I recently saw in my feed a post of a video of a school band, making fun of them, how terrible they are, etc. It wasnt posted by anyone I knew personally, but appeared through some sort of connection. It was pretty sad to see a lot of the comments and reaction to this, as some very obvious and important points were being overlooked.. the first being that these kids were actually out there. They were interested and participating, despite a very clear lack of resources. Curious about the context, I discovered that these kids actually come from a VERY small town (about 7,000 people) and a VERY small school. Enrollment is less than 200 students in grades 7-12, with only 15 teachers in the entire school. Add to this the median household income in the city is less than $25,000, placing it well below the poverty line. Average math, science and reading scores in this school are unimaginable, around 30-45%. What is lost here in the criticism and commentary is not only how well these kids are probably doing within the context of what are clearly very difficult circumstances... is that in making fun of these kids, they are discouraging them from participating in the one thing that has the potential to make a real difference in their lives. In midst of this commentary, one individual that I admire very much spoke up suggesting they would actually help these kids get better. This got me thinking... These kids have the interest and simply need guidance. Within my own small universe of Facebook friends are individuals that are quite literally the best in the entire world in the sphere of marching music. With a very small amount of effort, in a one time project, a small group of these individuals could transform the group unfairly criticized as Worlds Worst Marching Band into a life-changing experience for kids in a very difficult community. Who is up for the challenge? https://youtube/watch?v=xVe3wWo11a0
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 23:37:26 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015