Jack Henrich comments in last week's H-I on the issue of Gigs. Jack quotes an email that went around a few months ago expressing parent concerns around small guided instruction groups (GIG's) in the middle school.
GIG's are 25 minute weekly lessons held in addition to the regular music classes. They are usually conducted with a few students at a time, all with the same instrument. In order to accommodate these lessons students may be pulled out of other classes once a week for each instrument they study. According to Band Instructor Pat Dorn's presentation to the board last spring, the GIG schedule is arranged to ensure that students only miss time in classes in which they are doing well, that they may be excused from GIG's if there is an important topic/discussion or a test/quiz in their class, and that GIG's are not scheduled during math classes.
I'm a strong believer in the importance of arts education in our schools and I really don't think anyone I have heard from on this issue would disagree with that. However the email Jack mentions stems from concern some have about the amount of time missed from core classes due to the GIG's and the lack of information or opportunities for input available to parents.
I would be interested in hearing from parents on this issue.
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(photo ©2008 Bruce Fritz)
About Me
- Peter Sobol
- My family moved to Monona in 2003 and have been happily ensconsed in the Frost Woods Neighborhood ever since. I have 2 kids who graduated from Mg. I have been serving on the school board since April of 2007. We moved back to the Midwest in 2002 after spending 10 years in California, where I was a Department Director for Maxtor, a Fortune 500 company. In truth we left California largely because of the school situation - chronically underfunded schools did not offer the kind of programs or opportunities we wanted for our children. We picked Monona because our thorough research showed that this was a place we would really like to educate our kids. Our experience has taught us to value the quality schools we have here in Monona, and the importance of careful stewardship to maintain community support for those schools.
6 comments:
I am absolutely opposed to kids leaving core classes for GIGS and am thrilled that some concerned parents have brought this up. What I feel is not communicated clearly is which classes kids will miss and how often. I think this needs to be spelled out clearly to parents, and parents need to sign off on it. I have heard lots of stories from kids about playing one teacher off the other, or feeling bad or guilty about missing one class over the other. Too much for overwhelmed middle school kids.
Our family's experience with missing core classes for music lessons was very negative. It's too much to ask for kids who are engrossed in a class to watch the clock to leave to go to a music lesson the middle of the class. My kids forgot, a lot. It affected their grade in the music class. I agree with the last poster that some kids get overwhelmed with the frenetic day they experience. The music tail wags the academic dog at the M.S. Yes, music is a good thing but it's not every kid's bag and kids are limited in other opportunities because music has a strangle hold on the schedule!
The music dept at the MS is great- dedicated and hard working- and lots of kids love to participate. The issue is, for me, accessibility. Kids who struggle academically should also be able to participate fully in music- without having to manage gigs. The argument that most kids who take music classes, especially multiple music classes are academically able to leave class to do their gigs smacks of elitism. A person in middle school should be able to fully excel in music, if that is their thing, and get great grades, even if they cannot miss other classes to do so. And if they are struggling to organize themselves in their academic classes, then they should not be penalized in band.
Whenever I have spoken to MS core teachers about this, many of them are in disbelief that they have to deal with this system. It is disruptive to class, every day, and it is a wierd struggle between teacher and student when a kid wants to go to a gig because his music grade is hurting... and a teacher actually thinks he should stay in class and learn math.
And this, too...
Middle school students who decline to leave their core classes to attend gigs are marked down, on their report cards, as having "poor attendance," and that attendance record can lead to a lower grade.
So we are forcing middle school students -- and their parents -- to make a true Hobbesian choice here: take time away from core learning hours, which could adversely impact grades and learning, or not go to gigs, with the possibility of the same result.
That the middle school -- and importantly the district administration and members of the school board who have defended this practice -- lets this continue is just poor management.
Those on the board in particular who claim to be concerned about student achievement ought to actually look at student achievement data at the middle school, and start asking tough questions about the practices of the middle school. It would be helpful if the board actually spent some time talking about students, and listening to parents like those who have posted here concerned about middle school rigor and scheduling practices.
It's not as if GD is the only middle school on the planet and it's certainly not a stand out for its academic programs. Good grief, why doesn't the district look at how other middle schools with better academic achievement than us manage their music lesson schedules?
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