chelsea cookWellsir, it seems that we are doing something wrong. Our school systems, which have been the whipping boy for politicians for several years, have nearly crashed and burned. Too many influential politicians say that the schools have failed so we need to have private schools. The way the politicians here in Okie-land treat schools is very much like the way my father told me about a pet donkey he allegedly had. No, the schools and school people are not “donkeys, the politicians would more nearly fit that description. They just stand around eating free grass and bray loudly and often. Donkeys are hard to get to work unless you tempt them with some kind of goodie, much like Oklahoma politicians.
We called my dad “Pa” because that is what he wanted to be called. Pa told me one time, as he displayed his patented grin, that he once had a donkey. It seems this donkey ate a great deal and it was very difficult for Pa to pay for feed. So, because we come from a very intelligent line of people, Pa, according to his tale, thought hard about what he could do. He decided he would train the donkey to eat less.
He said things were going along fairly well and it was working. The donkey was eating less and less so Pa had more money. He said, “Then, just about the time I got him trained not to eat at all, he up and died on me.” You probably didn’t know donkeys were that ungrateful but it appears that some are. “Hey,” you may ask, “how does that apply to schools? Very few schools in Oklahoma have donkeys enrolled.” Wellsir, it does apply and nosir, not many have donkeys enrolled but many have donkeys in Oklahoma thinking they can do away with all the unnecessary things about schools and save much, much money.
Many other states have legislatures that think public schools are for donkeys so let’s cut their hay ration. They bray loudly that schools are failing so something should be done. They propagandize us with the fact that private schools are way much better than public schools. “And,” they will bray, “since that is so then we should give the private schools more and a higher class of hay. Maybe even clover with all burrs removed. Besides being better, the private school we are talking about is owned by my friend and he contributes to my campaigns. Those public school teachers waste their money on their own kids, groceries and households. They contribute little to my campaign finances.” So they do not “feed” the public schools and they make it so much harder for the schools to operate. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Schools have to cut programs and this is where I start screaming when I read about it. Every known group of people since time began has had music as a basic part of their society. We Western educated people have produced some of the most glorious music on Earth. I am not the first or the only one to say that this music, along with various other forms of art, is inspired by something other than man. Some greater hand had to have guided our artists. We are losing that. Music, art and humanity courses are being eliminated from schools all over.
Without music mankind’s life would be like a desert without rain. Music is, and always has been, part of the soul of man. Music brings man to the highest level that we humans can attain. Our lives are richer when there is a deeper music. Yes, we all have our favorite type of popular music and that is fine. Most of it is trash but that is fine, 99.9% of us eat some junk food every so often and much of popular music is mental junk food. But it is better than nothing.
In Oklahoma, and too many other states, the school bands are little more than an organized sports cheering section. If a band doesn’t march at a game or provide loud music from the sidelines, then the kids aren’t learning music and the director isn’t any good. As our nation becomes increasingly fanatic about sports we can think of no other reason to have music in our school but to support the school team. Sports are important on many levels and we do need sports in school. We couldn’t have professional teams without public school money being used to give them early training.
We should not cut music and art from school as these activities develop minds on deep levels and we need more people who are able to think. We do not need generations of robots who do not think.
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