In my recent quest to determine what's wrong with Southern Arkansas school bands, I inadvertently turned up a clue that both puzzled and disappointed me. However, before I get to the point, let's explore other options.
There is no doubt that part of the problem lies with the band directors themselves. I don't like pointing fingers, but I have to face cold hard facts when they're staring me right in the face. We simply have some LAZY band directors out there. Perhaps the word "lazy" is too harsh. Okay. Let's try APATHETIC. I know guys in the business who show up at 7:55a.m. and leave at 3:30p.m. As a band director, I can tell you that this, quite frankly, will NOT get it done! Band directing IS NOT a first bell-last bell kind of job. These are the same guys who can never seem to understand why their band struggles year after year.
That said, let's explore another problem: UNINFORMED administrators. We have far too many principals and superintendents who don't know what it takes to build and maintain a good band program. As a result, they supply their schools' band director(s) with too small a budget, inadequate equipment and an IMPOSSIBLE schedule. (This can lead right back to an apathetic director; if he/she never goes to his/her administration to inform them, then they'll always get what they always got). But, once informed, some administrators simply refuse to acknowledge the importance of their band program, and thus do only enough to be able to say, "...band? Yeah, we HAVE one."
Those problems aside, one even more frightening---if you can imagine---looms in the distance.
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1 comment:
wow robert, i've never given this much thought. we didnt even HAVE a band in my high school in new jersey (not sure they have one even now) so i'm not very much up to speed on the problems you are seeing or the causes (i wasnt even aware of the disparity between the north and south parts of the state)... but i bet i will be once you're finished!
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