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?
This is a situation that I have never really thought about before. I agree with you when you say that forcing a student into choir will make them detest singing, and that it would be more beneficial for them to have some sort of choice. I know in my high school, each student had to take an art credit, which could be art, music, theatre arts, etc., which allowed some freedom of choice, and therefore a higher level of interest in the class. Not only would being forced into a course (such as choir) have a negative impact on that student, but it would also have negative effects on the students who truly want to be in the course.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this situation occurring before. I actually consider this situation incredibly disrespectful to the art form, the teacher, the students, and choral singing in general. The school administration obviously has little, if any, respect for the art of choral singing and this teacher. Imagine the state that the band program would be in if they forced every unwilling participant to pick up an instrument anyway. Why do they think it is acceptable to shove every unwilling participant into the choir? This is a battle that the teacher needs to take up with the administration. To be honest, I'm shocked that she has lasted as long as she has in the school.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure there is much more to be done within the classroom that this teacher is not already doing. If she hasn't already done so, she could try to incorporate current, popular repertoire into her selections. She could also try to incorporate simple drumming and auxiliary percussion instruments into the repertoire. This would allow non-singing students with an opportunity to participate, or playing these instruments could be a reward for the students who do participate in the hopes that it would encourage others to do so.
Here's the dilemma. The administration is, in their view, recognizing the importance of music in children's lives by making it mandatory for all. Why they place band at a higher importance than choir is another matter, but the notion still stands. If Christine complains too much about having non-singers in her choir, the administration is just going to cut the program altogether, deeming it to be not worth their money. This is the other extreme, and I don't think that's the goal here either.
ReplyDeleteSo the kids don't want to sing. Alright.. what do they want to do? Inside every child's middle school insecurity is the ability to be inspired by SOMETHING. Maybe they play video games? Maybe they like to fish? I don't know what they might be, but the first thing Christine has to do is find that out. It might be a personal conversation with each and every student that needs to take place. She needs to let them know that they care.
If she can't make something out of that, then she's going to have to re-think what a choir is. This should be done anyway, but there is a dire need for it here. Singing as an artform came about because humans found that they wanted to do it - not because they were good at it. Something inside them just MADE them sing out loud about it. Christine has to see if she can find that. It might mean that she doesn't get to perform her favorite SAB pieces that she fell in love with in grade school, but she's not in school now. It's not about her anymore. This choir has to serve the needs of the children. I GUARANTEE that if the atmosphere was different, these children would sing along to SOMETHING. That's where she needs to start.
Wow, that is really unfortunate. I didn't really realize "forced choir" could happen beyond elementary school. Obviously, the best situation is to ask the administration to change the situation, which she has already done and unfortunately may not be successful. Otherwise, I think perhaps the teacher is focusing a lot of her frustration on the lack of response from the students, which is understandable. I think she could try to take a step back and take another look at her methods - looking at what repertoire she is using, more student input into repertoire, are the warm-ups too challenging or too juvenile, or just the right amount of challenging? How is she teaching musicality? I think the most important thing she needs to focus on is how to show music is meaningful to these students - as obviously some of them don't see the point and don't care. She may not be able to entice every kid into singing, but it's worth a start.
ReplyDelete