We all hear about the budget cuts in schools nation wide and how they are affecting students but are we really hearing the whole story? I know first hand how the cuts affected the music department in my community and it is just getting worse.
Two years ago two out of three music teachers got cut in the high school and the elementary band got cut. The two elementary band teachers got moved up to the high school. The town fought for the band and raised enough money to bring it back, but with new teachers. The teacher they had was one of the ones from the high school and she had to teach band at all four elementary schools. Now we have two different teachers for the four elementary schools and they aren’t learning the way they are supposed to.
Band starts in fourth grade and goes until sixth grade. They move into the junior high at grade and play in the band there. Many of this years sixth graders are at a fourth grade level not only in their playing, but also in their reading. They are not reading the music and they know nothing about dynamics. I am starting to get very concerned with this and I think that as a country we all need to work on how they are learning music because it will come in handy in the long run.
