[Grovenet] An Important Matter

Sat Mar 31 09:19:40 PDT 2007

Jeff Cooper wrote:

I find it interesting that there is no mention of cutting band at Tom McCall
on the FGSD webpage, and that Grovenet is the first mention I heard of
it....

--------------------------------------------------------

Maybe that's because it hasn't happened! 

As Allen Warren reported:

"...Musser tried very hard to convey the message that he absolutely supports
music instruction and that Al Roger's proposal is one of the options to
consider but certainly not the only option to consider.  Musser also made
the point that when budget cuts have been made in the past, at no time has
Forest Grove school system ever made cuts in any music program.  He
acknowledged the accolades Forest Grove has received for their music
program, and in particular the Strings Program.

After listening to Mr. Musser and several Board members speak, and after
listening to Al Rogers speak, it became quite clear at least to me that Al
Rogers option was not necessarily the option that Musser and the Board found
appealing.  In fact I remember one Board member who very gently and almost
imperceptibly challenged Mr. Rogers for not considering any other option
*BUT* to change the music program instruction time."

It sounds like the issue is a tempest in a teapot, but of interest because
of the perceived value of music in the school curriculum and the
ever-present threat of cuts in the budget. 

As Steve Jerrett observed, "...Sometimes programs are cut for reasons other
than tight budgets.. If the music performance programs are allowed to be
marginalized, enrollment will almost certainly drop. Decreased enrollment
often causes programs to be cut even in financially strong times."

That's why he was concerned with moving the music program out of the main
daily schedule of classis.

I didn't mean to cause a huge thread drift from Steve's very real concern.
And it's a concern I take seriously, even if Allen is correct. Look out,
here comes the soap box... 

I've often opined that America is doing a terrible job educating our
children. We pamper them, making sure they wear helmets whenever they might
bang their heads in a fall, then we fail to put anything useful in those
heads! 

That's why America has become so technologically backward. We buy our
technology from China, Japan, Europe and other places. It's developed in
those places as well. American companies who want to survive have been
moving their facilities to other countries where they can access the leading
engineers, scientists and, yes, assembly-line workers (we like to think the
reason for jobs leaving the USA is cheap semi-skilled and unskilled labor.
That's a fantasy. Jobs leave here because the best workers, the brightest,
best-educated workers and the innovations are elsewhere!). 

Who noticed that Intel just announced a billion-dollar new expansion? Not in
Oregon. Not in the USA. They're building a huge new facility in northern
China! Intel doesn't hate the USA. They know where to find the best minds
and the most capable hands are ready and anxious to do the work. 

We Americans are a relative backwater of technology who can do little more
than program the clock on our VCR's and DVD players - provided the device
was built smart enough to do it automatically. That's a hard, bitter pill to
swallow after we captured the attention and admiration of the world going to
the moon. But that was almost half a century ago now! 

It reinforces the old saying about "the bigger they are the harder they
fall". 

The question now is what will it take for Americans to get up out of the mud
again?

We've seen too many examples of the past few decades of American culture and
education have produced: they are serving in the White House today, put
there by their constituents who voted for them, also examples of our
education and cultural training over the past several decades. 

Do we want something different in the future? If so, we'd better get busy
with the raw material at our disposal today: the kids in school right now.
Sure, it'll take decades. It took decades to get into this mess and it'll
take decades to get out. Every child in America who wakes up in the morning
needs to feel like the luckiest kid in the world because, if he/she is
lucky, there will be food to eat that day, they have to opportunity to go to
school that day and study hard that day rather than run the streets looking
for pennies to help their families survive. And when they get to school,
they need the opportunity to study.

That's something Americans aren't very good about doing either: we want
instant gratification. "Where's my credit card? I need results NOW! I'll
worry about paying for it later, or I'll just declare bankruptcy and let the
fat-cat bankers pay for it..." More examples of the culture we raised the
last generation to admire. 

Okay, I'll turn the soap box off...

Ron D'Eau Claire 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Jeff Cooper
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:03 AM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] An Important Matter

I find it interesting that there is no mention of cutting band at Tom McCall
on the FGSD webpage, and that Grovenet is the first mention I heard of it.
Attaining high test scores seems to be the sole indication of success this
district knows in regards to student achievement, and indeed NCLB seems to
be one of the main culprits.  I would argue that overemphasizing the
fundamentals saps the will to learn from students, who may or may not still
achieve high test scores.  Quantitative assessment numbers don't crunch
qualitative attitudes towards learning, and indeed other intangibles
relating to producing well-rounded students.

*****************************************************
>From USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-03-29-teacher-study_N.htm
"Elementary school students spend too much time on basic reading and math
skills and not enough on problem-solving, reasoning, science and social
studies, researchers found in a study published today in the weekly magazine
Science. Researchers said teachers need to spend more time engaging
students, but critics say the study ignored current realities, such as
NCLB."
 *****************************************************

Scapegoating such qualitative courses as band and thinking that by
eliminating it from the curriculum, so that more core subject matter
material may be taught runs counter to the notion that we need to  engage
our students and encourage them to become active participants in their own
education.  High stakes testing may be the norm now, but does little to
truly motivate students to become involved.  Cutting Band, Art, Drama, etc.
is akin to cutting recess for elementary students; without "play" they will
continue a downward slope in accepting responsibility for their own
education, perhaps to the point where their only concern becomes "what is
assigned?" rather than "what can I learn?" 

Regards,

Jeff Cooper
Education Technology Support Consultant

---------------------------------
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