Letter - Why starve music program?

To the editor:

I am concerned about the proposed budget cuts our school board will vote on December 20. Our educational base is being trimmed while other areas – luxuries in administration and athletics – remain untouched.

Discovery Middle School (DMS) students are negatively impacted by limited choices and not able to explore and “discover” their interests. Dropping from seven to six class periods per day will remove this philosophy. It will cut approximately six to seven DMS teachers. Side effects: increased class times, student-to-teacher ratio and class sizes, making it harder to be effective; students who need to explore interests will be required to decide futures with very limited options; and artistic and musical talents will be stifled because of their choices between music and art in 7th grade and music versus computer technology in 8th.

It appears the school district is focusing on one particular group of students (those who are artistic or musically talented) and making them stifle their aspirations by starving the music program at our school district. Why? Statistics show that students who are involved in a music program in their middle to high school years are generally in the top one-third of their class. Cramming more kids into a class and extending their time in the classroom may not be the best way to educate middle school students when they themselves are still trying to discover who they are.

These are the years to mold our children into being well-rounded, confident adults who are compassionate, inquisitive and dedicated individuals.

Melody Thoennes

Alexandria, MN

Tags: opinion, letters, thoennes