Students bid farewell to Sweet Home High School music teacher Ken Collins Thursday night in his final performance conducting bands from across School District 55.
Collins moved to Sweet Home to take the teaching position in 1990, intending to stay for only two years, “but two years turned to three, then the next thing you know, I met my wife … and here we are 10 years later,” Collins said. Collins is retiring this week and planning a move to California where he will open a Big Town Hero sandwich shop.
Jamboree and economic development
In addition to teaching for 10 years, Collins has been actively involved in the community, particularly with the Oregon Jamboree.
He came into the Oregon Jamboree country music festival a few years into the event’s life handling regional acts.
“The reason I got involved was my previous involvement with booking,” Collins said. “I had my own entertainment agency in Reno.”
Collins eventually became director of production. John Young and Bill Westphal, both of whom were Jamboree volunteers, would ask Collins questions, and Collins would give them his two cents. The big thing happened when Lorrie Morgan canceled several years ago, just before she was to perform. Collins went to work looking over the Jamboree’s options and filled the spot.
Eventually Young went to a different area at the Jamboree, and Collins became more formally involved.
“Everybody needs to volunteer,” Collins said. “If everybody volunteers, a community comes alive. This is my contribution to the community.”
Right now, Collins handles stage, lights, sound and hiring talent through Gil Cunningham, a major talent agency. The work is year round, Collins said. Work on the 2002 Jamboree will begin as soon as this year’s ends in August.
“I don’t think people realize how big it is,” Collins said. “We’re the largest country music event in the Northwest.”
In economic and community development, “I think this town needs to identify itself,” Collins said. “The only identity we have is the Oregon Jamboree. Who are we? What do we want to be when we grow up?
“I think it’s been asked forever. I think once it’s discovered, then there will be goals and a lot of progress.”
People talk about themes, Collins said. “Anything that will give it direction will spark other ideas, then you can move forward. You can’t go on with the hodge podge architecture and expect things to succeed. It takes planning.”
As a future business owner in another town, Collins is looking toward successful franchise owners for cues on being successful. As he considers his sandwich shop, access is important. In Sweet Home, he looks to the median strip as a hindrance. Some businesses have positioned themselves for access from both directions, but many are not.
While beautiful, Collins said. The median strip is the result of a poor job planning this town. “I think a well-planned town can be a successful town. This could be a phenomenal town.”
Education
As an educator, Collins has taught in four states, including California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. He has taught students from kindergarten through college.
“I’ve watched (education) erode over the 10 years I’ve been here,” Collins said. “That’s not just Sweet Home. It’s the entire state. The state is requiring more and more of teachers with less and less funding.”
When Collins came to Sweet Home, the district had five music teachers. The district is now down to two. The last couple of years it increased music staffing to three before cutting a position this year.
The music program “barely works” on three, Collins said. “It’s not just music it’s affecting. It’s affecting the whole school system.”
The high school had a seven-period day with enough teachers to cover seven periods and provide a large number of electives, Collins said. That’s changed with less funding.
The system looks like it’s running well, Collins said. “It’s like pulling a string really, really tight…. It’s going to break. It’s to the breaking point now. The popular myth that (anti-tax advocate Bill) Sizemore has perpetuated upon the public is that schools are fat.”
Collins said he hasn’t seen much fat in schools since he’s been a teacher.
“Kids do not go t school for reading, writing and arithmetic,” Collins said. Schools provide activities, such as sports, drama and music. “They go for social reasons because we’re social animals. It’s a mating right for teenagers. It’s a natural thing for our species.”
While students are busy attending school for social reasons, schools slip in the academics, Collins said. That’s why activities, such as music and sports, are important.
Since he started working in Sweet Home, Collins estimates the music budget has been cut by 75 percent, “and it’s not the district’s fault. It’s nobody’s fault in the district either.”
The responsibility lies with the state, Collins said.
Music
“Music has always been in the universe,” Collins said. “Man has just discovered how that works.”
Using it, man has learned to put together harmonies that are pleasing to the human ear, Collins said. That music stimulates creativity, keeping students from becoming the faceless workers of the future. Students who are creative will be the entrepreneurs and management of the future.
“Music is basically more than … blowing a horn,” Collins said. “Music is opening yourself to history, science, math, creativity. The State of Oregon wants to make the most qualified workers in the world, but would you rather be the worker or the boss?”
Creative individuals, such as Bill Gates, create industries, Collins said. Creativity comes from the arts.
“A worker is an automaton,” Collins said. “I feel so strongly about the music and the arts being dropped out for the sake of workers.”
Teaching music
With Collins’ reputation for throwing erasers and other band room equipment, students returned the favor Thursday night peppering Collins with erasers as he was given parting gifts by this year’s students. The junior high band put together a farewell sign, and Collins enjoyed a level of popularity among students.
“I’ve had some really exceptional students come my way,” Collins said. “One that just really stands out in my mind was Sam Curtis.”
A high school student, Curtis died in summer 1998 while diving off of a rock at Foster Lake. He was one of those students who stayed after school, break or lunch to work on his music.
“Music was the one thing that really held that particular individual in school,” Collins said. He was one of the two most talented and gifted students Collins has ever had. The second, soloing as a freshman, helped Collins won the Reno Jazz Festival and eventually ended up joining the Artie Shaw big band and later earning degrees in music and teaching. “I could see Sam doing the same thing.”
Collins and students established the Sam Curtis Memorial Jazz Library at SHHS, and that collection has grown well.
“There’s been a number of students who have gone on in music,” Collins said. “That’s very rewarding when a student makes music their life.”
Normally, Collins’ main goal is to teach students enough technique that they will enjoy their instruments for the rest of their lives.
Collins enjoyed teaching elementary students and especially the musicals at Crawfordsville and Hawthorne in the early 1990s. He also has enjoyed teaching keyboarding to third graders the last two years.
His success with students stems from his classroom philosophy.
“I can never take myself too seriously,” Collins said. “I’m a human being and human beings err. Students err. I get that up immediately that we’re human, and it’s okay to err. One of the things I’ve found kids hate to do is give a wrong answer. I try to take down that barrier right away, because you learn best from your errors.”
Collins never criticizes students for making mistakes. “You have to a kid confidence that they can do it.”
Goodbye
“I’ve taught in four states, so there’s been a lot of goodbyes,” Collins said. “I’ve found in life that the only thing that never changes is change itself. There’s going to be a change. I’m going to go. It’s just part of life. You’re always going to miss people, but you’re always going to meet people.”
To the community, “I see 300 volunteers come together to put the Jamboree on. There’s 300 good people whose ranks could swell and bring 12 months of volunteerism.”
That would make Sweet Home an exceptional community, Collins said. The bottom line is “you only get by giving. The more you give the more you get.”
Collins plans to open a Big Town Hero in San Luis Obispo, Calif., sometime in the next year, but he’s in no hurry to get out of Sweet Home until after the summer weather fades into fall. Climate is a large part of his decision to relocate.
After getting Big Town Hero introduced to California, Collins hopes to develop the chain around the state.