Band Fee A Shame

Editor’s Note: The following let­ter is about a $250 fee the Norfolk School Committee has approved for participating in band next school year at Freeman-Centen­nial

School, which serves grades 3 through 6 in Norfolk. A story about the band fee appeared in last week’s issue of The Norfolk Boomerang (“Band Fee Imple­mented,” Friday, June 4).

I read about the implementa­tion of the $250 band participa­tion fee with great concern. As the president of the King Philip Music Association and a parent, I believe providing only the required mini­mum in public education is a fail­ure on our part as citizens. I know there are many who believe that we try to educate our children on the backs of the taxpayers; howev­er,

I contend, we barter our future on the backs of our children. The new definition of education seems to be to provide the minimum to function and subminimally to function in the world. I believe Ms. Proulx, the principal at King Philip High School, said it best this weekend at commencement: public education is everyone’s re­sponsibility,

it’s our debt to society … in a democratic society, through hard work, there is unlimited pos­sibility for everyone …. This past year the Freeman-Centennial Advance Band won a gold medal at its adjudication with the Massachusetts Instru­mental

and Choral Conductors Association (MICCA), which al­lowed the band to win a perfor­mance spot at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. This is a great honor. Many of these students will go on to the King Philip school district, which has a nationally known and respected program. I contend the Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plain­ville

music programs are a large part of the district’s success. This past year alone, both the 7th and 8th grade bands won a gold medal at MICCA as did the high school symphony band with its very chal­lenging performance of Camina Burana. Additionally, the march­ing band placed first in its division at the national championships held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; the high school jazz ensemble was one of 15 groups invited to perform and compete at Essentially Ellington at Lincoln Center in New York City; and both the guard and in­door percussion groups were fi­nalists in the world competitions held in Dayton, Ohio. This year was no anomaly: excellence and perseverance have been the cor­nerstone

of the King Philip district music program.

There is a very strong corre­lation between academic success and music — not to mention how music develops creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Study after study supports this statement. It is not our job to fitstudents into educational boxes but to provide them with choices. For some chil­dren,

music, art, or sports gets them through their academics. In fact, we should be offering more options rather than less as part of our public education system. Rather than looking at the band program as a service, we should be looking at it as part of the core curriculum and what we believe is necessary to develop the whole brain and discipline in learning. I believe implementing a fee-for-service in the band program is go­ing to be a very large deterrent for many families and does not open up options for students we claim to service. We will be differentiat­ing between the “haves” and “have nots.” The children who want to try an instrument at the elemen­tary level will not only need to buy/rent the instrument, which is not cheap, but pay a very large fee for being part of the program, since it’s not mandated. Despite telling parents they can ask for assistance, we all know it’s an em­barrassment

for those who need to ask. All of this will potentially lead to the demise of the district program. I urge you to reconsider your position. I realize the challenges superintendents and school com­mittees are facing. However, I ask you to look at the band program in a different way. Rather than a service that’s cheaper than private lessons, look at it is a core part of the school program and how it en­hances our students’ learning and pursuit of excellence. Unfortu­nately, if it’s not reading, writing, or arithmetic it’s an easy target. Constituents need to be reminded that education is more than ba­sics.

More and more, education is being segregated by economic strata and we are looking at it on an a la carte basis. As one of the wealthiest communities in the Commonwealth, we should be giv­ing

our children an education no less than what we received from our parents. Sadly, this is not the case. It is during these economic times that we need to preserve what we know has been good and part of our culture for many, many years.

Sincerely,

Barbara M. Snead President, King Philip

Music Association