mophilda Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 DCI has to have a firm day or you may not know when you actually age out. Any birthdays between August 5th and August 17th would be a big question mark. There is no way to have a cut off date without having someone "cut off." How terrible would that be to have aged out last year when you thought you had one more season of eligibility... Mega bummer! I needed an expiration date to my drum corps career. I needed someone to say "Ok, that's enough" It would have been very hard to simply decide "This will be my last year." There is a distinction between aging out and just stopping marching. We qualify in the way we talk about our corpsmates. EX: "Nick, he was an age out on the sop line my first year." You don't say "David aged himself out my first year" You say "David was on the line in 01" They were members. They are now alumni. But you never call them age outs. You may say years later after their period of eligibility passed. "David was on the line in 01. He would have been an 04 age out but he didn't march after 01" Being an age out was far more important to me than when I was a senior in high school or college. Aging out was the end of a long journey. I was finally finishing what I started. Having an open ended age limit means that it is probably going to be something negative that ends your DC career. Lack of money, time constraints, etc. This way most of us leave with a positive feeling about the way we went out. I don't see a whole lot of a difference between the 21 year olds that are already on the lines with 14-15 year olds and 24 or 25. If anything, those extra few years of maturity might offer some innocence-saving discretion. I know as a 21 year old age out I probably scandalized some of the younger members on the line. I was very...er....comfortable... I would not do those things around kids now at 25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Some things you need to experience to understand; DCI summer tour is one of them. To be fair, I don't think you need to march/tour in a DCI corps to understand the social implications involved with 20+ year olds constantly in close quarters with -18 year olds (traveling cross-country on busses, sleeping in mostly-open gyms, etc). However it does take logical thought. I'm not saying ANYTHING about anyone in particular, I'm just saying that rational thinking is all it takes to understand the DCI tour social climate. (though for what it's worth I did experience DCI summer tour so maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but I do know several people who did not who understand at least the basics of what you're talking about). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I don't see a whole lot of a difference between the 21 year olds that are already on the lines with 14-15 year olds and 24 or 25. If anything, those extra few years of maturity might offer some innocence-saving discretion. I know as a 21 year old age out I probably scandalized some of the younger members on the line. I was very...er....comfortable... I would not do those things around kids now at 25. Though hindsight is 20/20: you might also have a change of mindset because you are slightly removed from the situation. I'm not arguing, I'm just offering a second theory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvertrombone Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I didn't read to see if anyone had said this yet, but... ...honestly...who in the world would want to potentially march next to one of their own students?!? Gag. Yeah...what he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mophilda Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I graduated the year after I aged out and applied for a job opening at a school in GA. I found out later that one of the high schoolers that was on the hornline with me was still a student at that school. If I got the job (which I didn't) i would have been his teacher?! That would have been terrible! How do you disclose that information to the principal? "Um... Timmy may or may not have seen my bare bottom, definitely in my undies, and has heard me use more profanity than a Showtime series on TV." Talk about a liability! What if they have pictures of you from tour. I am sure somewhere someone has pictures of my bare backside. I know I have a few of some others. Even if you're not doing anything inappropriate. My daily attire was not something I would want my students to see. I was never wearing a shirt, shorts always "diapered." And they would be his personal property. Not to mention the "this one time on tour...." stories that, given my position at the school, would certainly include me. Nightmare! Even being barely removed from them is bad enough. Right after my fall student teaching one of the girls in the band auditioned for Spirit. She heard plenty of stories about me from my age out the year before and brought them back to school. I was SO thankful I dodged that bullet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 it would be cool if you bother to read my post before you blast me... i said i would get my income from reality tv, or whatever creative way possible. John, maybe for 1 or 2 people, sure there are possibilities. But in the real world, playing full time drum corps is going to get people a lot of 8 month jobs on their resume. Sadly, I've seen far too many people try to be full time drum corps employees fail miserably, but never change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Oz Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Let’s stop looking at this as a social experiment and think like a corps director. If a 25-year old gets lucky with a 17-year old, there goes your job and likely your corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WOOHOO Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Let’s stop looking at this as a social experiment and think like a corps director. If a 25-year old gets lucky with a 17-year old, there goes your job and likely your corps. How is that a different scenario than a 21 year old and a 17 year old? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PepsiTwist Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 (edited) How is that a different scenario than a 21 year old and a 17 year old? well, I guess you could even go as far as 18 and 17... different states have different rules. Edited September 21, 2010 by PepsiTwist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Oz Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 How is that a different scenario than a 21 year old and a 17 year old? Legally, not much. But 25-year olds are more independent and have more life experience. Unless they are still living with Mommy and Daddy. If that doesn’t convince you, ask the parent of a 17-year old. They will see a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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