After reading "Artificial turf anywhere but playing field?" (Story, Saturday's MDJ), we are tied up in knots to think that plaintiff Pete Borden thinks that this issue is all about football! We moved here from out of state and chose Cobb County for its high caliber of music programs. Students in marching band spend hundreds of hours working on their annual field show starting in mid-summer and practice two to three days during the week and weekends just to perform for the crowd on Friday night and in band competitions, festivals and exhibitions throughout the season.
These Fine Arts students are gifted in music and work too hard to be told "no performance tonight" because the mud is too deep on the field! Uniforms, shoes and equipment are ruined in the mud and band directors are likely to cancel performances and not risk injury to students.
Also, several Cobb County schools host band competitions throughout the fall season for local and out of state bands. This past season the only outdoor festival/competitions that were successful where those with artificial turf.
Please don't deny future generations of band students the chance to build self confidence, to work as a team with others and the joy of performing.
Music and performance is also important to education!
Tom and Margie Crawford
Band Parents
Marietta
Follow us on Twitter!
And, I would say that developing musical skill is less of a hobby than teenage football. Compare the numbers of students getting music scholarships to college and the number of students getting football scholarships to college. Compare the number of musically trained students who get academic scholarships to college and the number of football players getting academic scholarships to college.
Music education enables students to score higher in math/science/reading/writing. So how about YOU say thank you to your high school band, orchestra, and chorus directors for giving your child the tools to excel in academics.
For more info, visit MusicForAll.org. They've got plenty of the research there. But to make sure you get the most of it all, grab a kazoo and march around in your front yard for a while. Maybe then you'll be able to see the light.
The bands all use special shoes these days so they can easily switch to a shoe that will accomodate the turf, just like the players of each sport will do.
Well over 2500 band students in High School bands deserve to use the field for their fine art academic use. Because the football coaches are so worried about their precious grass turf, the bands have been banished to the parking lot for practices and have no real feel for their performance arena until the first game.
Yet another proof that real education occurs in the high school stadiums throughout the year!