For the last several years, the number of students participating in music classes has dramatically decreased. In some cases, the class number has been cut in half. Many factors such as scheduling conflicts, COVID-19, and academic requirements have caused this decrease.
The issue of scheduling is exceedingly problematic when it comes to student numbers in music programs.
“The decrease of kids in fifth grade until high school is mainly because of scheduling,” said sophomore and orchestra student Sebastian Afanador.
The scheduling conflict begins from as early as elementary school up until freshman year of high school, where students are asked to pick between classes that they want to participate in.
“I’ve had friends drop the class because they’ve wanted to take another class over it and the schedules have conflicted,” Afanador said.
Students must choose between specific academic classes and music courses even if they have been playing an instrument for years prior. Certain classes are locked into blocks which often coincide with band and orchestra classes.
“My freshman year we had 25 students in our class and now we are down to 15,” said junior and orchestra student Ann Mellon.
An art credit is no longer a requirement for graduation, which assists in the lack of students taking part in classes such as orchestra, band, and choir.
“I felt that I needed more academics to be ready for college. Nobody really pushed me to take art classes, they’re always pushing academics,” said senior Morgan Healy.
With an art credit no longer being required for graduation and schedule conflicts persisting, the arts programs are at risk for an additional decline.
“I regret not taking art classes. I feel like I would have enjoyed high school more if I had more fun classes,” Healy said.
Students need a total of 23 credits for graduation. This number prioritizes academic classes, but students still see value in the arts curriculum.
“I would encourage people to take a class where they could learn something new and not focus as much on academics,” said Mellon.
All music programs have dropped in class numbers since last year. COVID-19 did not help to alleviate this issue.
“A lot of our big recruitment options were no longer possible because of COVID-19,” said junior and choir student Hannah Lutz.
Opportunities that music students relied on for recruitment purposes were taken away last year due to COVID-19 precautions.
“We would usually do a flash mob and just go and sing at other community events, but last year we couldn’t do that because of COVID-19,” said Lutz.
While the shrunken classes have had a negative impact on the music programs, there are still positive things that have come from this change in class size.
“It’s definitely a smaller group, but there are some benefits because we get to work more individually because we get to have more of the teacher's attention,” said Mellon
Having a variety of classes in your schedule can create a more fulfilling high school experience, a realization that Healy determined her senior year of high school. She wished she would have explored studio arts and music classes more.
“You need to have a little bit of a break in your schedule and I think orchestra has done that for me,” Mellon said.
With class numbers dwindling the importance of arts programs has become increasingly more apparent to students.
“ [Art classes] are the best ways to learn to work as a team and to really work together towards something that's going to ultimately be bigger than any individual person,” Lutz said. “You can’t have a choir with one person or even one section; you have to have all of the sections involved to really make a full sound.”
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