Today I have been assigned to look at a recent post on the
ChoralNet forum. I came across this post and I immediately felt great sympathy
for Christine Reda, who posted about her middle school choir program.
Here is her post titled “FORCED CHOIR”:
“I have been
teaching choir for 20 years. My middle school forces all students who do not
play an instrument into the choir. It doesn't matter if the student can sing or
not, can speak or not, can read (words) or not, etc. I love all children but
there are students in my class with disabilities where they cannot even speak,
let alone, sing. I have made many accommodations for students with special
needs, which I am pleased to do! I love that they can participate in the group
as long as they want to be there! As for the general education
students, some of them do not sing either, yet are capable, but refuse. Our
school is grades 6-8. Upon entering grade 6, any student who plays
an instrument will automatically go into band. If a student does not like band
or wants to quit, he comes into the choir by default. Each year gets worse and
worse. This year is by far the worst and I have entire sections of students
(for example the sopranos in one class) who will not even open their mouths to
sing. They have had every kind of warm-up, explanation, and lesson on vocal
projection, but they will not sing because they DO NOT WANT to be in Choir. I
have petitioned the administration to do something about this. Some years in
the past, the stronger singers have "covered up" for those who do not
fully participate. That is not working this year. I am letting the
refusal to sing reflect in the grading. Does anyone have this situation in
their school? Any thoughts on what you would do if you were faced
with this situation? Are there any articles out there about forcing students to
be in choir? I have proposed a music appreciation course/ general music class
on the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade levels but monetary logistics and scheduling
issues seem to thwart this initiative. I find it amazing that I have
been able to get some of the past choirs to sing in three parts! Everyone
always thinks I am doing a great job, but I know that I am doing everything I
can to stay afloat. This year, it doesn't look as though we will get past
unison singing. Thank you for any thoughts!”
This is a very unfortunate situation where students are
forced to take a music class, and choir ends up being the default over concert
band. I think there is always a struggle in balancing music programs in public
schools and figuring out how to accommodate the classes into the school
schedule. When I was in junior high school, I had to be pulled out of my class
to go to band and I would have loved to have music class incorporated into my
schedule where I wouldn’t have to miss another class. This said, I do not agree
with this system where students are forced to take a music class. Maybe if they
could choose between music, art, and drama it would better accommodate a larger
population of students and their personal interests. Forcing students to sing
in choir who clearly do not want to be there will only result in making those
students detest singing, and they will probably remember those negative
connotations they had towards choir in middle school, and continue to hate singing
well into their adult lives. This is the opposite effect we wish to have on our
students as a music educator.
Let me know what you think. Do you have any suggestions for
Christine?
