Klarinet Archive - Posting 000807.txt from 1999/07

From: Ken Wolman <Ken.Wolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Marching band - to be or not to be
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:26:31 -0400

reedman@-----.com wrote:

> Not trying to defend marching band in the least, as I feel it is a waste of
> practice time for the serious musicians, but if they didn't require
> marching band - they would not have most of the quality musicians in the group.
> Maybe that is how it should be - doubt the jocks would notice the
> difference ;)

When Ben moved himself and his trumpet from jr high to high school, we
were told that Band @-----. That is, he had no choice in the
matter, there was no (pardon the pun) buffet table where he could pick
from jazz band, concert band, or marching band. Marching band was the
prerequisite for everything else. Miraculously even the kids with the
proverbial two left feet didn't embarrass themselves.

And yes, this indeed was a case where the dog was the athletic program
and the marching band was the tail. Every time the illustrious School
Board talked about cutting funding for marching band, especially musical
instruments, uniforms, travel expenses, etc., a corps of band parents
showed up at the meeting to remind these political hacks that maybe
they'd better start looking for a new athletic program too. In four
years Ben was in band, no team anywhere in Northern New Jersey dared
show up without at least some kind of band.

Call it a case of athletics subsidizing the arts and put aside what this
says about our value system....

Ken
--
Ken Wolman dbtrader Deutsche Bank, N.A.
1251 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 212-469-6494
Teach someone to fish and you have helped them survive another day.
Teach them to surf the Net and they won't bother you for weeks.

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