funny

I was perusing Centennial High School's newspaper, trying to find news of some of my former violin students--fully expecting to learn that they are blazing through high school, earning myriads of accomplishments and accolades. And they are!

But I found this in an editorial, and it made me smile ironically:

"Music is a time-consuming activity. When it is dropped from school programs, students have to spend more time at home practicing, which takes away from other activities such as academics."

First of all: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying.

Secondly: If dropping music from school programs makes kids practice MORE, why haven't we advocated doing this sooner?!?! As a former private instructor, I would do about anything to get my kids to practice more! Seriously--school orchestra has little to no benefit for kids who REALLY want to be musicians. I mean it--unless you count the extracurricular activities which require enrollment in school music in order to participate. (And from experience, I have learned that those requirements are usually set up to mollify over-paid public school music teachers who are afraid no one will take their class if there is a BETTER opportunity elsewhere.)

Finally: Dropping school music from course offerings may well allow students to spend more time at school working on academics, instead of at home, when they should be practicing, or going to their private lessons!