Klarinet Archive - Posting 000616.txt from 2001/05

From: Shouryunus Sarcasticii <jnohe@-----.Edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Band Geeks
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 09:32:34 -0400

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Anne Lenoir wrote:

> I can remember rehearsing for half-time shows in high school. We usually
> spent hours marching up & down a cow pasture that the band boosters had
> marked with yard-lines for us. And for all of our efforts and extra
> performances at pep rallies, the jocks treated us like a bunch of
> losers.

Ya know...I wish I could say that I understand what this is all about.

I probably have a vague idea in my head, but not really, because I never
experienced it. If you watched the movie "Bring It On," but replace the
cheerleaders with the band, then you have an idea of how things were at my
high school when I was there.

People and students showed up to football games to see the band. Ever see
those shirts that say "The football team will be playing before and after
today's marching band performance"? That was us. We won three Grand
Championships while I was in high school; the students and faculty were
always behind us.

The stereotype of being ridiculed as a band nerd in high school didn't
exist for me; we called ourselves band nerds and enjoyed it, and we were
treated as equals. Granted, the football team was terrible. Our
basketball team was fantastic, and our pep band was still treated well at
the games (except by the refs...but we all know about refs...).

This...phony worship...thing...about atheletes...Only really occured in
two situations: 1) Hormonally overloaded girls adoring football/basketball
players or 2) hormonally overloaded guys drooling over the cheerleaders.
We all wore the same jackets (sort of...we had/have a male styled jacket
and a female styled jacket) and each individual activity has it's own
letter. All the letters are the same size (for varsity level activity,
anyways), just varied in appearance depending on the activity. I left
high school with a junior varsity band letter, a varsity band letter, and
a choir band letter, all of which I was quite proud of.

Are letters important? Not anymore. Right now, I don't really care. But
were I in high school again? You darn well better believe I would care.
It's important to 15-18 year olds; therefore, it should be important to
their educators and parents.

Yeah, it's petty. Yeah, it's nothing more than status. But to me, when I
was that age (well, I'm only 22 now...but five years of college DOES
change your perspective a bit), THOSE THINGS WERE IMPORTANT. At that age,
status symbols like letter jackets, letters, trophies, division
ratings....they were all a big part of self esteem. Granted, NOW I base
my self esteem off of my own worth, but I've learned to do that in an
environment that promotes that. High school doesn't promote self esteem
in that manner, and as much as you may want to blame the system, it's not
the system's fault. It's just the way that high school kids are.

My car is better than your car. I have a letter, you don't. I'm dating a
cheerleader. I get to sit at the cool table. I got honors at Solo and
Ensemble. I have real diamond earrings. I got straight A's. I was on the
team that took state soccer.

It's all status to a 17 year old, plain and simple. And to them, it is
important. Not because mommy and daddy said so (although this CAN be the
case), or because Ms. Krebabble and Principal Skinner said so (and this
can be the case, too), but because their PEERS say so. And that, as any
of you who are parents should be well aware, means far more to them than
any of those other factors.

If they go to a halfway decent college, they'll learn there that at least
90% of the student and faculty population doesn't care that you're a
ball player/bandsman/scholar except when they're actually at a
game/performance/class. You don't attend college with people you grew up
with and are trying to impress, so the attitude changes from "I've got to
have/do/get this, because it's cool" to "Ehh...I'll get/do this because I
want to, and if anyone has a problem, then they can [insert colorful
metaphor of your choice here]."

I think once you get past that point, it's easy to say that letters don't
matter. Maybe not anymore...but I know that if were in high school, they
would matter plenty, even in the program I was in, where band and choir
weren't devalued, but were equals.

J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SarCaSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
"Never put passion before principle. Even when win, you lose."
-Miyagi-san, KKpt.II

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