Mock School Board Meeting

During one of our Monday night sessions we had a mock school board meeting. It was great! Each study group chose a point of view to represent, there were teacher union representatives, parents of low and high achieving students, administrators, and arts representatives. Each group was given an opportunity to discuss the school's new plan to boost test scores. As you might imagine some groups were completely in favor of doing whatever it takes to raise the students test scores while others feared that the financial backing for the endeavor would cause their program to come to an end. Each group got to state their points and concerns and then the rest of us were able to ask questions. My group decided to represent the arts programs, there were a few different groups within that group and all of us had come up with something just a little bit different. Our group reminded the board that music classes are not extra-curricular. We explained that we are teaching theory and ear training which not only incorporate math but also science, history, and public speaking skills through performance based experience. The students who are in our classrooms are receiving valuable knowledge that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives, knowledge that could very well change the people they are for the better. Not only that but if we can keep this generation of students interested in music this issue of cutting programs might not come up in the future because students who will one day turn into the administrators and parents will remember that music meant something to them and they will hopefully fight to keep it in our school systems. I think that this was a super activity! It really did a nice job of simulating a real school board meeting where things like this are discussed. It was also very interesting to me that both sides were very well argued and you left the room with questions and views that you perhaps hadn't entered with. I only wish that we would have had a little more time to fully discuss some of the points that came up. Great Class:)