And that's the key: a hierarchy of activities and priorities. You can't always do it all, nor should you have to be able to! |
Or other popular high school activities could "find a way to coexist" with band. What the heck does "coexist with" even mean? They all currently co-exist. Why should marching band (which, btw, "coexists" with football because they have to do the pregame and halftime for them....no requirement for marching band to do anything at soccer or lacrosse or basketball or volleyball or crew or tennis or or or or) be made to work around EXTRACURRICULARS? Marching band IS FOR ACADEMIC CREDIT. The other extracurriculars should yield to marching band, if anything. |
For better or worse (and correctly or incorrectly), parents and students have decided that sports are more important for college admissions than band. That means that band is losing members to sports and not the other way around. It's incumbent on the band director to find a solution to have a strong band. -- fervent marching band supporter who acknowledges reality |
For those who see no value, or believe other activities are more favorably viewed by college admissions:
https://www.360-orthopedics.com/blog/marching-band-is-a-sport https://wmea.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/HSMusicAndCollegeSuccess.pdf https://www.quora.com/Do-marching-bands-have-any-benefits-for-high-school-students-and-teachers-in-the-United-States People who have any real understanding of marching band and what it involves understand the physical demands as well as the academic benefits. Fortunately, college admissions officers understand. |
Music is better than nothing but there is no way it helps as much as being a recruited varsity athlete. Jeff Selingo makes this very clear in his book. I have a music kid, so I wish it was not true but it is. |
APS parents would pick sports over music even for a kid who isn't anywhere close to being a recruited athlete. They just find it more impressive. I'm not saying it's correct, but that's how it's viewed. |
That's only because sports bring in money for the school and they want to recruit athletes for their sports programs. Still, when looking for qualified students who are likely to succeed, the value of marching band is just as good. |
Yep. Parents are part of the problem! From another article )https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/physical-demands-of-marching-band-should-not-be-ignored/article_6fd21be0-8805-11e7-b7f4-776f3f74557a.html): "One person who recognized the physical requirements of marching band was Hall of Fame basketball coach Bobby Knight. In a 1987 interview with Sports Illustrated, Knight explained how he took his teams to watch drum corps to observe the hard work. “'If a basketball team trained as hard as these kids do, it would be unbelievable,” the former Indiana coach said. “Besides, once they see them practice 12 hours a day, my players think I’m a helluva lot easier.'” |
They have, yes. SOciety values sports and glorifies athletes. Colleges recruit athletes because winning teams bring in money for the university. That doesn't mean colleges don't weigh band favorably in considering admissions. They aren't trying to recruit an entire class of sports team members. |
Hard NO! We do sports, private orchestra and all the stuff at school. Marching bad for us is not academic credit. If you blow off private orchestra you get kicked out. You can miss for illness but not anything else, including sport, vacation and birthdays. If it comes down to a school performance and private orchestra, private win out. You don't understand how it works. Why would a kid put aside their sports for cheer on someone else doing sports. We leave band early to go to sports and vice versa. We make it work but its a struggle with homework. |
Yeah, there's respect for amazing marching bands, but not for mediocre high school bands. APS bands get no respect because the program isn't impressive. The band director needs to figure out how to improve the program so kids sign up. |
+1 HS is really when kids start having to make choices about what is most important to them. You can't do all things well. There definitely is a bias towards the sports. I don't think people would be as down on a soccer coach who wasn't flexible about missing practice to go a band rehearsal. People seem just fine with coaches who think their sport should come before all else. Or if you want to do a big role in a school musical it's going to knock out all other activities for a while. And that's ok, you have to make choices. Marching band is intense but it's really only the first two months of school (generally done first weekend of November). After that, band is a pretty low-key activity unless you choose to audition for additional ensembles like jazz band. Do all the sports-obsessed parents really think their kid will be a recruited athlete? Most will not be, it's just a nice EC, same as music. And, it IS possible for some to do a Fall sport and band. I know a couple years ago Yorktown had a football player marching with the band. DD had friends who did cross-country + marching band in the Fall. |
Why do you even bother doing band? Like any team sport, band is a commitment to others and not just yourself. It's not right for you to come and go as you please because it takes away from the other members' experience. |
The issue is just that a 70 person marching band just doesn't enough people to be a strong program. The marching band program needs to do something to fix itself. The school is big enough to support a much larger band. |
Or just some kids want to do music *and* play a sport because they enjoy doing both. |