Friday Night Lights

I remember my high school years fondly, um, for the most part. The best part was football on Friday nights! And, nothing was better than the marching band! (Drums being the favorite, of course. Boom. Boom. Boom-boom-boom-boom!) I couldn't wait for halftime to see the marching band on the field. Their music was loud and heart-thumping. But, what's happened to the high school marching bands of today?

It seems like the band directors have forgotten the marching band's important role - firing up the football team and spectators' spirits. Give us a good song that we can clap our hands, stomp our feet, and cheer our team! Not any more....seems a lot of band directors think their program has to be artistic. Hum, no. I'm not at the ballet, or a symphonic orchestra.

For instance, in September 2012, a Pennsylvania high school marching band's halftime performance commemorated the Russian Revolution (St. Petersburg: 1917) - brandishing red flags, military uniforms, hammers and sickles. Historians and parents of students have lambasted the choice of entertainment which remembers an event that gave way to Communism and the deaths of hundreds of millions. Poor history. Poor "artistic" vision. Gee, just want their parents wanted to see at halftime. Forget the school song - Let's praise Stalin. Weird. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208331/Pennsylvania-high-school-marching-band-commemorates-1917-Russian-Revolution-half-time.html#ixzz2AE9b8GVe.

Well, on Saturday evening, the boys and I went to a local Marching Band Festival. I went with trepidation. I just want good marching band enthusiastic songs. I was pleasantly surprised, for the most part.

Band #1 - This band director went for artistic. Their program was for King Arthur. Hum. They know we're Americans and he was a British king, right? We have lots of patriotic songs. How about a performance for George Washington? 

Band #2 - This band director also went for the artistic. The program was entitled, "What If?" Hum.....well..... I have absolutely no idea what this was about. Truly. It was really cool that the tuba players actually held their tubas on their shoulders while they marched and played. Cool.

Band #3 - This program was Jake & Elwood, you know, The Blues Brothers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! It was loud, it was peppy, it was foot-stomping. The crowd went wild! We danced, clapped and sang our way through this performance. Whew! Finally...a real high school marching band.

Band #4 - Another fantastic high school marching band performance. Their program was The Incredibles. The audience really cheered when their mascot saved the damsel in distress from the evil-masked-guy-in-black. This band was loud, and fun! Great entertainment. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Band #5 - This band director chose artistic with Fantasia Hispaniola. The music would have been better for an orchestra. It was too classical for a marching band, though some seemed familiar. I did enjoy their performance, though. Their dancers were fantastic! I paid attention to them the entire time. Lovely.

Band #6 - Another favorite of the evening. Their performance was Seminole Supermen. They played amazing renditions of Spiderman and Batman themes, with "I need a hero" thrown in between. When their dancers created the Batman symbol at the end, the crowd went wild. This performance was fun, fun, fun. Thank you!

Band #7 - Thank you to another great band. Their theme was Rock And Roll All Night. Yes, great rocks songs that their parents knew and enjoyed. It started with a trombone soloist playing the beginning stance to "Renegade," a 1979 hit song by Styx. ... "Hangman is coming down from the gallows and I don't have very long." Unbelievable performance. I could hear this young man's solo, yet couldn't hear other full bands as well. This was another fun performance of the night. It has to be more fun for the marching band when the audience is so into their performance. It makes everybody happy! And, this marching band is huge....three times the size of the other marching bands. Naturally, they were good and loud. Add their dancers into the mix and they covered the football field from end zone to end zone. Wicked cool. Oh, and, they have the most awesome red, white & blue minutemen costumes.

Band #8 - This band director chose artistic "Revolution...In the future." Hum. The band and dancers are "the rebels fighting a revolution in the future." Seriously. Don't think Star Wars (which would have been great), but Buck Rogers. I have no idea what the music was. The dancers were dressed in...black and silver...um, space-aged outfits. They jumped around like they were fighting. It was silly. I felt so sorry for the students. It was a difficult performance and they obviously had worked very hard.

The band directors who went for "artistic" seem more concerned with marching band competitions than actual halftime performances. This is sad. As a parent of a trombone player and future high school marching band student, I wouldn't want that for my child. I want him to have fun, and if the spectators are cheering, singing and dancing with the songs they're playing, then that makes it all worthwhile....at least, as my point of view as a parent.

Why I always call school administrators.

Eric looking at the camera,
standing between two high school
band students in uniform.

Update: 9/24/12 - The following are my thoughts and feelings only. They do not represent those of the band teacher or the school. While I still can't imagine how my little blog is making the rounds locally, it is mine and mine only. If you are going to be offended or feel it necessary to complain to the school, stop reading and find something else to do with your time.

There's a reason why I always call school administrators....because I can. As a parent, I can call a principal or vice principal and ask why something in particular happened. A teacher cannot. A teacher cannot call his/her principal and ask why administration screwed up. So, I won't hesitate to call. Because it's my child. And, I want to now what went wrong. Let me give you an example.

Friday evening, Eric's middle school band was invited to attend High School/Middle School Night. The middle school band practices with the high school band, then have pizza, then sit with the high school band in the stands, and finally get to march and play with the high school band during half-time. Sounds like fun. Unless it goes horribly wrong. Okay, maybe not horribly, but it did go wrong.

Originally, I had planned to attend High School/Middle School Night just as a parent. But, at the last minute, one of the chaperones advised that she wasn't coming so I was drafted, er, happily volunteered. Now, I'm not only responsible for my child, but the rest of the middle school band too. This ended up being a good thing...because I was with the band for the entire evening....so I knew everything that happened with the band. This would come in handy.

The evening was progressing well. However, almost immediately after the high school and middle school bands marched into the stadium and onto the bleachers, it started raining. {It is still summertime in Florida, so afternoon/evening rains shouldn't have been a surprise to anybody. Especially, since we could see the nasty clouds headed in our direction.} I'll cut to the short version. Our middle school band director immediately took her students out of the stadium. We took cover under a covered walkway, but we were still out in the rain. {Florida rain tends to blow sideways.} And, their hallway flooded pretty quickly. The middle schoolers were left out there for at least a half an hour, and probably closer to an hour or more. {I left my watch at home.}  Because the outdoor hallway was flooded, the students could not put down their instruments. I was standing with the drum line of 6-7 boys. Two of the boys were holding 50-lb. snare drums...for the entire time. Everybody else - high school bands, football teams, cheerleaders, dancing squads, whatever, were taken inside while the middle schoolers were left outside in the rain.....with thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment. We had 34 students come for High School/Middle School Night. Eric was just one student....and he had a $2,000 trombone getting wet. Mommy wasn't happy.

On Monday morning, I called the high school and asked for the principal. He was out for the day at a meeting. Whatever. So, I spoke to a vice principal. My question was simple - Who was the administrator in charge of the middle schoolers? Easy right? Wrong. She hemmed and hawed, and finally tried throwing the band directors under the bus. Epic failure. The following is an abbreviated version of the conversation that I had with the vice principal.

Eric, again, walking between
two high school band students.

Who was the administrator in charge of the middle school students? "Your middle school band director." -- And, she did an excellent job of looking after her middle school band, but she has no authority on your campus. Who was the administrator in charge of the middle school students? "The high school band director." {Buzz! Wrong again.} -- He's a teacher, and not in charge of the campus. Who was the administrator in charge of your invited guests? Who was in charge of the welfare of 11-, 12-, 13-, and 14-year-old students? Who, by the way, are still children. "Well, the principal was there, along with all five vice principals, two athletic directors, and five police officers." -- Yes, and who was the administrator in charge of the middle schoolers? Who was the administrator who left the middle schoolers, including my 13-year-old son and his $2,000 trombone, out in the rain? "Well, I was in charge of the football team." -- Oh, okay, then could you explain to me why your football team was sitting in the auditorium, in their uniforms including pads and helmets, and not in their locker room, while the middle schoolers stood out in the rain? "Oh, well, by the time I got off the field and into the auditorium, the middle school students were already inside." -- Fine. But, who was the administrator in charge of the middle school band? "Well, the Dean of Students is in charge of student activities." -- So, the Dean was the administrator in charge of taking care of the middle school band? "Um, well, no. But, I'll have to do some investigation and call you back." Okay, fine.

When she did call me back, she couldn't be apologetic enough. "Oh, Mrs. Haddock, you are absolutely right. We dropped the ball. We didn't have an administrator in charge of the middle school band. We screwed up. Tomorrow, there is an administrators' meeting. And, I'll tell {the principal} and bring it up at the administrators' meeting that we need to change what we do for next year." Well, I certainly appreciate your calling me back and taking care of this. Because you see, I have another son in the middle school band. And, if he asks me next year if he can attend High School/Middle School Night, I have to be able to say "yes," and not "No, honey, they're not responsible enough to take care of you. So, I really appreciate your calling me back.

And, that's why I always call school administrators.

Volunteering in the classroom.

Update: 9/24/12 - The following are my thoughts and feelings only. They do not represent those of the band teacher or the school. While I still can't imagine how my little blog is making the rounds locally, it is mine and mine only. If you are going to be offended or feel it necessary to complain to the school, stop reading and find something else to do with your time.

This week, I assisted the band teacher at my son's middle school. It was insane. Each student had four papers for their parents to complete and return by the end of the week. Four days....four days! And, some students still didn't have their paperwork returned on-time or their parents completed only a portion of it. To save paper, the teacher printed back-to-back. Much of the paperwork was missing page two. Why? The teacher also sent home instructions that all four pages, with their titles, needed to be completed. Why did so many parents think "1, 3, 4...okay, I'm finished!"

Then, there were the parents who wrote notes on the paperwork to the teacher. Let's see, there were the stupid ones..... "It says to go to website xyz.com and read the handbook. So, what should I do?" Hum, go to website xyz.com and read the handbook?? "I checked off that I would like be a chaperone on field-trips. What does this entail?" Hum, that you chaperone on a field-trip?? "Why do I have to sign a permission slip for Billy to go on field-trips?" Hum, maybe we cannot take Billy off-campus with your p-e-r-m-i-s-s-i-o-n?? Maybe you wouldn't want your child to leave campus without your p-e-r-m-i-s-s-i-o-n??

Much to my surprise were the nasty comments. My favorite was the dad who complained that he sent three emails to the teacher last year and never received the band notification emails in return. Hum, your child was in band for an entire school year and you didn't once bother to schedule a teacher's conference?? Or, how about a quick phone call?? How about checking your spam folder?? How about providing a legible email address to the teacher?! I know...I inputted all the parental email addresses for this school year. For this particular dad I could not read his handwriting, so I asked his daughter to read his address for me. Apparently, she didn't know it and couldn't read his handwriting either. So, she guessed what she thought it was. I told her that I would input that into the address book. If  he doesn't get the test email this weekend then something's wrong and we need to work through the problem to get it fixed. Like, checking your spam folder. 

So, I sent a test email. It had paragraphs numbered 1-4. Clearly from the email - or so I thought - no response was required. She has 325 students. Most students provided email addresses for both parents. {Guilty!!} The parents must know their child is not the only one in band. Okay. But, do some people really need to send a reply, "Thanks! Have a great weekend" or whatever?? Paragraph two said that "Paperwork was due this week. If your student is missing any paperwork, he/she has been advised and an additional copy of the paperwork needed was sent home with them." Immediately, one parent replied, "Susie Lou turned in her papers this week. If she's missing anything, please let me know." Seriously??

Of course, there's the teenagers. They make a lot of noise, without their instruments. I certainly hope the noise switches to something that actually sounds like music when they all start playing. Band 2 and Band 3 were the most interesting ones. She asks them to warm up, and it sounds like a bunch of screeching monkeys.** Everybody can't start playing basic scales?? No, let's just blow thru our instruments and make the most obnoxious noise possible. 

I do not know how this teacher does it. She's so sweet, and kind, and nice, and polite yet she rules those classes with an iron fist...without seeming like she's doing it. Unreal. If you do not appreciate your child's teachers, or hear someone complaining about the public school system - then spend a day or two - or a whole friggin' week - helping out in the classroom.


**These remarks were made during the first week of school. Of course, the kids are better, and they've learned to respect their instruments more. Again, if you're going to be offended by my personal thoughts and feelings, read something else. It's like turning the dial if you don't like the television program. Or, better yet, why don't you volunteer at the school.....you obviously have a lot of time on your hands.