Scott Swanson
Some months ago, I was sitting backstage in the Sweet Home High School auditorium, awaiting my turn to perform in the Gala Concert put on by SHOCASE.
As I sat there, it occurred to me that while we had one high-schooler on the program to perform, she was from Albany, not Sweet Home.
Although I’m not a member of SHOCASE (Sweet Home Oregon Coalition for Artistic and Scholastic Enrichment), I fully support its goals of promoting access, appreciation and understanding of the arts. In other words, raising the bar for arts in Sweet Home.
Unfortunately, speaking frankly, I think this is an area in which our community is not strong, particularly in music.
Music instruction teaches discipline and skills that go beyond just playing or singing a tune.
In today’s world, when we find just about everything we need to entertain ourselves in the palm of our hand, it’s not surprising that instruction in this area has lost momentum in our classrooms, not just in Sweet Home but across the nation.
The Great Recession and COVID were hard on public schools everywhere. During the recession, as education funding decreased, districts cut their music and art educational offerings.
One study concluded that such cuts have disproportionately impacted school districts that serve students of color, immigrant students and low-income communities. Hmmmm.
Certainly, in Sweet Home we have choir and band programs when students in our district reach middle school age, but to wait until a kid is a teenager to introduce him or her to something they’ve hitherto had very little exposure is like taking a kid who’s never wrestled and throwing him or her onto a mat to face an opponent with years of experience. Likely, it’s not going to be an encouraging experience.
I’m a musician because my parents forced me when I didn’t really want to. My mother had significant college training in music, and she made me her first piano student (followed by several other siblings over the years).
She and my dad made sure I applied myself. I was much more interested in sports and the outdoors than I was in practicing the piano, but I did it, usually under threat of adverse consequences. But now I can play the piano.
Think about all the kids in Sweet Home who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, who would profit from the intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language and overall literacy that comes from music instruction. These are things that not only help children in other areas of school, but help them in life.
You don’t have to have family singalongs around the piano to benefit from music instruction. When I think of all the kids who struggle with the three Rs, who lack motor skills, coordination and balance, whose language skills are poor, well, it’s been demonstrated by countless studies that music instruction helps in these areas.
I know Sweet Home’s education leaders know this. I also know that there are concerns about the lack of instruction for younger students.
In 2021, then Supt. Tom Yahraes proposed using Student Investment Account (SIA) funds from the state to fund two elementary music teaching positions, among other things. Some of those other things have happened, such as the elemination of pay-to-play and other extrcurricular activity fees.
The music hasn’t – yet.
COVID threw a giant wrench into the school district, and it has taken time to recover. District officials have focused on getting students caught up in math and language arts, plus other important subjects mandated by the state. But until music comes back to the elementary schools, Sweet Home students are short-changed.
The purpose here isn’t to generate talent for a SHOCASE concert, but when that talent becomes available, that will be an indication that music is in a healthy state in Sweet Home schools.