An Amazing Letter from Mr. Bill Jastrow on Why Band is Important for Your Child!
posted Apr 1, 2011 9:40 AM by Rachel Maxwell
Dear Parents:
Who is going to be the next President of the United States? The 2008 election determined that answer for the immediate future. But look down the road to the election of 2032. By that time, members of the Neuqua Valley High School Class of 2014 will be eligible to be a Presidential candidate. Not likely? Probably. Impossible? Well, that potential candidate is currently an incoming freshman at some school. As a parent, I am sure you would be very proud if your son or daughter had that opportunity at some point in the future. You never know.
I became a music teacher for two reasons: I love music and I love to work with kids, because you just do not know who or what they are going to turn into. Freshmen come into our rehearsal rooms as kids with wide ranges in talents, skills, interests, and experiences. Seniors leave our ensembles as young adults heading towards a smorgasbord of universities and colleges to pursue careers in every possible field. In over 35 years of secondary teaching, I have never had a student denied admission to college because they studied music and played in the high school band.
I believe that as parents we synthesize all of our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for our children down into three areas. First, we want our children to be educated, literate, caring, and contributing members of our society. Second, we want our children to be able to make a living in a manner that best suits their needs, talents, and desires. And finally, and most importantly, we want our children to be happy; to enjoy and appreciate everything that life has to offer. With that in mind, and as a parent myself, I ask you to consider how proud would you be if your child became?
1)The head of chemical research and development for Pittsburgh Paint & Glass, Co.
2)The Midwest production manager for Union Carbide
3)A mathematics teacher at West Point with the rank of Major in the Army Corps of Engineers (ret.)
4)A soil research biologist at Argonne National Laboratory
5)A Chicago lawyer specializing in corporate law
6)An Assistant Superintendent overseeing curriculum and instruction for a suburban high school
7)A family practice doctor and the traveling physician for the University of Illinois Marching Illini
I am sure we would agree that these examples are all respected careers, generally held by successful, professional people with masters and doctoral degrees in their fields.
How would you feel if your son or daughter occupied any of the following professions?
8)The assistant principal flutist in the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra
9)The assistant principal trumpet player in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
10)The lead actor and Andrew Lloyd Webber's personal choice for the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera
11)A collegiate symphony orchestra conductor and director of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra
12)A professional saxophone player and college music professor
All twelve of those professionals are real people. All played in the band, and in some cases sang with the choir, through high school and college. I know them, some since 5th Grade Beginning Band, some since high school band, and others since college. Still others walked into my rehearsal room five days a week carrying their flutes, and clarinets, and trombones, and drum sticks as part of their high school academic schedule. I truly do not believe that any of the people listed above knew for sure what directions their life, and talents would take them when they entered high school. Many probably did not know when they left high school. Fortunately for all of them, their education allowed them to pursue a broad range of interests.
I do know that the Major in the Army intended to major in music. During his senior year he changed his mind. Fortunately, his transcript reflected high grades not only in the Fine Arts, but in math and science classes as well. He was awarded a Congressional appointment to West Point.
I do know that the soil scientist considered music education as a career. For six years she played principal bassoon in all of the top music ensembles of her university while pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science and a Masters of Science degree in Agronomy. Had secondary instrumental music education been more open to young women in the 1970's, Argonne Laboratory might be short one research scientist today.
I do know the professional saxophone player was not allowed to enroll in a high school music class as an entering freshman. His father believed his son needed the maximum number of math and science credits possible in order to become a chemical engineer for BP Amoco. As a senior in high school the student performed as a soloist from memory, on television, in front of a standing-room only audience, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and won the Young Artists Senior Division Concerto Competition. The "to be chemical engineer" graduated in the top 10% of his high school class with eight semesters of music credits, and took his $10,000 CSO scholarship to Indiana University to major in music performance.
I also know of a NVHS secondary school music teacher that prepared throughout high school to attend the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Unexpectedly, the appointment was withdrawn when the student was denied admission as a result of a minor vision irregularity discovered half way through senior year. Fortunately, his Mom and Dad said "no" when he wanted to quit band in 5th grade, and 6th grade, and 9th grade. Like I said, you just never know how kids are going to turn out.
Ideally, I would like to see every high school student on some kind of sports team. Every student should give an assembly speech. Every student should be involved with a theater production. Every student should produce a work for an art show. Every student should perform in a concert. When kids are little, educators and parents seek out such opportunities because we know the value of those experiences and impressions on young minds. Everybody makes the team. Everybody gets a chance to hit. The All-School show actually includes the entire school.
At what point then, does playing on the team, creating a drawing, acting out a character, or performing in a concert become educationally of less or no value? Age ten? Thirteen? Sixteen? Eighteen? At what point does educating the verbal and mathematical intelligences of children outweigh educating the linguistic, logical, special, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and musical intelligences of the whole child? Did you know that two of our best Hollywood actors were considered to be academic failures? As college students with little acting background, they were advised to enroll in a theater class, not for the sake of studying drama, but to get "an easy A" that would bolster a rapidly falling grade point average. I wonder how many people consider Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks to be failures today?
Unfortunately, as children get older, parents and teachers often become more concerned about winning the game, winning the state contest, or striving for every student to have a college math and verbal test score which qualifies for admission to an Ivy League school. With those goals in mind, it is very easy to manipulate, require, and/or pressure a young student to specialize in some sport, some activity, or some course of study. Based on my daily observations, the far majority of high school freshmen do not know what they are going to do in 45 minutes, tomorrow afternoon, or next week, let alone four years down the road. And even the most talented, mature and self-disciplined freshman student, be it in applied academics, athletics, or the fine arts, rarely "tracks" in the directions predicted.
As parents and educators, we need to encourage. We need to support. We need to monitor. We need to advise. We need to push. At times we need to say: YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS or NO, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO QUIT.Most importantly, we need to make sure that, as many doors as possible stay open for as long as possible.
Music education at the high school level keeps the door open for the next John Williams, the next Leonard Bernstein, and the next Duke Ellington. But that is only one door through which only a small percentage of young musicians will ever pass. For all of the rest, the future chemist, lawyer, architect, businessman, doctor, aerospace engineer, computer programmer, etc., music education helps to open doors to professional success and personal fulfillment by engaging all parts of our thinking, knowing, and feeling processes in ways that no other discipline can. Music is a unique creation of civilization. We interact with it, respond to it, and create it everyday. Through music, we feel, we express, we create and we learn in ways that no other form of communication allows. Yes, participation in high school music classes has been directly linked to higher college test scores. Yes, participation in high school music ensembles has been shown to develop self-discipline and self-confidence, as well as social and leadership skills. Yes, the majority of All-State Academic students throughout the country list music performance courses on their transcript. But mostly, students should study the arts for the intrinsic value of the arts themselves.
Awareness of having better things to do with their lives is the secret
to immunizing our children against false value –
whether presented on television or in ‘real life.’
The child who finds fulfillment in music is not easily convinced that he
needs recognition or power or some ‘high’
to feel worthwhile.
Polly Berrien Berends
Who will be conducting the United States Marine Band for the Presidential Inauguration of 2037? Your son or daughter? Maybe! That young musician is in some band or orchestra class somewhere this school year. More importantly, who will be the next generation responsible for preserving, transmitting and advancing our culture? ALL OF OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS. We cannot afford to lose the talents and promise of any young person by boxing them into a pre-determined mold. You just cannot tell how they are going to turn out!
For further information on the impacts of music education on young people, visit the following websites:
Respectfully,
William Jastrow
Neuqua Valley H.S.
Assistant Fine Arts Department Chr.