April Grab-Bag

Choral Festival

Took my advanced choir to a choral festival on Friday. They did really well (Superior rating). As happy as that makes me, I was also a little peeved because a significant number of kids missed the event (because it was the Friday before Spring Break). Long story short - It was the only festival I could find on short notice (my fault for waiting too long) I told the kids I'd sign up for it if we didn't have too many people out because of the Spring Break factor. Back in early March they all smiled and nodded their heads. Then the closer we got to the date, more and more kids hit me with "Ummm... Mr. Maestro, I have a problem with April 3rd." By the time we got to a week before, half the women were out.

So I don't know exactly how to feel - I'm pissed that the people who bowed out didn't communicate with me in a responsible fashion. At the same time, I'm pissed at myself for not planning the whole thing better (I should have gotten into an earlier festival - had I done that, I could have made it a grade-required event.) But then they ended up doing well anyway - which is cool because... well it's cool. But it's also uncool because the people who missed won't think that it was a big deal.

Overall I'm glad we went, because it was the first festival we went to where we weren't one of the best choirs. Well... we were... but what I mean is that all the choirs who attended were either good or great. We were the last ones to take the stage. By the time we got up, the kids were kind of scared, and there was a shared feeling of "Forget being the best choir... we just want to avoid looking like unprepared slobs." They were also kind of nervous about the missing performers. I think that will help a lot in terms of setting up festivals for next year. The returning kids who will remember this one will help me put pressure on the rest of the group. Still, despite the loss of numbers (particularly in the alto section) they managed to kick ass.

And yes... I'm very proud of them. Once again, we distinguished ourselves as being the "traditional classical" choir, whereas the other groups went for more modern and multicultural selections. That doesn't make us "better" per se, but it did make us stand out a little.

Not bad for a band guy pretending to be a choir guy.

The Woes of Darth Weasel

So... DW missed a couple of days of school last week. Tuesday was college acceptance/rejection letter day. No sign of him. The following day, he was out too. Word on the street was that he got rejected by a bunch of schools and stayed home to... well, feel sorry for himself, I suppose.

Now, you can be sure that DW didn't get rejected by everybody. He's definitely going to go to college. But keep in mind that in this community, there is undeniable pressure to be accepted by as many designer label schools as possible. This is a bothersome trend. It used to be "go for your top pick and a few back-ups"... now it's a game of "my kid is better than yours" based on the number of acceptance letters." And apparently, DW is panting in the rear guard on that one.

Now, if I had to cut away all the symptoms and go to the heart of DW's fatal flaw, I would say that his overriding problem is that despite his academic prowess, he's severely insecure. He feels that people won't like or respect him unless he proves himself, and the only way he knows how to prove himself is to demonstrate his worth by showing that he's better than everyone else. This, by the way, is the same fatal flaw that Principal Palpatine possess. Actually, I think it's more accurate to say that they believe that if they prove themselves on paper, the world will be forced to respect them.

Unfortunately, what both of them fail to realize, is that if you treat other people badly in the process, then they won't be inclined to admire, nor respect you no matter how many accolades you heap upon yourself. They sure as hell won't trust you. It isn't enough to be good... you have to apply your awesomeness in a way that benefits other people.* If you can do that then the world will celebrate you. But ambition and ability without compassion, empathy and generosity is a recipe for loneliness.

I don't think either of them are going to figure that out any time soon. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost.

The Way Things Look In A Different Light

I'm sure this happens to a lot of people - You have a bunch of kids that you don't know at he beginning of the year... you spend a few days "getting to know them" but what you're really doing is building quick first impressions that you use to evaluate them for the rest of the year. The only problem is, sometimes those impressions are wrong.

My band class is such a lrage, mixed population that I think I assigned "block impressions" on a lot of them. That is to say - I looked at almost all of the drummers as being ADD saturated slackers. (Kind of sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it?). So at the beginning of second semester I tried to encourage the counselors remove a bunch of them. Some of them got moved... not as many of them as I would have liked. I came up with a game plan to manage the remaining drummers, and for the most part, it worked.

But in the process, I discovered that a lot of the kids weren't as bad as I thought they were... they were just blending in with the horde. Individually, a lot of them were okay. Some of them turned out to be awesome. I started feeling bad that it took me five months to figure that out. But better to have realized it late than never.

Spring Break Is Here

Yeah, baby.

* I mean beyond the obvious honor of simply being in your presence.