Klarinet Archive - Posting 000573.txt from 2001/05

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] School Board
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 16:39:09 -0400

Our most recent school board was interesting because (in summary) the
Board had previously been asked to choose between offering a salary
increase to teachers vs. eliminating instrumental music & librarians.

My comment was: "Let's look at this from a different point of view.
You (the Board) have been asked to choose between: (1) offering some
teachers a small salary increase and firing other teachers in order to
pay for it; or (2) leaving all salaries unchanged and not firing any
teachers at all. Does this way of looking at it change your decision?"

I saw some surprised faces.... you mean that people who help kids with
books and musical instruments are.... teachers?.... well.... ....maybe
they are.... hmm...."

Fortunately, Staff had already (before the meeting) faced the music
<pardon the pun>. They had come up with a tentative budget that
retains music and librarians. So the crisis in my district appears to
be resolved for this year.

But the underlying assumption really caught my attention. Music
programs aren't part of 'teaching'.

The prejudice is obvious once you see it, but it had slipped through the
system unnoticed when the budget items were being described as 'salary
vs. instrumental music'. It was quite an eye-opener to me.

One item that helped was a high school girl who received a $20,000
scholarship for her artistic skills (mostly painting, but also dance &
stage). In a separate ceremony conducted by the same Board a few
minutes before the budget came up for discussion, the young lady had
received standing ovations from the Board and audience. It was
difficult for them to cheer one moment and to contend the next moment
that art was without educational value.
Someone who was (allegedly) knowledgeable had stated that this
girl's paintings were going to be worth money someday. One teacher
stood up and drooled publicly about a $20,000 scholarship and what he
could do with an extra $10,000 in his science budget. He stated that
he owned one of this girl's paintings from 7th grade, and he offered to
sell it and to donate the money to the school. The fellow appeared to
be 100% serious that a speculator might want to buy the painting in
hopes that it would be worth big bucks if the girl succeeds. Imagine
owning one of Mozart's grade-school manuscripts or one of Picasso's
grade school paintings.
All of this highlighted the idiocy that music can't be a valuable
(monetarily) skill.

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