One mother's plea: Cutting arts from public school would cheat our children
| Thursday, Jan 22 2009 01:56 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 12:57 PM
GO & DO
What: “It’s a Grand Night for Music”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Theater at Rabobank Convention Center, 1001 Truxtun Ave.
Admission: $5 donation at the door.
Information: 636-4635
Orchestra selections will include:
Coleridge-Taylor’s “Petite Suite de Concert” and Quilter’s “A Children’s Overture.”
The choir will present Bach’s “O Lord, Our Lord, Your Works are Glorious,” Chatman’s “The Scout,” Riehle’s arrangement of “Shenandoah,” Offenbach’s “Neighbor’s Chorus” and Tucker’s “Evenin’ Time.”
The band will play Van der Roost’s “Flashing Winds,” Currow’s “Celebration (On A Theme By Saint-Saens),” Houseknecht’s arrangement of “Salvation is Created,” Camphouse’s “In Memoriam” and Saucedo’s “Persistence.”
Combined orchestra, choir and band will perform Ward’s “America the Beautiful.”
Images
A group of cellists perform during the 2007 performance of "It's a Grand Night for Music" at Rabobank Convention Center.
Johnathan Shih, of Stockdale High School, performed during the 2005 performance.
On Tuesday, some 600 Kern County high school students will perform in the annual “It’s a Grand Night for Music”, a celebration of music and these students’ and teachers’ hard work and dedication.
Most of the people in the audience will be the families of the performers. I will be among them, as my daughter is singing in the choir. At some point in the concert, administrators from the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office will praise the talent, discipline and excellence displayed by all the students, while reminding us of the value of performing arts education.
Those administrators will be preaching to the choir, because we have spent years supporting our children through elementary and junior high school band and choral programs, fundraising, private lessons, festivals and competitions — all because we value performing arts education.
We also know that since these programs are electives, they are especially vulnerable as the state’s economy worsens.
Kathy Caric, director of curriculum, instruction and accountability for the superintendent of schools, said that while cuts are certainly coming, no one knows where they may occur.
“What’s unclear is how much flexibility (the districts) will have,” Caric said, adding that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed giving school districts more power in deciding how cuts can be made. Caric said elective programs such as performing arts courses are among the most vulnerable — not because administrators don’t believe in them, but because they are not part of the core curriculum necessary for high school graduation and college entrance requirements.
So what's at stake? Well, I’m biased — I’m a musician from a family of musicians. But I don’t think it’s biased to say that music education provides the same kinds of benefits that sports do: self-discipline, teamwork, personal responsibility and professional behavior with the added bonus of preserving what’s beautiful about our culture when so much these days contributes to its coarsening.
As programs such as “Grand Night for Music” are required to recover all costs, school districts could see more of the costs passed on to them instead of covered by the KCSOS office. Schools may decide to opt out of events because they can’t afford entry fees, transportation costs, facility rentals or food. Caric said some corporate sponsors have already had to curtail or discontinue support, so some events may disappear.
That’s likely to continue, and music events aren’t the only possible casualties. Caric said all elective events, including other arts programs, Academic Decathlon, Mock Trial, science fairs, history competitions and more, affecting some 50,000 students out of about 175,000, are all vulnerable.
As an alternative, Caric said some schools may take music programs out of the regular school day and reorganize them as extra-curricular activities, which will make them heavily dependent on fundraising.
There should be a big demand for good grant writers. Certainly, ticket prices for surviving concerts, competitions, festivals and the like will either be instituted or increased.
Administrators will know more in the coming weeks and months, and then the budget cuts will come. Legislators can no longer defer expenses, assume revenues not yet earned and all the other budget legerdemain that has allowed the state to avoid the inevitable the last several years. Programs will be reduced or eliminated, and music programs are among the most likely targets. Only advocacy from parents and the rest of our community will at least ensure that elective programs don’t disappear without a fight, and maybe even some will be saved.
That advocacy can start by supporting events such as “Grand Night for Music,” even if you won’t have a child on the stage.
