Question...

[Lance]

That's part of the wonderful world of teaching. Good teachers and admin can look at a specific situation, and find a way to make it work. Guys like the OP is talking about, who handle situations like this with deliberate obdurateness, disgust me.

[TaterTheTrooper]

I started marching DCI right after my freshman year. After hearing what I was doing my director was more concerned with me going on tour at the ripe old age of 15. Then after I got back marching band kind of turned into a clash of egos between the two of us. My musical (and marching) abilities improved 100 fold, which he did like. But corps turned me into a perfectionist and I became a sort of slave driver in my section making sure everything was right and refusing to move on until everything was perfect. And lots of times that meant my perfectionist ego getting in the way of his "well its good enough for Idaho" ego

He'd only ever had maybe one other student march corps before me so he didn't have a rule as to people missing band camp for finals. In fact last year he even let my little brother miss band camp to come and watch me perform at finals, which I really appreciated. Come to think of it, he also let my brother and the entire hs drumline skip rehearsal and come watch us rehearse when we were in town during their drumline camp.

[scrappyslap]

I teach middle school. NO marching but we do have a competitive jazz program. I have kids that take jazz band at the jazz school and are in community concert band groups. i figure the more the kid plays the horn the better they will be period. I encourage it !!!!!!!! and if I had a kid that wanted to be in Blue Devil C I'd be proud as hell.

[MikeD]

Good admin would look at the situation of a kid doing drum corps, and do everything they could to make it work for the student and the band director. That's why I suggested taking it up with admin before leaving for tour if you have a stupid band director like that.

Situations are different, Mike, and only really awful teachers and admin take the monolithic approach you're talking about. Of course every band director can do what they want, but the one the OP is talking about is a complete idiot, IMO. Sorry if you disagree. Most public school science teachers would be fine with a student missing their class to attend a science workshop or camp...many would even go so far as to find a way to give the student credit for analogous work they're doing while gone. Same thing with a computer teacher.

No, I do disagree. Very fine directors and admins also take that approach. Not just awful ones. I have seen similar things like that first hand in the 37 years I have been around bands as a staff member...from drum tech through director. Esp these days, parents are VERY quick to escalate any perceived...note...perceived...injustice against their child...to the admin or even a board of ed member. HS's today are extremely competitive places to be...esp when it might have a glimmer of a negative impact on the College Application process...one of the most diabolical endeavors ever devised by mankind, IMO.

[Lance]

I've seen it, too. I see it all the time in things other than band camp. Welcome to teaching. Sometimes schedules conflict, and treating every situation the same (drum corps, family vacation, wanting to sleep in instead, or whatever) is the easy way out. I'm not sure how many times I can say this, but unless you're dealing with a fundamentally stupid group of people across the board, it's not like climbing Everest to find a way to make it possible for a kid marching corps to miss some band camp without causing some sort of civil uprising among parents. Parents usually aren't that stupid. Band directors usually aren't that stupid. Admin usually aren't that stupid. If they all really are that stupid, then yeah, maybe you're screwed no matter what. That's why I say be proactive, and try to get the details taken care of well before you leave on tour. In short, I guess I should say that I understand what you're getting at, Mike. I know that bad things happen like you said, but they are avoidable.

[Eddie]

If that's the director's attitude, it doesn't sound like a band worth marching in, to be honest.

Hard to say.... 180 members strong, top 10 in So. Cal. Drum Corps wasn't even on my mind as a clarinetist. But we also had a full summer schedule... so, I don't know.

[corps-mudgeon]

I ended up getting a D in band my last semester (I think unfairly so) due to the amount of class and a concert I had to miss for Blue Devils.

If you missed a lot of class AND a concert, maybe he wasn't so unfair. Just curious: does BD say corps takes priority over official school functions (ie concerts)? Or is it that missing a camp puts you at a disadvantage? No judgment here--sometimes people have to make choices and live with the consequences, which is what you did. But just curious about what the choice was.

[mello_laurel]

The high school I attended/one of the ones where I teach doesn't have a rule against marching (a couple of kids have marched, I didn't start until after freshman year of college), but it comes with very specific guidelines. If you decide to march corps, you can't be named as a leader in the corps, as you will miss all of the pre-band camp summer rehearsals and the "rookie day" (kind of a general orientation to marching for the 7th graders). Also, you need to be back for the first day of camp, which is the day after finals. The director won't make an exception for drum corps, which kind of sucks, but at the same time, I understand where he's coming from--if he allows one kid to miss band camp, parents will not understand why their child is not held to the same standard when they are attending, say, a choral camp. Third, the student needs to understand the financial committment to both. The school district has a history of ridiculous financial instability. It's a small town, with a large elderly population, which is unable to cover the tax caused by a Prop 2 1/2 override, so student activities carry large fees. I think marching band is currently down to about $150-$200 (plus an additional $200 for band camp), but the last two years I marched, the fee was over $500/student. The student needs to speak to their parents about being able to afford drum corps (although all of the corps in this area are open class), marching band, and flying home from finals to make band camp. If the student understands these caveats and still wants to march, all the more power to them. It's a great band program, and has produced some great musicians and leaders.

Currently, there are a couple of students planning to march the open class corps where I tech (there were a lot more at the first few rehearsals, but they realized the huge committment that it would be), and at least one marching at another area open-class corps. The director supports them, but expects them to put the high school program before corps, which is completely understandable (and expected in most corps).

side note---I just want to clarify, regarding the post after me, I'm you probably were'nt referring to my post with #1, but that's not at all the case with this school. The fee pays for bussing and competition fees, general fees that need to be paid for the maintinence of uniforms and equipment...marching band is one of the lower fees for a "big program" at the school. When marching band was $538, football and hockey were well over $1,000 per student.

Edited February 25, 2008 by mello_laurel

[Bandguy]

I'm a high school band director. I encourage any student of mine to participate in drum corps. My band competes. It's NOT all about me or my ego or the perceived threat to my ability as a musician or a teacher. I don't get threats from parents or administrators concerning the treatment of students. On the surface, one would think life is just grand.

There are two issues with this no one has mentioned:

1. The level of high school competition: Personally, I think this has gotten WAY out of focus. I'm hearing about band programs who have a competition budget that rivals a third world country's. There is tremendous pressure on a lot of high school band directors NOT to educate their child, but to come home with a trophy. Those band directors face problems just like any DCI director, because as was mentioned earlier they are on the public's payroll. That, I believe, is where you will find some opposition to students leaving a program to be with a corps.

2. Pre-tour: There seems to be a lot of complaining about band directors not allowing a drum corps participant to miss rehearsal due to summer tour and more than likely missing band camp because of DCI finals. I am one of those directors who are flexible with kids in drum corps. However, there must be the same flexibility shown by the drum corps, too. There are drum corps now who are looking at pretour rehearsals almost a whole month before tour begins.

I have no problem at all with a student of mine marching in open or world class corps. However, I'm asking the drum corps folks to be as flexible with me and my program as I'm being asked to be with them. Let me finish my thing in the spring by having all my students at my school's performances.