An Open Letter to Leaders of Gresham-Barlow School District

  

It’s happened again.

A school district is facing budget pressures and decides tocut what they have deemed “unnecessary” as a form of triage and survival.

And as usual, elementary music is on the chopping block. Even though music is a protected core subject in federal law.

I’m sure you’ll tell me in response that music is important of course, but that you have to prioritize reading and math for state and federal accountability measures. When I was a student teacher 25 years ago, I attended a professional development where the superintendent said to his entire district “don’t let your students turn into THIS.” And he held up an Excel spreadsheet printout.

You all have lost the plot in your quest for data reporting. And have learned nothing from 1990 to now about planning for Oregon's janky school funding formulas.

And rather than fight for more funding from the state, you’re choosing to give the humans in your care a sub-standard educational experience. 

Nevermind that there is a wealth of research that says language acquisition is helped by music—training the ears to hear beat, rhythm, cadence, pitch, dynamics, tone of voice. Nevermind that we have a wealth of research that says music can help with attention span, pattern recognition, social emotional health, mood regulation, fine motor skills and a host of other things that are not taught in any other subject in such an integrated, holistic way.

Seems like language acquisition reinforcement would be a priority in a district that serves so many immigrant and refugee children whose first language is not English—especially for younger ages where it’s most effective. Or to help support the supposed priorities of reading and math. But I guess not.

Which brings me to the question of why elementary music? Why not the high schools which surely cost more? The list below doesn't specify that music will be protected at the high school, but I suspect that even the most musically ignorant school board member or administrator recognizes the public relations embarrassment of not having the band at football games and parades or having no choir to sing the national anthem. But that same ignorance refuses to pay attention to how music is, and always has been, the example of scaffolding, spiral curriculum, and vertical alignment you're always trying to get all the other subjects to do. 

Guess what? You’re going to lose the high school classes anyway. It’ll still be the PR nightmare you’re trying to avoid, but it will happen in 6-8 years rather than right now.

Cutting music won’t save your district. It’ll just shortchange a whole generation of students unlucky enough to live within your boundaries. And in true American tradition, it’ll be the most vulnerable, impoverished, and marginalized that suffer most.