Slow Adam Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Tell you what, though, George: drop the fees down to about 250 dollars for a Cadets "Cadet" corps, go into inner city Philadelphia and get some kids together and give them some drum line equipment (get Yamaha, etc to donate it) and create a few lines to compete against each other regionally.There's your entry point into the multicultural world of today...which sounds suprisingly like the entry point many, many years ago people used to get kids off the street and into a little thing called drum corps. Funny, no? I won't hold my breath to see that happen, though. Well in fairness, before jumping on Hopkins, I think I remember hearing that there was a YEA connection with Vision Elite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euphononium Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 nobody is white at the end of the season anyways. well, except for that one kid in every corps nicknamed "powder". you know exactly who i'm talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slow Adam Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 nobody is white at the end of the season anyways.well, except for that one kid in every corps nicknamed "powder". you know exactly who i'm talking about. That was me. See my Avatar. That's me on the right. August 1998 at Division II/III finals retreat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tekneek Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Not everything in the world is going to appeal to all types of people. Those who want to be a part of it will come. Those who don't will find something else to do. Honestly though, if Hopkins were to spend his time trying to get inner city youth to discover and appreciate drum corps instead of finding ways to get more expensive toys allowed onto the competitive field, I would be much happier and the activity would be better off (not to mention the new kids involved)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 My first thought, how about more groups like Cadets of NYC that reach out to disadvantaged youth..Oh yeah, if you're not in a Top 12 corps no one hears anything about you.... ...and that sucks. Why not have YEA! take the Cadets of NYC into the organization and use that as a point of reference for involving more disadvantaged kids? Why not have the Cavaliers do this in inner-city Chicago with a start up group? Blue Knights in Denver with the same? DCI promotes and praises the corps that are 150 strong every day on their front page, showing white, upper-middle class faces right back to the white upper-middle class faces that are interested in it now. Same with the Cadets web site, the Blue Devils, and every other group that's notable in our small world. Since we've changed the activity towards expanding our fan base these past few years (and I'm not going to argue pro/con on that, just listing it as a given for the changes), where's the coverage towards the growing Latino population? Where's a nod towards a more varied fan base? When it was decided that the marching band enthusiast... those of the USSBA/BOA/TOB ilk... were going to be your primary focus, that's when you locked yourself into this "white bread" path. Programs like Marian Catholic, Carmel and so on pay money already to march, and are comprised of mostly (you guessed it) white, fairly-well-to-do kids. The only way to break the cycle is to make things affordable to everyone who wants to do it. It's really that simple...and if that means that you make DCI have to change its model to have a bunch of smaller units that have woodwinds and everything else eventually, then so be it...but as it stands now, the activity prices itself into its racial stereotypes for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawn craig Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 (edited) Here in Baltimore City, 60% or more African American students, the state of the fine arts in the school system is abysmal! Many of the middle schools and high schools don't have bands or choirs. There is no consistancy; a middle school may have a band program but the high school they go to doesn't. The opposite also happens, high school tries to have a program but the middle schools that feed it don't. Similar situations in Princes Goerges county and DC. The students from these districts don't stand a chance of making a WC corps because of a broken public school system. Not that many could afford the tuition. Edited February 19, 2008 by shawn craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburstall Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Um...I'd try the 2000+ dollar tuition for the top units first before we start to deride "tradition".Couple that money with the fact that most music education/performance majors (aside from those at historically black colleges and universities) are, indeed, white...and, well, there you go. It is what it is, and no amount of tweaking the music, uniforms or "tradition" is going to make DCI or the Cadets (or any other corps) a pan-cultural paean to the world community. Tell you what, though, George: drop the fees down to about 250 dollars for a Cadets "Cadet" corps, go into inner city Philadelphia and get some kids together and give them some drum line equipment (get Yamaha, etc to donate it) and create a few lines to compete against each other regionally. There's your entry point into the multicultural world of today...which sounds suprisingly like the entry point many, many years ago people used to get kids off the street and into a little thing called drum corps. Funny, no? I won't hold my breath to see that happen, though. Great thoughts. I agree. It's amazing how people like George (and others) talk about diversity but yet makes the corps unaccessable to those, like you said, inner city Phily or Detroit. This is what made corps great in the past was that corps were like clubs and they took kids off the streets and taught them. Today's corps want the kids already to go. No real grass root teaching. Just in this past Sunday's Detroit Free Press there was a great article about this exact same issue on diversity. How there is only 15 blacks in currently in the NHL. The main issue is about accessability to ice rinks, and in many cases, costs. In talking with a past fellow employee who has a son in travel hockey, it costs him $2000+ just for equipment and rink fees, that doesn't count the travel cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iplaytimpani Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 (edited) I think it goes beyond drum corps really. Most of the kids in DC right now came from high school programs that were ran well and at some point exposed their kids to the activity either through staff or at least videos. Maybe even a show if it's in the area. But it's pretty hard to get the interest of a marching band kid from say, Detroit, when the marching band doesn't consist of more than 30 kids playing the national anthem. I would say it starts with the high school music education and funding by the schools of the arts. Looks like shawn craig got to it before me. Edited February 19, 2008 by Iplaytimpani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 All this is why the division formerly known as div 3 (what do we call that now anyway – lower tier Open???) is so important. Staff there have to put the equipment in the kid’s hands for the first time and start at the absolute basics. Those corps have the job of filling in what may be missing in the educational system and to me have the toughest job out there. If support goes anywhere in DCI these are the guys that should get it because they exemplify the real spirit of drum corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tekneek Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 (edited) If the Division I World Class corps aren't in the business of teaching kids how to play anymore, they should pay a development fee to any "open class" corps that they get members from. Sort of the way that smaller football soccer clubs are guaranteed a development fee when their players are poached by the bigger clubs. Edited February 19, 2008 by Tekneek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.