High Schoolers and Music

High School Music

                Music is, without a doubt, one of the most important aspects to a teen's growth. Friends and music probably have the greatest effect on growing and changing high school students. Why then, are the school's music programs so small?

                In some schools this is not the case- there is always an exception to the rule- but in my school there is way more funding and priority put into sports and academics than there is to the performing arts. I have taken every possible course involved in our performing arts department: theater, ladies; choir, concert choir, chamber choir, bell choir, orchestra, and (by extension of color guard with the marching band) band.  Every single one of these classes or teams has been extremely small, especially when compared to the other performing groups in our region.

                Our band has been through three separate teachers in the last four years, each better than the last.  The first teacher was exceptional and very loving of the students and his job, although he did not push the students very hard. The second teacher had a huge love for music and wanted to share that, so the band did grow slightly when he implemented a jazz band and marching band his first year. Unfortunately, by his second year he was overworked teaching at multiple schools and had to drop the extra bands. This year there was a new band teacher and he works the students very hard. The jazz band is back and the marching band continues to grow under his direction- even to the point where a color guard was started.

                Our orchestra program has had a bad rap because the teacher that use to teach was really psycho, but I haven't heard anything bad about the new teacher. In fact, many of the students that had quite playing under the direction of the old teacher have now joined again and are loving it.

                The theater has put on some astounding plays throughout the past four years including Les Mis, Crazy For You, The King and I, and Pirates of Penzance.  Luckily the student body and faculty are very supportive of the theater and thus the program continues to grow and improve.

                Finally, and this is the one I don't understand, is our choir department. This year, we had so few students that there is no men's choir and the Ladies' choir consists of five girls. The choir teacher is an amazing man who has incredible talent and is a wonderful teacher. Every student walks out of his door having learned more than they could have ever dreamed of learning. Yet the program shrinks more every year and our funding dwindles to the point where we have to cut classes.

                I simply do not understand why my school has not put more emphasis on these performing arts. Performing arts classes teach more life skills than I could get out of a million years in a math class. There are more personalized lessons, and students create friendships that will last a lifetime between fellow classmates and teachers. ​