My love for 5th grade band runs deep.
It all started with summer band, where I learned to put together my clarinet and play the first few notes, and I remember being outside on a warm August afternoon, gleefully playing for my mom and the whole neighborhood a very squeaky version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” — the first real song I could play. Once school started, I would be pulled out of class a few times a week for band, and by the end of the year we were marching in our elementary school parade, with our school song memorized. I was hooked. I had other friends in elementary school, but the girls I played in band with were the ones I stayed friends with for years.
Moving on to middle school, everyone started caring a lot about clothes and boys, but band became a way to connect over something different. A way to bond over something geeky but challenging and fun. I made a new friend who played the flute, and we’d try to play music together after school even though we didn’t quite understand that her instrument was in C and mine was in B-flat. We did our best, and laughed a lot. We’re still friends after 30 years, and while I became a professional musician, and she didn’t, she’s still one of the biggest music fans I know, and it brings a lot of meaning to her life.
After earning my music education degree, I put myself through grad school partly by teaching a lot of clarinet lessons, still a big part of my career in music. I taught elementary through high school and beyond, but one of my favorite moments was always helping a 5th grader put together the instrument for the first time. The excitement on their face… the reverence at being entrusted with this complex device… the clumsy first attempts at pushing the pieces together… the delighted surprise when they made their first sound… it was magical, and they were hooked.
Later, many of them would go through a phase in middle school of being too cool for practicing, too self-conscious to enjoy making weird noises in front of their friends, and too preoccupied with their social life to pretend to care about band. But if they made it through that, they would be in high school, and their social life and band life would often become one and the same, providing a much-needed community and way of expressing themselves.
Now I’m a clarinet professor at Western Washington University, and play music professionally in the Seattle area, with two kids of my own in 1st and 4th grade. When I found out our Edmonds School District was considering cutting the 5th-grade band and orchestra program, I was shocked. Don’t we have some of the best instrumental music programs in the state? Don’t people realize how crucial elementary ensembles are to recruiting and retaining ensemble enrollment? Isn’t it important?
As I’ve learned more about the current budget cuts, larger state funding problems, and nuances of the music situation, I see that there are no easy answers. But I call on the school board and members of our community to decide that even amidst all the other competing priorities, music is important, important enough to preserve our elementary ensembles as the foundation of ESD’s musical opportunities and musical excellence.
Why do we need to prioritize our elementary ensembles?
1. Our community values the Edmonds School District’s reputation of excellence in music. As a professor of music at WWU, I see my colleagues actively discussing and recruiting from ESD high schools, which are known for producing great musicians and future music educators. In fact, part of the reason my family is in this district despite long commutes is because we were excited to have our kids be a part of these programs. ESD student groups play at numerous community events locally, and statewide competitions that bring prestige to the district.
2. Eliminating 5th grade ensembles will eventually result in decreased music enrollment in our upper grades. Kids who start band in 5th grade are eager, excited, and easy to hook. It is the “sweet spot” of readiness for an instrument, both cognitively, physically, and socially. By middle school, they will be much less likely to enroll in band for the first time. Kids who aren’t enrolled in large band classes still need to take something, resulting in the possible need for more teachers to handle that load.
3. For those who do enroll in 6th or 7th grade, they will be well behind our current standard and most will not approach the same standard we have for our top high school groups. It’s like delaying algebra by a year and still expecting students to enroll in calculus on the same schedule. Playing an instrument requires an enormous amount of content knowledge and skills that are built through daily practice. There are no shortcuts, and without 5th grade band, the quality of our programs will decrease.
4. But music is not just about achievement; its true value lies in participation. Despite the “Mozart Effect” popularized in the 1990s, research shows that it’s participatory music-making (not just listening) that is linked to positive cognitive benefits. And students report over and over again, as they have in recent school board meetings, that ensembles make them happy, they love playing music with their friends, and having this opportunity is very meaningful to them. For some students, playing in band or orchestra may be the only thing they look forward to when coming to school, and the one place they feel like they truly belong. This sense of belonging is much more than just an FTE number on a spreadsheet. It is truly important.
5. Cutting elementary ensembles will hurt disadvantaged kids the most. In my family, we can provide musical experiences for our kids no matter what, through private lessons, youth orchestras, or even teaching them ourselves. But many families don’t have the resources for this. Keeping elementary ensembles as part of our public school offerings ensures that all students can learn an instrument — not just those whose parents can afford it.
6. 5th grade ensembles cannot easily be brought back once they are eliminated. These programs involve experienced staff, equipment, dedicated spaces, and a culture of support within the schools. A couple years of budget shortfalls are no excuse to eliminate a longstanding, popular program that our community values so highly. I managed to complete the Balancing Act tool without eliminating 5th grade band or middle school athletics, and so can the school board. Yes, it will involve other sacrifices, but I believe we should make cuts that can more easily be reversed next year, when (as the board predicts) our financial situation should be improved. It takes decades to build a program like what we have, and only a couple years of bad decisions to tear it down. Let’s…. not do that.
Music is important enough that we must avoid further music cuts now, and turn to fixing the state funding issue. With all the music parents, our larger community, and ESD leaders united, we can make a real impact in Olympia, together. I hope you’ll join me.
– Rachel Yoder, Doctor of Musical Arts, MLT resident and music educator
Speak out at Tuesday’s ESD Board meeting!
Tuesday, April 23
6:30pm
ESD Office
Boardroom of the Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Avenue West, Lynnwood, WA 98036
