Literacies

Our band, that is our directors and our kids, performed absolutely fantastically at the state marching band contest last week.  I have seen the routine many times, but never with so much enthusiasm, with so much heart.  And the stakes were high.  The 19 best 2A bands in the state were assembled in the Alamodome in San Antonio for a grueling day alternating between adrenaline rush and boredom.  As each band took the field, parents and supporters cheered and hollered.  Edna was very well represented, and our group was more vocal than most waving home made pom-poms and yelling, "Go Big Blue" under the able leadership of our High School Principal.  I am proud, and hope you are too.

On the long drive home from San Antonio I thought about all those kids and their parents.  We did not win state, but for each band student we have won something much more important.

School folks spend a lot of time talking "literacy."  In its most basic form we mean the ability to read, write and comprehend our language.  We want our kids to be literate.  We more recently have begun discussions around the concept of mathematical literacy.  We want our kids to be fluent in math, number sense, problem solving, and operations.  Computer literacy is a reasonably new term and many of our kids come to us now adept in that field.  Foreign language literacy is something we also require to graduate from high school and I lament that I am monolingual.  We require students to take science and social science courses as well, and those literacies become increasingly important in this century when we must continue to advance on the scientific front and we must make wise decisions in our democracy, ever mindful of our history, our sociology, our psychology, our economics and our rational form of government.  We teach all these literacies.

We devote a lot of resources to psycho-motor literacy as well.  Muscle memory and athletic prowess fall in this area, and we staff fully, practice faithfully, and compete strongly.  Perhaps some will argue this is not a literacy, but the ability to read the rules, the plays, know defenses and offenses, keep score, and understand penalties deeply enrich both our participation and observation in this arena.

I would argue there exists at least one other literacy that is equally important.  Fine arts literacy.  We require students to get credits in the fine arts to graduate, and the most gifted in this area migrate to band, choir, art, theatre and dance.  These arts touch the human spirit and the products and performances of these arts define us as a species.  "I don't know art, but I know what I like" is a brag akin to saying, "I don't know the Internet ..., I don't know math ..., I don't know music, ....," etc.  I find all these statements offensive as an educator and as one who is educated.  I know that when archaeologists and historians describe our ancestors they do so in terms of the art, music, and cultures of the people.  It will be the same for us someday, and that worries me.

Music literacy is particularly important to me.  Learning to read music was a blessing for me and I wish that all mastered that skill.  (OK, I like the movie "Sound of Music", especially the scene when Julie Andrews as Maria teaches the Von Trapp kids to sing using Do Re Me.  Even more, I like August Rush, a movie you must see if you have not.  It is to music what the "The Blind Side" is to football.)  I began public school in Oklahoma where 3rd graders began playing instruments.  I played the violin until my family moved to Texas and my elementary school here did not offer such an opportunity.  I was in the band in junior high and choir in high school.  (Yes, I was also in athletics.)  Playing an instrument and/or singing in a choir is something everyone can do.  Real excellence comes from quality coaching and hours of practice, but real enjoyment of the richness of music is almost immediately present once you know the score, as it were.  I am very proud of our elementary music program, our band program, our guitar and keyboarding classes, and wish we could do more.  Listening to music, even singing along, without understanding the structure of music is like hearing the 23rd Psalm and not being able to read it and study it.

As resources get tighter it becomes more and more challenging to maintain the programs we offer across the entire spectrum.  Clearly, we will always offer literacy development in the core subjects.  It is clear that our community wants and expects us to offer psycho-motor literacy programs, so we will do that too.  I will do all that I can to maintain fine arts literacy and hope that you support that as well.  As a nation we can ill afford to graduate a generation of students who are illiterate in any of these areas.