I wish…

I wish sometimes, I could just care less about certain subjects. These subjects aren’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things. There are other subjects that I could be caring a lot more about, like how I am portraying myself to my non-Christian friends or how I could be more intentional in my relationships.

And yet, here I am fuming about another subject that people could care less about.

Jobs in Michigan. Now, I’m not sure which governor would have bean a better choice, but right now I don’t care. All I care about is the fact that in 5 years, I will be saying ‘Goodbye’ to Michigan and ‘Hello’ to ANY other state in this country.

Texas has a state wide initiative that makes the performing arts mandatory in every student’s education. They require every elementary music teacher to be certified in the Kodaly method, and they require students to have a basic understanding of music and tonality before they even consider picking up an instrument. Schools on the east coast start band in 4th grade, and they meet for more than a couple times a week for half an hour, too. They even have pull out private lessons.

In Michigan, you will be lucky to be in a school district that has its own music teacher in elementary, and if you are in a school district like that, you will only see students for half an hour once a week, if you’re lucky. It all makes sense, though, when schools are having their budgets cut. There almost isn’t any emphasis put on music, or any fine arts for that matter, only on the subject required for a student to pass the state wide BS test…er…assessment test. Believe me, I’m not saying that our “basicâ€? skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic aren’t good. The schools that have limited budgets will put money into new textbooks and hopefully more teachers to decrease class sizes, and if you happen to be in a school district where your music program is good, you will get money, too. Did I mention that a lot of the hardest working and most intelligent students in my high school were sitting right next to me in my band class, though? I’m sure that’s the same in almost every school district.

I was invited to join this group on facebook called:
“You know your from _____ when:” or something like that. Case in point, when “your” from ______ you obviously don’t know much about grammar.

Anyway, all I’m trying to say is that it’s understandable that Michigan schools would cut a music teacher before a math teacher, because our economy sucks right now and Michigan has most definitely told schools that they will cut funding unless students show improvement in such basic skills. Believe me, they should put more of a priority on people knowing those “basic skills.” I just wish they would consider music more of a priority. I wish they could consider music more of a priority.

I don’t know what I’ll be doing in five years, or where I’ll be, but if all I have to look forward to in Michigan is carting around a school to teach students for half an hour once or twice a week how to sing twinkle, twinkle for a concert the school is requiring so that they can see progress (it’s all about immediate progress, of course) and so that parents can be proud (I have absolutely no problems with that), when I want to instill passion into students and give them a good, solid foundation so that when they start playing twinkle on their trumpet they’ll be able to hear that, hey…maybe that’s not the right note…okay, that was…maybe Michigan isn’t the place for me to do that. I don’t know, it’s sad…plus my hair tends to stand straight up in dry weather (too bad for me wanting to live out West…).

Asdlkjflkjasdlfkj. You know things are bad when the only way you can express something is by writing a run-on sentence. I came from _______ and I learned nothing about grammar…