Klarinet Archive - Posting 001268.txt from 1999/01

From: "Carl Schexnayder" <carlsche@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] HELP!
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 10:08:53 -0500

I had a situation with Flag auditions. There was only one black girl who
chose to audition. She was lazy, she was uninterested, etc. She came out
dead last in the audition, but her mother threatened to sue me, the
principal of our school and the school board. The principal and I met with
her. I told her that I was not predjudiced. I had had many black girls on
the squad before and some of them had been excellent members. She said that
there were no blacks helping with the audition. I said that I always did it
myself and couldn't be both black and white, but, Isaid, if you like, I'll
have our principal, who was black, do the audition and I'll abide by
whatever he says. She didn't like that either. So I said, "I tell you
what, there are two balck girls that graduated from here who attend LSU and
are on their Flag Squad. I'll let them re-audition the girls and I'll
accept whatever they say. Well, that wasn't good enough either. So I said,
I'm not predjudiced, I don't care what color a person is, but I'm going to
take the best one. I'd be stupid not to. She said she didn't think you
should always take the best one, (implying that I should just include her
because she was black). I said, the day I couldn't choose the best people
was the day I'd quit teaching. Then, I told her, I don't see why you would
want your daughter on the flag squad anyway. First of all, she is obviously
not interested. Secondly, if I put her on the squad, I can tell you what
will happen. She'll be out on the field during a performance and will
forget which way to move or when to meove and someone will hit her in the
head with a flag pole. Either that or she'll be wandering around the feild,
not knowing where to go and everyone in the audience will be laughing at
her. So when she left, she was still going to sue, but nothing ever came of
it.
Carl Schexnayder

>At 11:35 PM 1/22/99 -0600, Ed Lacy wrote:
>>On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Paulette W. Gulakowski wrote:
>>
>>> Our district is under court mandate to accept all students ("No Cut"
>>> policy) - whether they play an instrument or not.
>>
>>Wait a minute, let me be sure I understand this. If a student, who has no
>>experience in music whatsoever, says they want to be in the band, the band
>>director is required by court order to accept them? If I have this right,
>>this is pure lunacy, a good example of a judge trying to conduct social
>>engineering in an area in which he or she has absolutely no knowledge and
>>no understanding whatsoever.
>>
>>A second question would be why such a student would decide to be in an
>>organization for which he has no qualifications and can derive essentially
>>none of the benefits of membership?
>>
>Be careful here. While it would be highly unusual for someone to join a
>band with no experience and gain benefit it is not unheard of. I know of
>such a case.
>
>This individual, who, I admit, did have some piano and guitar experience,
>asked to join the high school band as a senior. The (parochial) school he
>attended had no marching band, just a sit-down concert-type band and a pep
>band. The director gave him a clarinet to work with, sitting in a practice
>room to study alone while the rest of the band rehearsed. He was also
>allowed to play cymbals and other percussion items in the pep band, which
>worked out because the person did have rhythm. After two months of working
>alone, this individual joined the rest of the band as a third clarinet.
>
>Since he had enjoyed his band experience so much, he attempted to join the
>marching band when he went to college. He went through a three-day camp
>with the other people trying out and, although he did not pass the marching
>audition, he had passed the music audition, and thus was able to join the
>pep band in the second semester. He made the marching band, and the
>concert band, the next year, ultimately majoring in music on the clarinet.
>He now plays clarinet and saxophone regularly in semi-professional
situations.
>
>Had this individual not been given the opportunity to join the band in high
>school, he would surely not be a musician today. He would never have met
>the woman he married. His life would be completely different. And I'm
>quite sure he would not be a member of this list. Yes, of course, this is
>the condensed story of MY musical life.
>
>Just any fool walking in off the streets will not necessarily succeed in
>band. But one with the proper level of DESIRE and DEDICATION just might.
>I think it is a shame that, in most cases, the fact that the interest
>developed a little too late to get into beginning band will prevent someone
>with the ability from EVER developing it. I therefore support the idea of
>giving these people a CHANCE, but with the provision that the director CAN
>cut them if they are not putting the effort in.
>
>
>
_
>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.
>
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