There ain't room in this town for the both of us...
So there's all this drama going on in our school district over to carol or not to carol. I'm more on the liberal side of this, I think, but I have been persuaded to relax my beliefs on it a little. I don't think we should sing songs like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in school or songs that talk about praising Jesus 'cause he's totally the man. I'm willing to make exceptions on that for songs like Bach and such where mention of Jesus is made, but not like "Hey, everybody, break dance if ya love Jesus!" I don't really think that school is the place for religion at all, but I also know that there is some very artistic music written in a religious spirit which I suppose would be okay. But still, I was very much not liking all the Jesus songs we sang in the beginning of my high school career. I think maybe there can be some kind of compromise on the situtation, but it's gotta be handled EXTREMELY carefully by the right people.
Anyway, I was actually writing not to talk about that specifically, but more to talk about all the annoying assholes who are getting involved now. The parents music committee is getting calls from lawyers asking if they want to sue, some mayor from BOGOTA (where the hell is Bogota?! Isn't that some kind of architectural structure or something?*) is holding an "illegal" holiday concert outside the school before the band ensemble concert on Tuesday. Whaat? Lame. The guy's not even from here! Stay the hell out of my town, psycho! Stop trying to use our school for your own political gain. Boooooo. Yeah, it's a very controversial subject in THIS town, but it's OUR controversy, not yours. If you're not in this school district, stay the hell out of it, we'll handle it on our own thank you very much. Losers have nothing better to do. Jeez. The parents don't want to sue their own school, what good is that going to do? Spend their money and cheat the school out of money? No one wins but the lawyers. Plus it brings a ton of negative attention to us, like we don't have enough already. And PS why is everyone calling out just Maplewood over this? It's the Maplewood/SOUTH ORANGE school district people, it ain't just one town, damnit. Maplewood gets all the shit. Anyway. Lawyers, outsiders, random people who have no business in this...get the hell out...find something to bitch about in your own town. Losers.
*correction...what I was thinking of was a PAGOTA not a Bogota...still...lame...and Bogota's not even in this COUNTY. Gah. Totally having to urge to stand by their "illegal" concert saying with a sign saying "Go back to Bogota"
posted by Robin @ 10:59 PM
1 Comments:
I actually agree with you very strongly on this whole religious music issue. My brother is involved in the music program at CHS so my parents kind of got embroiled in it, and both my parents said that the complaints being raised are totally frivolous and that at the high school level the kids "know" that the music is supposed to just be celebratory and that the content is incidental (and therefore inert). Anyway I disagree that the content is inert amd that high school kids are really so discerning as to think nothing of this etc. etc.
Furthermore it is other families in this school district who originally complained. I think they have a legitimate reason to complain as well; I happen to have been born Protestant but I think I can sympathize with non-Protestant kids who are having distinctly Protestant culture shoved down their throats while this culture is passed off as "American" or "popular" or "normal."
It additionally irks me that Protestant parents (well, mine) want to complain to the superintendent and say that this music is just "fun." Again, the normativity argument is really insidious and disturbing; I saw a rather disturbing side of my parents when they were speculating as to how they would not only go after the district but criticize the "few" families that complained. I really thought they were being bullyish.
Anyway, this whole issue really sort of galvanized my belief in regarding separation of church and state VERY strictly. My parents are pretty mild but this religious issue put them (esp. my dad) on the war path super-quickly.
The other thing is that "traditional" Christmas music often has little musical value in the sense that learning it does not make you a better musician. It doesn't have a lot of educational worth compared to say (as you said) Bach. I might even favor something like studying Bach's sacred works in a purely historical way and not performing them except maybe as historical curiosity (as we did last Spring at Rutgers for example). But at any rate the fact that they chose simple hymns of dubious educational worth reinforces my belief that the underlying reason for selecting this music is religious, which is not legitimate for a public school.
Haha, NICE post.
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