There is Something Seriously Wrong with Music Education in MMSD

Suzy Grindrod writes that Madison school bureaucrats' decisions are short-sighted and are Stringing the kids along

So they make the arts unworkable in early elementary school, they gut the incredibly successful elementary strings program, they remove band and orchestra from core curriculum in middle school ... and then they are going to complain that there is no diversity in the high school bands and orchestras and -- CHOP.

There is something fundamentally wrong with what is happening in Wisconsin’s Capitol city -- a community that just built a $200 million arts district downtown, as these short-sighted and creatively stunted bureaucrats make it unlikely that many Madison kids will end up on Overture's stage in the future unless they have the money to buy private lessons.

Can Madison turn this disgraceful situation around before the existing cost-effective MMSD music education curriculum implodes and vanishes from public school and performance music education is only for those who can pay?

Stringing kids along By Suzy Grindrod I recently attended the Madison East High School orchestra concert, where there was a lovely slide show of the graduating seniors. I recognized a number of them from my tenure at Hawthorne Elementary (which at one time was a magnet school for the fine arts, although Madison Metropolitan School District revisionist history now denies that) – I knew those kids from kindergarten on.

Many of those kids got their musical start in 4th grade strings, if not before. There are numerous CDs in my collection by professional musicians who are graduates of Madison schools. These are not just local musicians, but people who are known nationally and internationally.

Music (and all fine arts education, not to mention foreign language) is in trouble in Madison. The reduction in the Strings program has been well publicized. In the wake of the failed May 24 referenda it seems like a done deal that elementary "specials" teacher allocations are being cut and classes will be doubling up for art, music, and PE.

The latest is the plan to remove band and orchestra from the core curriculum at Sherman Middle School, making them optional and "exploratory" two days a week AFTER SCHOOL HOURS. This flies in the face of so much it is hard to know where to begin. It violates No Child Left Behind which identifies fine arts as part of a core curriculum. It violates DPI standards which mandate a specified amount of fine arts education in middle school. It belies the stated MMSD "framework" of engagement, relationships, and learning. It ignores reams of research that show the correlation between arts education and academic achievement. It assumes that parents of Sherman middle schoolers want an extended day for their child. It seems like it will violate the contracts of the band and orchestra teachers, and certainly sends them the message that what they teach is not important, that they are essentially glorified babysitters.

It is also inequitable -- other middle schools get music as part of their core curriculum and after school clubs. Sherman gets this. But wait ... if this program is "successful" (but there are no published criteria for what "success" would look like) the year after next it will be forced down the throats of -- no, no, I mean MANDATED in -- ALL Madison middle schools. And then, maybe, all the schools in the state will be taking advantage of this money-saving maneuver.

So they make the arts unworkable in early elementary school, they gut the incredibly successful elementary strings program, they remove band and orchestra from core curriculum in middle school ... and then they are going to complain that there is no diversity in the high school bands and orchestras and -- CHOP.

There is something fundamentally wrong with what is happening in Wisconsin’s Capitol city -- a community that just built a $200 million arts district downtown, as these short-sighted and creatively stunted bureaucrats make it unlikely that many Madison kids will end up on Overture's stage in the future unless they have the money to buy private lessons.

Posted by at June 12, 2005 8:45 AM
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