Letter to the Editor

This week there was an article in the Carroll County times about the budget for next school year.  The article paraphrased a community member who suggested our school district has excessive arts offerings and should look to the arts as an area to trim the budget.  The link is here if you want to read it.  I wrote this letter to the editor in response . . . 

Letter to the Editor in Response to:

Residents, Board Members Comment on Budget

By Alisha George

Published January 26, 2012

Dear Carroll County Times,

I was dismayed to read the suggestion by a community member that Carroll County Public Schools should look to the arts as the place to reduce electives and trim the budget.  With the increased emphasis on standardized testing and the traditional three “R’s”, some have lost sight of the inherent worth of that very essential fourth “R”—the aRts.  As we prepare our students to be college and career ready, I hope our community will remember that human beings are more than just the grades we earn or the jobs we perform.  Our true value lies in the compassion, beauty, and understanding that we bring to our fellow human beings-- all emotions that are nurtured through the arts. 

Beyond this, it would be shortsighted to assume that the arts are not careers for which we should be preparing our students.  Every time we turn on the radio, watch a movie, or enjoy the graphics on our computer screen, we are benefiting from the hard work of someone who chose the arts as a career.  Musicians, actors, dancers and visual artists are the most obvious of these; but let us not forget sound engineers, graphic artists, video game designers, choreographers, music therapists, interior designers, writers, fashion designers, photographers, and museum curators, just to name a few.

I am personally very grateful that my children will have the benefit of a diverse arts education in Carroll County.  I encourage everyone in our community to learn more about the arts programs in our schools.  Check out a concert.  Attend a drama production or an art exhibit.  I think you will see that our young people have amazing talent and potential, which is being nurtured every day by some very dedicated arts teachers. Let us do all that we can to support their efforts and ensure strong arts programs for our students.

Sincerely,

Maggie Fischer
Music Advocates of Carroll County
www.musicadvocatescc.com

Dear School Administrator . . .

I wrote this letter as a member of the Music Advocates of Carroll County.  We sent it to the principals at every middle and high school in our county.  Will it have an impact?  I don't know.  But I do know that doing nothing gets us nowhere.  Speak up!  Let our schools know that the community values arts education.

Dear Principal,

Happy New Year from the Music Advocates of Carroll County!  As the scheduling process for the 2012-2013 school year begins, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for your efforts to ensure that students have access to a high quality music education.

As the school principal, you wield powerful influence over the strength of the ________Music Program.  Your leadership makes it possible to:

• Create schedules that give students access to music classes.
• Offer curricular performing ensembles that meet consistently during the entire school year.
• Offer opportunities for consistent, specialized instruction such as through sectional rehearsals.
• Foster an environment where the accomplishments of music students are celebrated.
• Educate non-music teachers about the value of the arts as core subjects.

In an era when there is so much pressure to raise standardized test scores, please know that many of us in the community value the arts and the richness of experience that these “non-tested” subjects bring to our young people.  We appreciate your efforts to strengthen the music program at _________.  We hope that as students begin the scheduling process, they will be given every opportunity to participate in a high-quality, standards-based, sequential program of music study.

Thank you for your support of our young musicians!

Sincerely,

Maggie Fischer

Music Advocates of Carroll County

School districts with strong arts education programs report that superintendents and school principals who collectively support and regularly articulate a vision for arts education are critically important to the successful implementation and stability of district arts education policies. (“Gaining the Arts Advantage,” The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 1999)

Five Things I Wish People Knew about Music Teachers

Music Teachers are my heroes!  They have a tough job and most people have absolutely no idea what music teachers actually do.  Truthfully, I didn't know either until I met my husband.


5. Music Teachers are trained professionals.
They actually have degrees in music education, music performance or another related field.  Many have advanced degrees and certifications in specific areas of music education.  Really?  There's an actual college major for being a music teacher?  Yes, indeed!


4.  Music teachers put a lot of planning into their lessons.
It might look like the band director is just waving his arms from the podium; but in reality, he (or she!) is reading multiple lines of music at the same time, keeping the beat, signaling different instrument groups to play, listening for correct notes and rhythms and making sure students are playing the right dynamics, too.  It's the ultimate multitasking and it doesn't come without preparation.


3.  Music teachers spend a lot of their own personal time managing the music program.
All teachers spend time outside of class planning, grading, serving on committees, etc.  But for some reason even fellow teachers tend to think their music colleagues have it easy.  After all, what papers are there to grade in music?  But music teachers spend their time recruiting students, repairing instruments, creating schedules for pull-out lessons, teaching after-school ensembles, planning field trips, managing booster groups, fundraising, arranging music, writing drill, setting up for concerts, negotiating with other teachers to "share" the kids . . . the list goes on.  Do music teachers have more to do than their counterparts in other subjects?  Perhaps not.  But they certainly don't have less.


2. Music teachers have to advocate to keep their jobs year after year.
Fortunately this is not true in every school, but sadly a lot of music teachers fear for their jobs every single year.  They have to prove their value again and again because too many administrators simply don't think the arts are as important as other subjects.  When there are difficult staffing decisions to be made, whose job is on the line?  You guessed it.  It's the arts teacher!  This is one of the reasons why music teachers spend so much time recruiting.  If they don't fill the seats in their classrooms, then music classes get cut and they are out of a job.  Unlike math, science, and language arts, there's no guarantee that students will enroll.


1.  Music Teachers love what they do.
I've met a lot of teachers and most of them enjoy what they do.  But the music teachers I have met . . . well . . . they LOVE what they do.  They work with the best, brightest, most creative kids and they get to make music.  (Excuse me if I feel a little envious . . .)

Sir Ken Robinson, I'm your #1 Fan

Now that I have kids, plus a few years under my belt observing school dynamics, I am more convinced than ever that we need to adjust our whole mindset about education.  Nobody articulates this better than Sir Ken Robinson.

Have you heard of Sir Ken?  Read any of his books?  Watched his TED talks on youtube?   I'm not exaggerating when I say that my mind was racing after watching this animation about changing education paradigms.   So much of his message resonates with people, and it's all delivered with humor and belief in the best possibilities of students everywhere. (Thanks to the RSA for this animation.)

What do you think?

Stop the Madness

Stop the madness!  It’s what I want to say every time I speak with an administrator, board of ed member or any person who is part of the decision-making machine of our school system.  I just cannot fathom how anyone could not intuitively understand the inherent value of the arts as part of a balanced education.

For the past twelve years, I’ve been married to a high school band director.  It has been eye-opening to see the work that goes into being an effective music teacher.  There’s a lot more to it than being the guy who stands in front of the band and waves his arms until the music stops.

It has also been eye-opening to see just how many administrators really don’t understand music education.  They don’t realize the impact that some of their seemingly benign decisions have on the arts.  Many of them grew up in an era when arts education was already losing ground.  They don’t know another way.

We hear so much that the purpose of public education is to prepare students for college and careers.  This statement gives me pause on two counts.  First, what about careers in the arts?  There’s an enormous industry dedicated to entertaining people, yet our school system doesn’t recognize any value in preparing students for arts careers.  We don’t go through a single day without hearing music in some form, but the task of creating music isn’t important enough to make it an essential part of our schools.  Ironic, isn’t it?

Second, are we really just preparing students for college and careers?  I was under the impression that we are supposed to be preparing them for LIFE.  Human beings are worth so much more than just what we do.  In other words, don’t we each have value apart from our jobs?   We tell kids to find their passion, but we make it awfully difficult for them to do so by narrowing the curriculum and implying that certain subjects have more value than others.  If your passion doesn’t fit the mold, then it’s wrong.

What’s wrong is taking these amazing, creative, gifted young people and funneling them into a system that devalues their uniqueness.   

What’s wrong is standing on the sidelines watching it happen and leaving the work of advocacy to others.