Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2007/02

From: "George Huba" <ghuba@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Band Directors-Help needed
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:50:10 -0500

Kurt, if the California voters had not been stupid enough to be pigs at a
trough and pass the infamous Proposition 13 in the 1970s (limiting property
tax to a percentage of what you had paid no matter how long ago that was --
thus guaranteeing that someone sitting in an $8,000,000 house in Brentwood
living next to a famous movie star for 20 years (my boss at the time) was
paying less property tax than I was paying for a starter condo near the
freeway in Culver City -- the California schools might actually have enough
money for extracurriculars and to even teach students to read, write, and
calculate. At the time Proposition 13 passed, my two step-children were in
late elementary school and junior high school playing in school bands with
literally dozens of kids in each band. There were lots of good school
instruments and even though we purchased a trumpet and I gave my
stepdaughter a professional level flute I had, there were also lots of good
school instruments to be "rented" for probably something like $30 a
semester. Within 3 or 4 years -- about the time the kids hit high school --
the HS band had been reduced to 15 kids standing in the middle of a football
field on Friday nights playing what amounted to a bass drum solo. And that
was before another 30 years of increasingly impoverished funding, the need
to provide special programs for the dozen immigrant minority groups coming
into California, and no new local taxes basically destroyed a public school
system that had been the best in the U.S. and moved it to near the bottom of
the rankings. There is a fairly obvious solution here -- pass a voter
resolution superseding Proposition 13 and raising property and other taxes
to pay for education -- that would go a long way to fixing these problems,
especially if somebody would do the right thing and control the teachers
unions. This is not about music education -- it is about all the forms of
education in California that suffered greatly over almost 30 years because
the voters basically decided that it was more important to save a thousand
dollars each year than it was to educate the future generations to the same
standards to which they (and their own children) had been educated.
Proposition 13 went a long way to destroying the quality of life in
California. George

-----Original Message-----
From: kurtheisig@-----.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 7:53 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Band Directors-Help needed

MADNESS # 2!!!!!!

THIS ONE IS COMING---YOUR WAY!

An old experienced teacher that studied how to be a better band director
with me came to me with this one.

A district in East San Jose had a BRILLIANT idea.

Instead of signing last year's kids up in this years band (woodshop, art
class, sewing.......), the computer would randomly assign kids to electives.

Kids that had been in band might now be in art, or woodshop! Kids that had
been in woodshop might be assigned to art or band.

This band director this year got back ONE kid from his previous band! (Kid
does like band though and just bought a new HEISIG FLUTE, so he won't have
to play the school-issued junk)

They had tried it last year and he had gotten back so few, that they had no
band for the entire first semester! The teacher ---full time band director
for years----wound up teaching math for the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND sillyness.

His beginning class was also random. Of course, the parents who had not
wished to have their kids in band did not wish to rent or purchase an
instrument. I have evaluated and repaired many of the school instruments
that would then have to be issued. Methuselah may have been alive when these
were made and they have been abused for decades!

He was told by administration: "You're a good teacher, it's YOUR JOB to MAKE
them LIKE it!"

HAVE FUN KIDS!!!!!!!!!

This is part of the new plan to wreck our schools. When will this nation
wake up?

Kurt

(831) 425-5658

-----Original Message-----
>From: Bob and Deborah Shaw <theshaws10@-----.net>
>Sent: Feb 19, 2007 5:33 PM
>To: Trombone-L <trombone-l@-----.edu>, Klarinet List
><klarinet@-----.org>
>Subject: [kl] Band Directors-Help needed
>
>Our school district is currently going through some major changes (not
>good I am afraid!) and replacing 6th grade band, choir and orchestra
>with exploratory band, choir and orchestra. We will have 30 days of
>instruction to introduce all of the instruments in the subject that we
>teach, along with music theory, etc. Each teacher (band, choir,
>orchestra) will have the same class in a rotational exploratory wheel.
>
>Who out there has something similiar that we can use as a model? We
>need some good information as to what has been done, and what works?
>Has it worked, what was the outcome, etc.
>
>We have fought long and hard to keep our programs, but, it seems that
>our expertise is not being honored. The middle school concept is more
>important to our district than what is best for our music programs and
>what we think is best for our students.
>
>If you have participated in a program like this, please respond and
>tell me what your experience has been and what the outcome has been.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Deborah Shaw
>Band Director
>901 N.13th St.
>Lingle Middle School
>Rogers, Arkansas 72756
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> It's the Woodwind.Org 2007 donation drive!
>>>> Visit https://secure.donax-us.com/donations/ for more information
>email klarinet-owner@-----.org
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> It's the Woodwind.Org 2007 donation drive!
>>> Visit https://secure.donax-us.com/donations/ for more information
klarinet-owner@-----.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> It's the Woodwind.Org 2007 donation drive!
>>> Visit https://secure.donax-us.com/donations/ for more information