Reply to TPMS is killing the arts, the magnet program, and the autism program

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Reply to "TPMS is killing the arts, the magnet program, and the autism program"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff.  Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.[/quote]

In other words, kids are supposed to be there for exceptional opportunities in STEM, but will leave over music —which is incredibly easy to supplement at home and most kids who are serious about music take outside lessons anyway. Sure, Jan.[/quote]

Yes. Because they can still do advanced math at their local school and the science curriculum is basically the same. Nothing really all that advanced. And computer science isn’t much to write home about. What they really gain by going there is being in class with other smart kids and not the usual mcps dum dum population. But, without the extra perks, that isn’t enough for a lot of parents to justify upending the family further.

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+1 Lots of young musicians will reconsider. But many of them are at W feeder MSs anyway, so they'll be fine.[/quote]

Why can’t TPMS do like Eastern and have after-school curricular music to accommodate magnet kids who want to do band? Still qualifies you for the honors ensembles, still counts as a class, but doesn’t take up an elective spot. And it follows the activity bus schedule.

Because let’s be real, most of those magnet kids are not getting their primary music education at TPMS. [/quote]

I had a child at Eastern, and the model was very different when it came to instrumental music. Orchestra was offered once a week for an hour, on a day when the activity bus did not run, and there were no "levels." So you had beginners and kids who had been in private lessons for years all meeting once a week.

You are of course right that most kids are getting music lessons outside of TPMS, but a lot of kids were getting their ensemble experience at the middle school instead of doing a regional youth orchestra. That might seem like nothing to you, but it's the difference between learning how to dribble a soccer ball and learning how to actually play on a team. [/quote]

The afterschool band (3 days a week) at Eastern was essential for my kid to gain experience in an ensemble, and also counted as an official class that allowed them to participate in county/state honors ensembles. It made for some pretty long days on top of the magnet commute, though!  It's unfortunate that the Eastern orchestra kids don't have the same opportunity. I agree that the new change is a loss to TPMS kids and to their music program, even if the reasoning is justified.  I hope the TPMS music teachers and administration can think creatively about options, perhaps taking a closer look at Eastern's program.[/quote]

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