High School Musicals

The Times had an interesting article about high school musicals in our area. I'm somewhat aware of this issue as I have a student at Roosevelt (but he's not in the drama scene). The article talks about how the average high school musical costs about $10,000 and some of them locally have cost upwards of $60,000 (this at Blanchet, a Catholic high school). The money generally comes from alums and parent boosters. The article also notes that Rainier Beach will put on The Wiz for about $1,000 (they have, what is arguably, the nicest performing arts hall in SPS).

You can chalk this up to "oh well, that's just the way it is"; some schools have more resources from alums and parents than others. Roosevelt has a long history of putting on plays and musicals so this isn't some new thing. But I think high schools, at different points in their history, have always put on plays (with musicals tending to be a lot more expensive to stage).

I bring this up both to ask the question, "Is this fair? Does it matter?" and to ask "Is it a good thing to have so much attention/resources/efforts focused on non-core academics?" Athletics and arts are a major way to keep kids involved in high school so they are wonderful at keeping some kids in school. Is it important to have what would be considered (in athletic terms) schools that are farm teams for music and drama? Should that be important for high schools to have in this age of deep concern over academics?

I'll end with a letter to the Times on this issue that has another take on this issue:

" 'High school musicals' on the escalating costs of high-school drama productions, provides yet another example of how American adults are chipping away at the experience of being a child.

Biologically and psychologically, humans are engineered to go through a staged lifecycle. Our nation's adults are short-circuiting that natural process. Our economic greed drives us to view them, not as children, but as a market to be sold increasingly adult products. Interweaving our adult egos with their activities, we deny them the joy of experiencing unstructured play by making winning the objective of all activity.

As adults, we seek personal recognition and a furthering of our own ambitions by demanding that they perform as professionals, not the curious and exploring amateurs that they naturally are. All of this represents a massive failure of our needed role as grounded, sensible adults in the lives of our children. This failure does not come without consequences.

Modern medicine is allowing people to live much longer lives. Our children will have plenty of time to live ambition-driven, stressed-out lives and to lust after endless consumer products.
If, as a society, we genuinely loved our children, we would allow them to enjoy a few years of innocence unencumbered by our frenetic adult pathology.

— Dick Schwartz, Bellevue

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have mixed feelings about this. I feel like for Roosevelt, this is a long standing tradtion. One of my best friends was in the drama program 20 years ago. She kept in touch with her drama teacher, went to her funeral a few years ago. She continues to attend the shows and enjoys introducing her kids to them. I don't know if it is much more elaborate than it was in the 80's, but I appreciate the tradition.

At the same time, when the hot topic of Roosevelt came up in the halls of my child's elementary school, one of the parents was talking about how her niece from Laurelhurst did not get in. She then went on to talk about if you were to look at the positives about her not getting in, it was that everything is so competitive at Roosevelt - to get on the soccer team, or in the drama or music program you have to be the best with lots of supplemental classes since early childhood to even be accepted. THAT does not seem right at all. I don't want my child feeling like they can't participate in extracurricular activities because he or she is not good enough. Is it really THAT hard to get in the drama program?

It's good to teach your children to be competitive, especially in high school as they prepare for college, but there should be plenty of opportunities to be involved in extracurricular activities without being the best in the Northwest.

I'm not sure how to fix this - You could go back to the income sharing idea or enlist the business community to help, but it's a tough call - I'm very surprised to read about how expensive these productions are. I'm really not sure what the solution is.
Anonymous said…
I think it is imperitive that our schools keep a strong focus on the visual and performing arts, including musicals. If we let our arts start slipping away, what will we have left? Rote academics, and WASL prep? And, what next? Cut the sports programs? After school/extracuricular programs? They're expensive too.

I know Seattle is no Mercer Island, but the Mercer Island School District has a very interesting district wide fundraising effort. It's called the Mercer Island Schools Foundation. You can find info about it on the Mercer Island School District web site. The foundation fundraises to support the district as a whole. They support the arts, academic enrichment, tutoring, teacher training and recruitment, foreign language, senior projects and so much more. They take direct dollars from parents, but mainly go out into the business community to raise money through an annual phone-a-thon and a community business breakfast. They also do a lot of grant writing.

Again, I know we are not Mercer Island, but the premise seems equitabe. The funds are distributed equally among schools and programs. They support the districts budget as a whole, and support a well rounded education experience. Perhaps something similar in Seattle would help eliminate some of the disparity between schools?

Deidre
Anonymous said…
Here's that website

http://www.mercerislandschoolsfoundation.com/
Jet City mom said…
I haven't been to any productions @ Roosevelt-so I can't speak to where the money is being spent, although I will admit that my older daughters private high school had productions where the performances as well as the sets and costumes were easily on a level with professional productions, including Broadway touring shows.

However, since it is a tiny school, if you want to work hard and be part of the performance you can be, unlike the larger schools, where drama is like a varsity sport, just because you want to learn and participate, doesn't mean you will get a chance to.


Some schools have more levels of performances- musicials but also plays, films & "talent nights", giving all students a chance to develop skills that will serve them throughout their school career and can flame an interest, that otherwise might have died.

I would never say that the arts are not "academic".

I am currently reading a biography of Einstein for example, and he was an avid violinist and found it added depth to his enjoyment of life as well as giving his brain a chance to work out problems.

There is more to education than what can be learned sitting in a desk

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

Who Is A. J. Crabill (and why should you care)?