Why we need the Arts in the Schools

[Rick Denney]

So let’s put this train back on the rails !
Why do we need arts in the schools ?

Totally agree with goodgigs--the first time I saw a live symphony orchestra performance (Houston Symphony) was on a school field trip--the first I saw an opera was also on a school field trip (the opera was Of Mice and Men--performed by Houston Grand Opera)--same thing with Houston Ballet. For most kids who would otherwise have no exposure at all, school is THE gateway to experience art and music on different levels. Its an opportunity for those of us who can't be athletes or brainiacs to learn something that will last a lifetime. It has for me so far!

I did attempt to answer that original question, after disposing of the diversion, not that there is anything wrong with diversions, given that the original poster does not own the thread.

The question is simple: Do we as a nation believe that people ought to know about art and music in the same way we expect them to know about, say, civics or history? Let's look at the alternatives. People who do not know these things cannot actually know that much about history and civics, because extremely often in our history, music has played a key role in how political movements find their voice. How many people today have formed their opinions on (fill-in-the-blank important topic) on the basis of a fictional movie about that subject? I can think of many examples. Music is used in those movies to evoke emotion, and emotion is what gives value to the point being discussed. It takes experience with and knowledge of music to know when people are using music to persuade us of something. Is it an accident that a presidential candidate's commercial has music in it? Is the selection of music an accident? Of course not. These choices are intended to manipulate emotions, and people who know nothing of music will not have their receivers finely tuned to when their emotions are being manipulated. We listen to music for so many reasons, and one of them ought to be to understand how it affects the way we think.

We don't have education in a free democratic republic just because we think it's nice. We have education because people should be educated and able to think clearly before voting. That takes more than readin', writin', and 'rithmetic.

That is a separate argument from the oft-stated point that musical training promotes general mental training; training that directly pays off in math, science, and languages. Which is, of course, also true.

But we as supporters of music education undermine the importance of music as a part of a proper education when we spend all the time in a dozen consecutive music classes memorizing six pieces for an upcoming contest. Did the principals first start evaluating us on the basis of contest results, or did we spend so much time bragging when our results were good or complaining when the results were poor that we led them to believe that's what we thought was important? That's what I mean by turning music into a sport.

(By the way, my first hearing of a live symphony orchestra was also the Houston Symphony in an elementary school field trip. But what gave it value was not being there--I don't even remember what was played--but in the way my parents demonstrated excitement and an attitude of privilege. They didn't treat it like Just Another Field Trip, and that made me believe it had special value. And my first opera was watching my sister, also in elementary school at the time, sing in the vast children's chorus at an HGO performance of Hansel and Gretel. That was also treated as though it was a Big Deal in my family.)

Rick "who spends a piece of every day justifying programs on the basis of often inconclusive and inappropriate performance measurements" Denney

[GC]

...and I point that I will make here (that you possibly will not care to see) is that (excluding band directors...and mostly discussing regular classroom teachers who actually use their "administrative periods" to "administrate") even teachers who are paid as little as $35K/yr. gross over $20/hr. (as most only work c. 200 days/yr.)

Facts are facts, and you're right. The situation is a bit more complex than that, as most teachers I know put in considerably more than 40 hours a week, and in my state classroom teachers are contracted for 190 days, less this year because of furloughs because of the economy. And that doesn't count continuing education classes, workshops, and so on to maintain teaching certificates or time spent on getting advanced degrees. Even so, the money in teaching has improved enormously the past couple of decades, and so have benefits (at least in my neck of the woods).

There are major changes in methods of assigning teacher pay coming down the pike. I know teachers who haven't had even a cost of living raise for several years, and several who have taken pay cuts since the economy went south. Furlough days have become common around the nation this year. I'm betting that austerity and reversals of some pay rates and benefits are inevitable for quite a while to come. A lot of folks once considered teaching and nursing to be immune from these kinds of cuts, but I've seen both locally this year.

[tubaguy9]

I think music ed is quite important these days...To make an interesting point, my grades in high school were best when our band was best...and when our band was best, I had less time outside of school stuff...

[Rick Denney]

As a comment on Rick's post, my high school band (in the early-mid-70's) was certainly no "championship band" (even in our very small back yard), but we were exposed to Sousa, Fillmore, Rossini, Beethoven, Nicolai, Mozart, Brahms, Holst, Elgar, De Nardis, Rozsa, Wood, Schuman, Walton...an' a buncha goo' stuff liik-'at.

I seem to recall that we played The Sorcerer's Apprentice for our Spring concert and Carmina Burana for contest in my senior year in high school. I think we had Egmont Overture in there somewhere. Then there was Lohengrin, the finale from Shosty's 5, Festive Overture, and many other of that ilk (like Night on Bald Mountain, Cappricio Italien). Those were typical. I don't remember any of the typical "band" works from high school, except a couple that have transcended the genre, including La Fiesta Mexicana and Scenes from the Louvre.

And in marching band, we played different music, with a whole new march program, every week. Even changing music weekly, we still memorized the music so that we would not have march folders on our instruments. (We were required to have it memorized by Wednesday after it was handed out on Monday. Mental skills indeed!) Yes, there were the Bill Moffet arrangements, but we also performed things like Crown Imperial (while marching on the field). We never achieved perfection, nor did we even care about going to marching contest, but we had rich experiences.

Our band was a typical big-city school, in Houston, that suffered with about 1/10 the funding per band student that the more wealthy suburban districts enjoyed. We never really blew away those schools in contests, either. We were just "okay". But I would rather have the experience of playing Carmina Burana imperfectly than the typical educational band music perfectly.

Now, it seems like bands perform one or two march programs for the entire season, and spend much of the spring semester learning contest pieces by rote, which will be performed in half a dozen different festivals for the aggrandizement of the director.

When I took art in high school, we learned a bit of art history, and experimented with every major type of artistic expression. If art class had been like a modern band program, we would have been assigned to spend the whole semester copying one famous painting, with our grade based on how close we came to the original as judged at a contest.

Rick "thinking we should defend the arts as a part of education, but wondering if we treat music like an art" Denney

[TMurphy]

As a comment on Rick's post, my high school band (in the early-mid-70's) was certainly no "championship band" (even in our very small back yard), but we were exposed to Sousa, Fillmore, Rossini, Beethoven, Nicolai, Mozart, Brahms, Holst, Elgar, De Nardis, Rozsa, Wood, Schuman, Walton...an' a buncha goo' stuff liik-'at.

I seem to recall that we played The Sorcerer's Apprentice for our Spring concert and Carmina Burana for contest in my senior year in high school. I think we had Egmont Overture in there somewhere. Then there was Lohengrin, the finale from Shosty's 5, Festive Overture, and many other of that ilk (like Night on Bald Mountain, Cappricio Italien). Those were typical. I don't remember any of the typical "band" works from high school, except a couple that have transcended the genre, including La Fiesta Mexicana and Scenes from the Louvre.

And in marching band, we played different music, with a whole new march program, every week. Even changing music weekly, we still memorized the music so that we would not have march folders on our instruments. (We were required to have it memorized by Wednesday after it was handed out on Monday. Mental skills indeed!) Yes, there were the Bill Moffet arrangements, but we also performed things like Crown Imperial (while marching on the field). We never achieved perfection, nor did we even care about going to marching contest, but we had rich experiences.

Our band was a typical big-city school, in Houston, that suffered with about 1/10 the funding per band student that the more wealthy suburban districts enjoyed. We never really blew away those schools in contests, either. We were just "okay". But I would rather have the experience of playing Carmina Burana imperfectly than the typical educational band music perfectly.

For my students, I'm currently in the process of finalizing the music we will be performing for the spring. I teach grades 4-8, and will be directing 4 bands this spring--a beginners band, advanced band, and jazz band at my school, plus the district-wide honors band for grades 6-8, which is entirely after school, and for which I receive no compensation for my time. In the end, I'll be dealing with about 14-15 different pieces of music.

Getting to the point, the difficult part of this is to achieve some sort of balance in the music you program. I don't want to do *all* band music, written specifically for middle-school settings, but doing one or two of those isn't bad. I don't want to do *all* orchestral transcriptions, but I feel I should do at least one. I like to do at least one piece from a movie score, because the kids always have fun playing them (and I do too, to be honest). To me, the most important thing about programming the concert is to make sure my students have a diverse sampling of music in various styles, that they become familiar with. I don't do contests, though if I found something I thought would be feasible (both logistically and financially--contests ain't cheap), I would be open to it, only to give my students a chance to perform outside of school.

As to why we need arts in the schools, I think Rick's point about classical education is a good one. I also agree 100% with Tony's blog. For many kids, band is all they have. I have some students whose home-lives aren't exactly the best, they don't get the best grades, but they get to spend time in the band room a few days a week learning music, having fun, and being a part of a team. That opportunity, for them, is irreplaceable.

[sloan]

Here's a novel development that's either good...or horrid...depending on your point of view.

Our local high school band (backed by parents who appear to need a truckload of wrapping paper every year),
has a tradition of taking very ambitious "band trips". Now, ostensibly, each trip is to a "competition" (where somehow, everyone wins...something). Venues (travelling from Alabama) have been Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The trips often include trips to hear the local symphony (often attending a rehearsal, too) - they have also included trips to famous shopping malls (the Dance Team accompanies the Band on these trips - and they need something to compete at, too).

This year, I hear a rumor that there will be a typical "Band Trip" to Chicago, with all the usual bells and whistles - but no "contest". In fact, no performance at all.

So...band directors/members/parents...what do you think of this?

[Antontuba]

I understand your feelings regarding end of the year band trips afar. For some schools these (trips) are icing on the cake following a busy, successful year, while for others it IS the cake.

When I was teaching high school our marching band went to either Myrtle Beach or Florida (by bus) from New Jersey each spring. These trips served as a reward for the students who attended a band camp (one week, away), all of the football games, winter concert, and Christmas parade. Students were good about attending all performances after the trip (usually in late March/early April). While the trip was a good incentive for many to join the marching band, as a staff we did our utmost to keep it as one part of their band experience, and did all we could to give them a rewarding music experience during the year (playing challenging music, going to the National Band Directors Association Band Festival). We did all we could with what we had, and the trip served as incentive and a thank you. Every program has to determine what is really important in the big scheme of things.

[Carroll]

Here's a novel development that's either good...or horrid...depending on your point of view.

Our local high school band (backed by parents who appear to need a truckload of wrapping paper every year),
has a tradition of taking very ambitious "band trips". Now, ostensibly, each trip is to a "competition" (where somehow, everyone wins...something). Venues (travelling from Alabama) have been Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The trips often include trips to hear the local symphony (often attending a rehearsal, too) - they have also included trips to famous shopping malls (the Dance Team accompanies the Band on these trips - and they need something to compete at, too).

This year, I hear a rumor that there will be a typical "Band Trip" to Chicago, with all the usual bells and whistles - but no "contest". In fact, no performance at all.

So...band directors/members/parents...what do you think of this?

I do travel with my band. I feel it is a very important part of the education I can give them. My students are very rural and these trips are, for a great many, the first time: in a hotel, at a restaraunt with cloth napkins, elevator and escalator ride, and out of state travel. We alternate "Big" trips ($300) with "small" trips (less than $100). Our big trips have included D.C., Philadelphia, Toronto, St. Louis, San Antonio (when airfare was cheaper), and Charleston, S.C. Small trips have included Luoisville, Atlanta, Memphis, Huntsville, and Mammoth Cave, KY. We always play at some interesting venue and visit cultural sites. I book everything and include breakfasts and evening meals. The kids participate in fund raising events all year and we travel as soon as school is out for the summer. I have as many (sometimes more) adults as students on these adventures. Many of my alumni travel with us for years after graduation. Quite a few of them credit band travel as the spark that inspired college and career success. I cannot imagine on of the packaged tours (stay in our hotel - ride our bus - get a trophy) having the same impact.

[Antontuba]

Bloke, I wish I could take my students on a trip like the one you suggested.

Adam

[TMurphy]

The choir director at my previous school took her choir to perform at Radio City Music Hall last December, before a performance of the famous "Christmas Spectacular." Of course, She told everyone about the "rigorous" audition process, and how few groups get selected, and what an honor it is, blah blah blah. What she didn't tell them, of course, was how each and every member of the choir needed to fundraise/pay for a $65 ticket to the show, and that she needed to sell a certain amount of tickets to be able to go. Some "honor."

I'd *much* rather take my kids to see the NYPO, NJSO, or Jazz at Lincoln Center, and hear great music be performed, than have them perform in front of an audience that mostly isn't there to hear them, all for the sake of some perceived "honor"....but that's just me.

[TUBAD83]

Trips are dumb, and if band directors really believe that they need to take their students someone on a (big) trip in order for the students to sign up for band, the band directors (imo) really are not doing their jobs. *I pulled my daughter out of the local youth symphony when I found out they were planning on some absurd trip to Canada (1. to play a joint youth symphony concert up there that NO one would be interested in hearing (except the local orch's parents) and 2. to see the world's largest indoor shopping mall )...and all of this during one of the tail-end weeks of winter weather.

I would have to agree with bloke--school group trips is a big business now, designed to make as much money as possible. Case in point: one of my old friends is a band director at one of the local high schools here--his band was "selected" to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade--his band spent over a year raising over 200k (averaged out to over a thousand bucks per member) for the trip out west. My high school alma mater is now "an international baccalaureate world school" now (whatever the hell that means) and now if you want to be in band you have to "pay to play" (about $300.00 in fees last year). A number of the "better" schools are doing the same thing and doing heavy duty fund raising for these outrageously expensive cross country band trips. Is this exercising fiscal responsibility? Really?

JJ

[Rick Denney]

The choir director at my previous school took her choir to perform at Radio City Music Hall last December, before a performance of the famous "Christmas Spectacular." Of course, She told everyone about the "rigorous" audition process, and how few groups get selected, and what an honor it is, blah blah blah. What she didn't tell them, of course, was how each and every member of the choir needed to fundraise/pay for a $65 ticket to the show, and that she needed to sell a certain amount of tickets to be able to go. Some "honor."

Yes, these are commercial enterprises. My niece's high-school orchestra went to perform at Carnegie Hall. The concert comprised their orchestra, a choir performance, and a performance of Carmina Burana, with that same choir. The choir was a combination of five amateur choirs from a distant state. Each member of the orchestra, and every member of those five choirs came up with the money to put on the show. They paid for the pickup orchestra that accompanied Carmina Burana, and it paid for the soloists. It also paid for the conductor, and for the hall. Finally, it paid the profit of the organization that puts these programs together. They are selling the opportunity to "play in Carnegie Hall", though the audience is basically people who come along on the trip (or nearby relatives, as in my case). The idea being sold is that playing at Carnegie Hall is exclusive, when in fact anyone can play there if they can pay the rent (ref: Florence Foster Jenkins, three-quarters of a century ago). What makes it a scam is the exclusivity being peddled, knowing that it will impress yokels from distant states. That will apply extreme pressure on the parents of band students to raise (or pay) the necessary money. Does this expand the education of the students? I won't rule that out, but that question should be considered transparently and explicitly, rather than being assumed.

At least the students did actually get to perform music.

My band trips in high school were vacations, pure and simple. Like Joe, I did not go my senior year. (Not the same reasons as Joe. He must have been a more desirable target to those dangerous femme fatales than I was.) My disappointment in not going lasted all of about five minutes, after which I realized that there were only a few band buddies whose company I really enjoyed, and I could enjoy their company without this trip to Disneyworld or wherever. And the thousand bucks the trip cost was certainly better used elsewhere. My parents, to their credit, were the ones who pushed back. They rather resented spending family vacation money on a trip that 1.) did not provide the whole family with the vacation experience (together), 2.) presented an opportunity for lack of supervision and control. When they presented the second issue to the band director, they were not particularly satisfied with the answer. They told me their concerns and let me decide, and I decided to bag the trip. I never regretted it. If those trips had real value, I would have regretted it.

As far as providing rural yokels with the opportunity to visit exotic places, I'm not sure that is the band's job. But organizing a vacation for kids for the week following the end of school is not an issue--it's not being done during the school year. If the community gets behind it, great. That is the exception rather than the rule.

Rick "whose church trips were a lot more fun in any case" Denney

[TMurphy]

Yes, these are commercial enterprises. My niece's high-school orchestra went to perform at Carnegie Hall. The concert comprised their orchestra, a choir performance, and a performance of Carmina Burana, with that same choir. The choir was a combination of five amateur choirs from a distant state. Each member of the orchestra, and every member of those five choirs came up with the money to put on the show. They paid for the pickup orchestra that accompanied Carmina Burana, and it paid for the soloists. It also paid for the conductor, and for the hall. Finally, it paid the profit of the organization that puts these programs together. They are selling the opportunity to "play in Carnegie Hall", though the audience is basically people who come along on the trip (or nearby relatives, as in my case). The idea being sold is that playing at Carnegie Hall is exclusive, when in fact anyone can play there if they can pay the rent (ref: Florence Foster Jenkins, three-quarters of a century ago). What makes it a scam is the exclusivity being peddled, knowing that it will impress yokels from distant states. That will apply extreme pressure on the parents of band students to raise (or pay) the necessary money. Does this expand the education of the students? I won't rule that out, but that question should be considered transparently and explicitly, rather than being assumed.

At least the students did actually get to perform music.

My band trips in high school were vacations, pure and simple. Like Joe, I did not go my senior year. (Not the same reasons as Joe. He must have been a more desirable target to those dangerous femme fatales than I was.) My disappointment in not going lasted all of about five minutes, after which I realized that there were only a few band buddies whose company I really enjoyed, and I could enjoy their company without this trip to Disneyworld or wherever. And the thousand bucks the trip cost was certainly better used elsewhere. My parents, to their credit, were the ones who pushed back. They rather resented spending family vacation money on a trip that 1.) did not provide the whole family with the vacation experience (together), 2.) presented an opportunity for lack of supervision and control. When they presented the second issue to the band director, they were not particularly satisfied with the answer. They told me their concerns and let me decide, and I decided to bag the trip. I never regretted it. If those trips had real value, I would have regretted it.

As far as providing rural yokels with the opportunity to visit exotic places, I'm not sure that is the band's job. But organizing a vacation for kids for the week following the end of school is not an issue--it's not being done during the school year. If the community gets behind it, great. That is the exception rather than the rule.

Rick "whose church trips were a lot more fun in any case" Denney

The big difference for us, of course, is that we are not yokels from some far-off state. The NY skyline is a daily sight around here, and the trip into Manhattan takes 20 minutes (non-rush hour traffic, of course). All the kids have been to NY many times before, so it's not some big fancy long distance trip. It was a whole bunch of money paid to spend a few hours in what, as I experienced it, was logistical hell (you try loading 75 middle schoolers onto a school bus outside Rockefeller Center at Christmas time, and tell me how it goes). The school I'm in this year, the director took her group to perform at a local hospital nursing home. That was, to me, a much more rewarding experience for the kids (I assisted with both these trips).

My HS band went on two big trips during my 4 years in school. The first was my freshman year, to New Orleans, which I went on. The second was to California, my junior year, which (like Rick and Bloke) I did not go on. I honestly don't feel I missed much.