Anonymous wrote:I have no affiliation with Maret. But your post caught my attention because I do know a thing or two about choirs and professional voice. Your criticism is way out of line. Newsflash: Choral singing is not cool. It’s more geeky than ever. Tik toks are cool. Hip hop is cool. Welcome to 2023. Get ready for 2024. 1974 is long gone.

If you “know a thing or two” about choirs and professional voice, then you would also know choir is an excellent way to learn for the young singer. I am a professional singer about to apply for a DMA. Instead of dissing choir, why don’t you help support its many virtues for young musicians? Any place I ever studied voice REQUIRED choir for all singers and in some places singers and instrumentalists alike.

The MS chorus teacher has been a joke for years- a pet project of previous HOS. They had a strong US teacher—one with national credentials— but fumbled the ball terribly with him.

My DD didn’t have formal chorus in k-8 MS because Covid killed the program (it became an optional club, so no tests), and now has assessments as a freshman in HS. There are occasional repertory checks where the kids record themselves into their phones while singing as a group and then upload that for the director, and occasional times where they have to mostly independently practice a piece and then sing 1-1 with the director (privately, not in front of other students) in person. DD doesn’t mind the rep checks but hates singing solo so that’s stressful, but she gets why she has to do it, and it all seems reasonable to me even though I never had assessments as part of chorus when I was in HS.

It’s a graded class. The school has to create some reasonable way to grade each student beyond “show up and move your mouth”.

The tests in chorus when my DD was in the class included things like making sure you were understanding how to read music and also some singing tests. Perhaps things have really changed in recent years? 3-4 years ago it wasn’t any big deal - nothing to spend any time studying for if you were understanding the material in class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one surprised there are tests in MS Choir?

There are also tests in band. But I’m unclear how the tests work in chorus…

No idea how they do it now, but when I was in chorus in the 80s you had to show that - no matter the actual quality of your singing voice - you knew the lyrics, you knew how to sing along to sheet music, what the various notes and other symbols meant, how to follow the director’s lead, etc. We had written and actual singing tests. Not rocket science, but kept slackers from totally slacking.

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one surprised there are tests in MS Choir?

There are also tests in band. But I’m unclear how the tests work in chorus…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You clearly don’t have a child in private school. All of them check this board to see what people are saying about their schools.

Even assuming for the sake of argument that this was true, how or why would that result in any tangible changes at the schools?

Well way back in the day someone posted about a senior prank and boy did the then HoS come down hard on them- so I’d say it worked then so why not now?

correlation =/= causation

False equivalence FTL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You clearly don’t have a child in private school. All of them check this board to see what people are saying about their schools.

Even assuming for the sake of argument that this was true, how or why would that result in any tangible changes at the schools?

Well way back in the day someone posted about a senior prank and boy did the then HoS come down hard on them- so I’d say it worked then so why not now?

Anonymous wrote:You clearly don’t have a child in private school. All of them check this board to see what people are saying about their schools.

Even assuming for the sake of argument that this was true, how or why would that result in any tangible changes at the schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to see all these comments. My child loved MS chorus and also had him as an advisor. I thought he was great with my kid. That being said, the sibling chose band, but the sibling is kind of lazy and doesn’t enjoy singing. He’s definitely intense about the subject, but i remember him being quite popular with the students and parents when we had him. I wonder what has changed?

Chorus tends to be a dumping ground for kids in MS who are forced to do a performing arts but don’t want to do anything. Band and strings require a financial investment in equipment. Chorus is kind of easy to blend in which I can imagine is why so many people are appalled hearing about singing tests (which are normal… what teacher doesn’t assess???)

Ummmm I was in chorus and we had no tests. Testing middle schoolers is a crock. He’d actually have to teach them something first

Shockingly best practices in education change after a few decades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to see all these comments. My child loved MS chorus and also had him as an advisor. I thought he was great with my kid. That being said, the sibling chose band, but the sibling is kind of lazy and doesn’t enjoy singing. He’s definitely intense about the subject, but i remember him being quite popular with the students and parents when we had him. I wonder what has changed?

Chorus tends to be a dumping ground for kids in MS who are forced to do a performing arts but don’t want to do anything. Band and strings require a financial investment in equipment. Chorus is kind of easy to blend in which I can imagine is why so many people are appalled hearing about singing tests (which are normal… what teacher doesn’t assess???)

Ummmm I was in chorus and we had no tests. Testing middle schoolers is a crock. He’d actually have to teach them something first

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised to see all these comments. My child loved MS chorus and also had him as an advisor. I thought he was great with my kid. That being said, the sibling chose band, but the sibling is kind of lazy and doesn’t enjoy singing. He’s definitely intense about the subject, but i remember him being quite popular with the students and parents when we had him. I wonder what has changed?

Chorus tends to be a dumping ground for kids in MS who are forced to do a performing arts but don’t want to do anything. Band and strings require a financial investment in equipment. Chorus is kind of easy to blend in which I can imagine is why so many people are appalled hearing about singing tests (which are normal… what teacher doesn’t assess???)

I’m surprised to see all these comments. My child loved MS chorus and also had him as an advisor. I thought he was great with my kid. That being said, the sibling chose band, but the sibling is kind of lazy and doesn’t enjoy singing. He’s definitely intense about the subject, but i remember him being quite popular with the students and parents when we had him. I wonder what has changed?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What can parents and family members (aunt) do to help bring about positive change? Notify head of school?

Naw, keep posting anonymously on DCUM. That'll bring about the change they want to see for sure.

You clearly don’t have a child in private school. All of them check this board to see what people are saying about their schools.