Skip to main content

News of Note

Seen in the Howard County Times this week:

Howard hires Ross Hannon as head varsity football coach

I believe they also covered the story when the previous coach stepped down.

Hmm.

I don't remember any story when, say, River Hill High School hired Katie Geiger as their new Vocal/Choral director. And what about when Nick Marini came on board at Oakland Mills High School in Band?

Hmm.

Think for a moment. Do you ever see celebrations in high schools when a musician commits to pursuing their interests in college? "Three cheers for Suzanne B. who has signed to play flute for Indiana!"

Hmm.

Sports programs benefit many of our students and it's great to pay attention to them and celebrate them. But so do music and arts programs. Are we only going to care about hiring and firing and college signing if we can rack up wins and losses? Is that all that matters where our children are concerned?

March is Music in Our Schools Month. HCPSM, the parent advocacy group (of which I am a member) has a request:


Nominate a teacher for HCPSM Music Educator of the Year. It's easy to do. You can find all the information you need here:  http://hcpsm3.wixsite.com/music/music-educator-award

Being a music teacher is not about racking up winning seasons. There won't be a whole section in the newspaper dedicated to what you and your students are doing. And that isn't why teachers are in the field of education anyway. But once a year, in Howard County, we stop and shine a spotlight on the many ways that music teachers touch lives and make a difference.

You can help. Nominate a teacher and tell HCPSM why they're great. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more