Recently, my band director got a call from a college. The person from the college was involved in the music department and wanted to discuss the importance of commitment in the music program, as well as how significant it is when a music credit isn’t consistently scheduled every year.
I found this interesting because I never thought that colleges would question our commitment to something if we didn’t schedule a specific elective for one year, but then schedule it the following year. This college went on to discuss how excited they are when they see a music credit on a transcript. They feel that if a kid is involved in a music program, they are getting a good student who is willing to put their all into not just their education, but everything they do.
I also found this intriguing because music programs are almost always the first to be cut in schools. If these programs are so important to colleges, why are schools cutting them? I feel that this is an issue that needs to be addressed because some schools could care less about the arts. Just this past fall I met a girl from Northern Lebanon High School at a marching band competition. To be honest, I didn’t realize how lucky we were to have our band program up until I met this girl. Unfortunately, her high school is cutting some of the art and music programs, including funds towards the marching band. Therefore, her marching band has to make money on its own through fundraisers, and they are so small to the point where they can only afford to go to a few competitions every season.
In this school, I don’t think people fully understand how lucky we are to have this amazing school district with a variety of programs. It’s so sad to see how many kids don’t take advantage of all the unique opportunities we have here. I know that our marching band was so grateful to have the support of our beloved principal as we went on to win at Championships, yet we are expecting to decrease in size this year because of the number of incoming freshmen willing to commit to next year’s season. This school is so fortunate to have unconditional support from its staff, yet we are still on the verge of losing members in our music program. I think that it’s so important that we stress the importance of music in schools and help people understand how much support from schools is valued. If this is done, perhaps there would be a higher commitment to our music programs in schools all over the country.
What's your opinion on cutting the arts (music, art, drama/theater, etc.) in schools?
I'm not involved in the music program at Nazareth because i'm too tied down with soccer. I do know that Nazareth has an amazing music department because the school I previously went to is a lot worse. I think the arts are very important in school. It's literally apart of it, some students devote their time to an art just like students devote their time to sports. So it shouldn't be cut.
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