What Marching Band Did for Me.

This weekend I went to my nephew's middle school band concert.  As tortuous as that may sound, they were actually very good.  My nephew plays the clarinet, just like his idol, my dad. In between songs, the band directors pleaded with us to contact our school boards and let them know how important High School Band is.  He sighted that this was a dangerous time for band programs, which rang a bell because it was a dangerous time for band programs when I was in high school as well.  The reason that the director gave for keeping band was that studies show that classical music makes us smarter.  I have heard an argument that says it is not the music that makes the kids smarter, it is that the kind of parent that plays classical music for their child tends to be more attentive and supportive and that is what makes the child smarter.  I could see how that may very well be true, but why not play the classical music for the child, just to be sure?

All of this aside, band and choir gave me something else that I value more than better grades.  I transferred into public school in the eighth grade. I was short, overweight and dressed funny.  This does not equal out to an active social life.  Eighth grade was the worst year of my life hands down.  I could be evicted from my house and live on the street starving and the physical pain would not equal the amount of emotional pain that I endured that year.  Although they tried, there was nothing that my parents could do to help the situation. I was heading down a road similar to those kids in Columbine, just soaking up verbal and occasional physical abuse until it neared a boiling point.  I am not the type to attack innocent bystanders though, my wounds would have most likely been self inflicted.  

Marching band totally changed that.   Ninth grade I entered the marching band and met a few kids I could at least talk to at lunch.  Tenth grade I actually got invited to a few parties, and by my senior year, I was throwing the parties and never without a friend.  That is what band gave me, a community.  My senior year I was also in choir, and that gave me even more friends.  More than twenty years later, I still hang out with some of them.  Being a graphic artist, I rarely use anything that I learned in physics or chemistry, but the social lessons that I learned from being a part of that community I reference  every day.  

For some students, participating in school sports may offer the same sense of community of band, I don't know, I was tragically nonathletic in ninth grade.  Being overweight and having low self esteem, athletic activities depressed and isolated me even more.  Music seems to offer a haven to social outcasts, even if it does not often lead to a career, I say that it is invaluable to certain students social development.  Who knows, band or choir might just save your child's life. It sounds over dramatic, but looking back, it saved my mine.