pep band for the boys basketball games, an earl morning jazz
band that met before school started and the real jazz band. Like in jr.
high we went to the IHSA solo and ensemble contest. Everybody in Symphonic
Band was expected to go as part of an ensemble, and those who took private
lessons could go as soloists. Then there was the IMEA state contest. I
hated this because it is unfair. At our state band contest we have to wait
in line to play for each thing we have to play. We had to play tewo etudes
from the Rose book (one fast, one slow), scales (a sheet to play from was
provided in advance), and sight read. Now, for asome instruments like
bassoon, this went pretty fast, but for clarinets and flutes, this took
hours. The first time I went (when I was a junir) I waited in line for an
hour for each thing. Considering that the choir IMEA auditions are done
with scheduled times, this is very unfair in my opinion.. We also were
given no time to warm up because we had to rush to get in line (my school
was always one of the last to rrive so we were always at the end of the
line). And this was for DISTRICT auditions (the state was divided into
districts for this contest, not to be confused with actual school
districts). From here, I think (I never made it past this) people were
placed in the District Band, then auditioned again to make it to State
finals, and then auditioned aain to see exactly where in the State Band you
sat.
Now, as for funding . . . We had to do extensive fund raising in high
school. The school instruments were (are) in very bad shape and our band
directors have always had to fight to keep receiving enough money. My old
high school (West Aurora) is being added on to and remodeled, but from what
I've seen, little will be done to refurbish the stinky old band room. We
have no practice rooms, no keybaord labs, no orchestra (I have never played
in an orchestra), nothing fancy. We don't send many people to the State
band now (I think we used to years and years ago). I wasn't in choir so I
can't say anything abou it, but I'm sure it's the same. And the art
program too, I think is being hurt.
I just wanted to write this because I think that if the state
government does eliminate music ed as a major, the arts will suffer
greatly. When I was in high school and had to go to IHSA at some more
affluent schools I felt very jealous/envious and angry because the citizens
of our school district would not approve a tax increase that would fund our
schools. If they went and saw the condition of my high school they would
have voted for the increase. Instead we got a bond issue that gave the
district money for new books and the new addition and new middle school,
but no money for their upkeep (new books as they become outdated, teacher
slaries, etc.).
Is this what most states are like, or is Illinois as screwed up as
some of you all say? I never realized how much a problem education was for
my state until this subject came up. To make this finally
clarinet-related, all the fund-raising done during my senior year paid off
and our band director bought four new pro-quality tubas and three new
Buffet pro-quality BASS CALRINETS. Since I graduated (1996) marching band
has become a voluntary thing (every year its gotten smaller) and the
concert bands play throughout the whole school year. I just know that band
was the most fun thing I did while in the West Aurora system. I am
majoring in performance because of it, and it gave me some self-esteem when
I really needed it in jr. high. I hope I didn't bore anyone.

****************************************************************************
*****
Suzi Crookshank
suzic@-----.com
University of Miami School of Music --
in beautiful Coral Gables, Florida
Clarinet performance
Home: North Aurora, Illinois
****************************************************************************
****

----------
> From: Edwin V. Lacy <el2@-----.edu>
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: RE: Illinois Music Teachers
> Date: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 4:43 PM
>
> On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, SEAN TALBOT wrote:
>
> > Things have needed to change in Illinois for some time. Why does IHSA
> > (Illinois High School Association) run the music contests when they
> > specialize in athletics.......give that to IMEA (Illinois Music
> > Educators Association).
>
> OK, I'm afraid I may get a little carried away on this one. From 1961 -
> 1965, I taught instrumental music in the public schools of Robinson,
> Illinois. Even then, the educational system was incredibly fouled up in
> the state. I haven't kept up with all the developments since then, but
> recent messages on this list seem to indicate that they haven't improved
a
> great deal.
>
> Every state has some problems in their educational system, but few that I
> have ever heard of have as many problems as does Illinois. It begins
with
> school organization. Illinois is 50 to 75 years or more behind its
> neighbor states when it comes to having a streamlined, efficient system
of
> school organization. In the county in which I taught, Crawford County,
> population about 10,000, there were at one time 21 different school
> corporations in that single county! Altogether, there are seven
different
> types of school corporations which might govern the schools in a given
> community - high school districts, elementary school districts, community
> unit districts, community consolidated districts, and others which I
can't
> even remember now. And, every district has to have its own
> superintendent, its own board of education, its own administrative
> structure, its own bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodial personnel,
> etc., to say nothing of its own system of financial control and its own
> opportunities to squander funds intended for the education of students.

[some deleted]
>
> To top it all off, many music activities are governed by an organization
> called the IHSA, or Illinois High School Association. The counterpart in
> most other states is something like we have in Indiana, the IHSAA, or
> Indiana High School _Athletic_ Association. In Illinois, this
> organization is comprised mostly of high school principals, many of whom
> are extremely biased toward the athletic programs and who regard the
music
> program as merely a nuissance. However, they feel that they must
continue
> to govern the music program as well, or otherwise the music educators
> might make decisions which, while good for students and for the music
> program, might not be under the thumb of the principals. The IHSA has,
or
> had, a "music advisory committee," which consisted of four or five
> individuals, all of whom taught in suburban Chicago, in some of the most
> affluent school districts in the nation. They essentially set up the
> music activities in such a way that they served fairly well those
> upper-class schools, but the members of the committee had no idea what
was
> going on in the rest of the state, especially the rural southern
portions.
>
> There were three different, competing systems of music competitions - one
> run by the IHSA for high school students, one run by the ISBDA (Illinois
> State Band Directors Association) for elementary students only (because
> the IHSA wouldn't let anyone touch their high-school level contest), and
> then, the IESA (Illinois Elementary School Association - another
> organization of administrators, most of whom were failed teachers or
> coaches) decided that they would institute their own contest to compete
> with the ISBDA's contest for elementary school students. If the
principal
> of a certain school was a member or sat on the governing board of the
> IESA, it was a certainty that students from that school who participated
> in interscholastic music activities would have to go to the one run by
> IESA. And, each contest structure had their own rules, regulations,
> methods, etc. One had only a single level of competition, another had
two
> levels, and the IESA contests, when they began, had _three_ levels. Why?

> Because the basketball tournaments had three levels. The Illinois Music
> Educator's Association had essentially no influence in any of this, being
> mostly ineffectual because the groups which governed school activities,
in
> their arrogance, couldn't bring themselves to believe that the music
> educators could possibly know as much as they, the principals, about what
> was good for music students.
>
> Music and most other educational activities in Illinois have suffered for
> years from this archaic, politically-motivated system, and Illinois
> students and citizens have paid the price. The miracle is that any good
> music programs at all can exist under such a heavy burden of
> administrative incompetence.
>
> There, that felt pretty good! I couldn't say all those things when I was
> teaching there, but I feel certain that they are truthful.
>
> So, Illinois educators, have things improved since I taught there?
>
> Ed Lacy
> *****************************************************************
> Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
> Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
> Evansville, IN 47722
> el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
> *****************************************************************
>