The comments below are responses to posts submitted in reaction to "Bad Music - Seattle Public Schools Poison Elixir" on the Seattle Public School blog site. They appear under the caption "Eckstein Music Program Concerns". There are 51 comments on this site so far.
BLOG -12/24/2010
To be clear,
Michael James is an excellent music instructor and I believe Ballard H.S. has done a better job of maintaining an emphasis on inclusion programming.
People speak about the scope of their programs, they participate in inclusive, music based festivals, and Mr. James does his best to work with as many of the programs and students as possible. The choir has also grown since 2007.
I think Lisa made a very important and insightful observation when she pointed out how quickly this dynamic can change.
Also, the orchestra students at Eckstein are still allowed to pay for private lessons during class/rehearsals.
This remunerative practice is what concerns me the most. Some of the responses pointed out how students who take private lessons have the opportunity to excel, and that this is accepted and normalized.
Student's parents paying for private lessons with the intention that their child could get ahead in school has always been accepted, but those lessons took place in private studios AFTER SCHOOL - NOT IN THE BUILDING ON PUBLIC CLASS TIME.
It does not make sense that paying students can get pulled from a public class at anytime by a private teacher/contractor, disappear to any room in the building and receive private instruction during band or orchestra rehearsal. Who receives what technical advantages? What music are they working on? Who evaluates the private contractors?
Who counts the money?
It is also extremely disruptive and it undermines band/orchestra rehearsals when the sections are constantly being broken up as kids go in and out of rehearsals. What about ensemble?
A basketball star would never be allowed to take off from practice, leaving all of his/her teammates behind, to go work with a "private shooting coach" that their parents paid for. Especially if the other team members, or players in the district, did not have access to the same service.
What concern me are exclusion, remuneration and the mismanagement that mark the extolled music programs in the Seattle Public School District. 500 students playing instruments is not 500 students with equal access, equal instruction and balanced systems of validation.
The environment produced by these exclusionary institutional practices has lead to hegemony through symbolic and even economic oppression.
The reality of this process and the resulting racial separation is worth writing about.
Also, please remember, the Seattle Public Schools have a 30 year history of placing these programs, their directors, and a few 'star' students at the center of attention.
Their pervasive conversational emphasis, the intentional 'loading' of these classes with 'gifted' students and the racially divided performance demographics illuminate the socio-cultural impact these programs have had upon integrated, equal access, educational practices the Seattle area.
What about McClure? What about Hamilton? What about Mercer? What happened to Meany? Why didn't these schools get attention and sustained programming?
Music is also historically central to identity formation and learning process for people of color and socio-economic disadvantage. It helps with mentation and healthy ego-development.
This is why inclusive programs were started in public schools in the first place.
The psychological ramification of the exclusive remunerative environment is that, yes, the validated few excel and gain a dominant learning disposition, while the unrecognized many fall away having developed an aversion to learning and instruction in general.
Often times other students are bullied and intentionally made to feel excluded by the band students, only exacerbating this problem.
As a community built upon democratic principals, with a history of racial agreement and whose leaders have always lead the movement towards integration, we would be remiss to ignore that this thing has been happening and continues to happen.
STAND UP
Seattle,
Can't you tell the difference between parent's making a private choice to pay for services on their own time and those DOUBLE DIPPING BY PAYING TO HAVE THEIR STUDENT RECEIVE ADDITIONAL SERVICES DURING PUBLIC CLASS HOURS THAT ARE PAID FOR BY OUR TAX DOLLARS?
What would be the point of the public space? These parents do this for convenience (they don't want to have to find and get their kid to a legitimate private instructor who maintains a private studio) and because they are allowed to.
If they actually paid a professional private instructor, they would be supporting the overall economy of the city in that they would be working with professional performing artists- not un-certified, self-proclaimed private contractors who need the school and class hours to peddle their product.
Also, it is not the idea of private instruction that is the problem - it is the idea that a privileged few can pay for them and others are excluded and never get a full ensemble experience.
Are you suggesting that students of color are not disproportionately affected by socio-economic difference in the Seattle Public Schools?
Are you suggesting that there is no achievement and opportunity gap at Eckstein?
Are you suggesting that the class of students whose parents can afford $50 dollar band fees plus additional private instruction at school is not overwhelmingly white? Have you seen the Eckstein orchestra? It is 95% white, and this is a poor reflection of an already segregated school environment.
Students who pay and who take lessons gain favors and are advanced by the Band Director. I thought I said that clearly. I could give names of students, but it would not be appropriate in the blog space.
I could also give the names of several private contractors who I have personally witnessed behave in a discriminatory manner by choosing to work with certain students and not others, or by providing disparate instruction based upon whose students 'look' the best and whose parents have what clout. Who regulates the choices these instructors make and how do these decisions affect which students progress?
The statistics are everywhere. These facts are not disputed and are the impetus behind the move to the community schools. If you need more facts, visit the Eckstein Band website. The first thing you will see is a request for a band fee. If you don't understand why this is illegal across the nation and in other districts in Washington, please research the term remuneration as it is applied in the Washington State Administrative code.
Is it that hard to comprehend and face? Please think more deeply about the 'facts', as you say, before accusing a concerned and informed commentator of simply grinding an axe.
STAND UP
Friday, December 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Bad Music- Seatlle Public School's Poisin Elixir: Can anyone hear how bad the music at Eckstein soun...
Bad Music- Seatlle Public School's Poisin Elixir: Can anyone hear how bad the music at Eckstein soun...: "I have hope, However, the idea that no one in the the Seattle area is outraged by Eckstein, the flagship of a horribly mismanaged and segre..."
Can anyone hear how bad the music at Eckstein sounds?
I have hope,
However, the idea that no one in the the Seattle area is outraged by Eckstein, the flagship of a horribly mismanaged and segregated school district, is anathema to me.
Both Eckstein and Washington have failing music programs by national public standards. These standards are defined first by inclusion and ethical practice, not by showboating and the extolation of a few privilaged kids - much less trophy accumulation.
Exclusion, segregation and remunerative practices mark the poor and cheating programs of the Seattle Public Schools.
Trophies are paid for, in that the schools pay fees to attend events that cater to them because they have bought into a scheme over time. Many of these "jazz" events take place in cities like Las Vegas and Reno at casino's. Wealthy parents can pay for private lessons during public classroom hours, and kids are allowed to leave general band rehearsals with private contractors during public instructional hours. This is illegal. Do the competing schools know that the Seattle Public Schools are getting away with this?
The presentation of a facade of accomplishment is foisted upon the public by an incopetent administration and a horribly mismanged district. This district goes so far as to give "jazz" instructors credit cards- credit payed for by you.
Has anyone reviewed the demographics in the Eckstein building over the last 10 years? If you have, you tell me what you think is happening to students of color in that environment.
In terms of the music, does anyone think about the fact hundreds of band students not only never get the opportunity to participate in the illegally funded "Jazz Band" program, but are also constantly bullied in a hostile and reified environment; an environment that is established upon inherently exclusionary and emaciated musical practices?
Did anyone notice the favors that kids who are "soloists" or "featured" performers in the "jazz" bands and musicals get while the others are shouted at and told to be quiet?
Did anyone stop to listen to how awful the large choirs and bands sound at Eckstein this year, or is everyone mesmerized by the "jazz" doodle-ings of about 14 privately instructed rich kids?
Shouldn't we consider the fact that even these wealthy students only mimic the starving music of an oppressed people from 70 years ago? Is this ironic?
The facade of accomplishment is perpetuated by privately sponsored "musicals" in a public space.
Worse, the featured performers are tricked, by selfish and slow music teachers, into believing that the hours they spend serving the teacher might result in playing with a "traveling big band" or getting a "star role". No real discussions about options in the work force, such as military service or the realities of college and orchestral auditions for winds and brass, are clearly addressed.
Does anyone want to talk about the lives of traveling musicians? It is wonderful to be a traveling musician if it is a choice the individual makes and they know how to support themselves. Why, however, would middle schoolers, in Seattle, be tricked into believing that playing instruments is a viable career path outside of academic participation in their schools, or a few narrow real world possibilities. This mystification can only occur if adult self interest is being served.
I dare any informed parent to attend a meeting facilitated by the semi-illiterate principal of the institution at Eckstein. See if you can follow anything she is saying, much less ask yourself weather or not you can be honest about how poorly prepared she is, or how unorganized her work appears. Alarmingly, she now has even further evaluative and executive powers over her teachers, many of whom are far more intelligent and professional than she is.
Also, what middle school band teacher (especially one with as much experience as the one who heads the program now) takes middle schoolers to Vegas? He also takes pictures with 14 yr old girls dressed like they are 25 year old lounge singers, either holding instruments they can barely play or with their arms wrapped around him, then posts those photos in his classroom, pretending the girls were having an educational experience. What kind of teacher? A teacher with a problem; a teacher who has a principal protecting that problem.
Finally, Eckstein is a throw back to an era in American History that makes most of us weep. How on Earth does this building continue to be toted as a flagship, when it is so clearly segregated? How is it that Sue Wong, a volunteer in the office, has more control over financial documentation for the programs than the principal or any of the teachers?
What about teachers of color? There are none. They have been systematically bullied out through illegal process over the last 10 years. Does no one see this, or is it just OK because the needs of the wealthy are preeminent, even in the public space?
PLEASE WAKE UP! Stop supporting failing schools and cheating music programs with your time and money. Stop buying into cheating and mismanagement. Stop supporting incompetent and racist district employees. Recognize that music in this district is not what it is presented as.
Ask real questions of the graduates who have been on the road for 15 yrs after the trauma of drug filled high school "jazz" trips to Amsterdam, most of whom are just trying to hold their lives together. Then ask yourself, "Did that concert actually sound good?"
I am sure it probably did if it was the most privileged 14 out of 800 kids who are supposed to be getting a music education in a public school, and if the concert was at an adult performance venue like "Jazz Alley" where the parents can drink and gobble down some shrimp cocktail while their children entertain them.
Also, who chooses the leads in the "musicals"? Should this be what public programming looks like? Is it that the teachers are good at finding the few mystically endowed music students and presenting them? NO. It is that rich parents pay to have their kids promoted in what is now an unequal space and administrators have bought into making students earn extra money for them through performing.
Say something - recognize the poor and exclusionary music programs for what they are. Don't be mystified by the mediocre execution of a few privileged kids and push for inclusion programming. Larger, more inclusive concerts are much less boring anyway.
If remuneration, exclusion, racism and undue focus upon pretentious music programs in the Seattle Public Schools concern you, please respond and help me to continue this discussion.
-Former Teacher
Concerned Citizen
However, the idea that no one in the the Seattle area is outraged by Eckstein, the flagship of a horribly mismanaged and segregated school district, is anathema to me.
Both Eckstein and Washington have failing music programs by national public standards. These standards are defined first by inclusion and ethical practice, not by showboating and the extolation of a few privilaged kids - much less trophy accumulation.
Exclusion, segregation and remunerative practices mark the poor and cheating programs of the Seattle Public Schools.
Trophies are paid for, in that the schools pay fees to attend events that cater to them because they have bought into a scheme over time. Many of these "jazz" events take place in cities like Las Vegas and Reno at casino's. Wealthy parents can pay for private lessons during public classroom hours, and kids are allowed to leave general band rehearsals with private contractors during public instructional hours. This is illegal. Do the competing schools know that the Seattle Public Schools are getting away with this?
The presentation of a facade of accomplishment is foisted upon the public by an incopetent administration and a horribly mismanged district. This district goes so far as to give "jazz" instructors credit cards- credit payed for by you.
Has anyone reviewed the demographics in the Eckstein building over the last 10 years? If you have, you tell me what you think is happening to students of color in that environment.
In terms of the music, does anyone think about the fact hundreds of band students not only never get the opportunity to participate in the illegally funded "Jazz Band" program, but are also constantly bullied in a hostile and reified environment; an environment that is established upon inherently exclusionary and emaciated musical practices?
Did anyone notice the favors that kids who are "soloists" or "featured" performers in the "jazz" bands and musicals get while the others are shouted at and told to be quiet?
Did anyone stop to listen to how awful the large choirs and bands sound at Eckstein this year, or is everyone mesmerized by the "jazz" doodle-ings of about 14 privately instructed rich kids?
Shouldn't we consider the fact that even these wealthy students only mimic the starving music of an oppressed people from 70 years ago? Is this ironic?
The facade of accomplishment is perpetuated by privately sponsored "musicals" in a public space.
Worse, the featured performers are tricked, by selfish and slow music teachers, into believing that the hours they spend serving the teacher might result in playing with a "traveling big band" or getting a "star role". No real discussions about options in the work force, such as military service or the realities of college and orchestral auditions for winds and brass, are clearly addressed.
Does anyone want to talk about the lives of traveling musicians? It is wonderful to be a traveling musician if it is a choice the individual makes and they know how to support themselves. Why, however, would middle schoolers, in Seattle, be tricked into believing that playing instruments is a viable career path outside of academic participation in their schools, or a few narrow real world possibilities. This mystification can only occur if adult self interest is being served.
I dare any informed parent to attend a meeting facilitated by the semi-illiterate principal of the institution at Eckstein. See if you can follow anything she is saying, much less ask yourself weather or not you can be honest about how poorly prepared she is, or how unorganized her work appears. Alarmingly, she now has even further evaluative and executive powers over her teachers, many of whom are far more intelligent and professional than she is.
Also, what middle school band teacher (especially one with as much experience as the one who heads the program now) takes middle schoolers to Vegas? He also takes pictures with 14 yr old girls dressed like they are 25 year old lounge singers, either holding instruments they can barely play or with their arms wrapped around him, then posts those photos in his classroom, pretending the girls were having an educational experience. What kind of teacher? A teacher with a problem; a teacher who has a principal protecting that problem.
Finally, Eckstein is a throw back to an era in American History that makes most of us weep. How on Earth does this building continue to be toted as a flagship, when it is so clearly segregated? How is it that Sue Wong, a volunteer in the office, has more control over financial documentation for the programs than the principal or any of the teachers?
What about teachers of color? There are none. They have been systematically bullied out through illegal process over the last 10 years. Does no one see this, or is it just OK because the needs of the wealthy are preeminent, even in the public space?
PLEASE WAKE UP! Stop supporting failing schools and cheating music programs with your time and money. Stop buying into cheating and mismanagement. Stop supporting incompetent and racist district employees. Recognize that music in this district is not what it is presented as.
Ask real questions of the graduates who have been on the road for 15 yrs after the trauma of drug filled high school "jazz" trips to Amsterdam, most of whom are just trying to hold their lives together. Then ask yourself, "Did that concert actually sound good?"
I am sure it probably did if it was the most privileged 14 out of 800 kids who are supposed to be getting a music education in a public school, and if the concert was at an adult performance venue like "Jazz Alley" where the parents can drink and gobble down some shrimp cocktail while their children entertain them.
Also, who chooses the leads in the "musicals"? Should this be what public programming looks like? Is it that the teachers are good at finding the few mystically endowed music students and presenting them? NO. It is that rich parents pay to have their kids promoted in what is now an unequal space and administrators have bought into making students earn extra money for them through performing.
Say something - recognize the poor and exclusionary music programs for what they are. Don't be mystified by the mediocre execution of a few privileged kids and push for inclusion programming. Larger, more inclusive concerts are much less boring anyway.
If remuneration, exclusion, racism and undue focus upon pretentious music programs in the Seattle Public Schools concern you, please respond and help me to continue this discussion.
-Former Teacher
Concerned Citizen
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