Klarinet Archive - Posting 000875.txt from 2004/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@------.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 06:43:13 -0500

At 10:48 PM 3/15/2004 -0500, Ginger Hill wrote:
>Yeah, leave it to "no child left behind" for my hometown music program
>to go to hell. Since they can't have selective recruiting (meaning only
>the kids with decent grades and skills could play in band), now anybody
>can do it. There's no recruitment procedure, 70% dropout rate... It's
>horrible.

Ironically, this is probably the WORST thing they can do. It GUARANTEES
that the less gifted will continue to fall farther behind, and the most
gifted will be held back. Back when I was in high school (a parochial
school), there were three "tracks." "A" track was strictly a college prep
curriculum, "B" track was somewhat more general (MANY went on to college
also), and "C" track had the shop/home ec/business courses to prepare for a
non-college future. Everybody got what was best for THEIR particular
needs. The slower students were not in direct competition with the
brighter ones, and also did not hold the brighter ones back. Of course,
this would be considered discriminatory today. Everybody, in the spirit of
equality, would have to take the "B" curriculum, regardless of how poor a
choice that would be for 2/3 of the students! By the way, band was open to
ALL.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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