What's the Matter With Music Students Today?
Earlier this week, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion at a gathering of the Oakland County (MI) School Boards Association. The topic was education politics, and my co-panelists were Steve Norton, Executive Director of Michigan Parents for Schools, and Amber Arellano, Executive Director of Education Trust Midwest. It's worth mentioning that I am not executive director of anything, but did spend more than 30 years in an instrumental music classroom.
It was an interesting, engaging conversation, covering topics of interest to Board members from the 28 school districts represented. One of the issues raised was "local control," kicked off by this quote:
The worst thing that ever happened to education was the discovery by the politicians that the electorate believes the issue is a top priority. Hence to win votes, the pols stick their big legislative noses into all facets of the issue when the critics contend much of that should be left to the educators. So it may be only a matter of time before legislators address another issue sitting out there: Chairs.
Chairs? Band chairs, the writer means--the old-fashioned practice of seating instrumental music students in order of their teacher's estimation of their ability, best to worst.
The quote is from Tim Skubick, who is well-known in Michigan as a 40-year veteran of political reporting. Skubick prides himself on being a true journalist--broadcasting from the middle of the road about the action on either side. In this op-ed, he reports from the press box of the Vince Lombardi School of Youth Motivation. Got grit, student musicians? Skubick evidently thinks not.
He continues on in this vein for the entire piece, blasting weak-sister school music teachers who reject competition, suggesting that public ranking of ability is a fine old academic tradition, grumbling like your cranky old neighbor about giving every little Tom, Dick and Harriet an undeserved blue ribbon. You've read hundreds of columns like this, haven't you? Our Soft and Failing Youth, an evergreen theme for curmudgeons.
Skubick veers off course a bit to muse about MI Governor Rick Snyder who (in what must have been an unguarded moment) admitted that he liked playing second chair tenor saxophone, What's the Matter With Music Students Today? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: