Dear Editor:
The day the music died at Wellington Height Secondary School (WHSS)? It certainly seems so after principal Jennifer Meeker spoke on the phone with our family last week and confirmed the school’s music program will be carved from the Fall 2019 curriculum.
Both music classes offered to Grades 9 through 12 and the much beloved concert band program are being eliminated.
As a parent of a Grade 10 student who has benefited from both music class and participation in band, it is hugely disappointing to our family. The school’s decision to cut an entire program from the curriculum and deny the opportunity to all UGDSB students in Wellington North to benefit from music education is unfathomable, both in high school and for every student in the elementary public feeder schools.
The recent notice that music has been withdrawn from the WHSS landscape has turned my daughter’s Grade 11 timetable into a game of Jenga, leaving her not only without the option for music, but possibly having to drop art and move a third science course in its place.
For a highly academic student who puts significant expectations on herself, art and music are her two “best friends” and provide a much-needed ground for creative expression and critical thinking. As she searches for a way to incorporate the arts into her professional future, it is proving difficult to include a single arts course in her 2019-20 school year. This makes no sense and speaks to the increasing limitations of a school and its students that are chronically under-supported.
As an arts administrator, educator and artist, I feel extremely protective of the few and flagging opportunities available to Wellington North youth, a population already undernourished by the arts.
It is becoming clear to me that educational discrimination exists and that we don’t offer a public-school system where all tax dollars equally fund opportunities for every student, no matter their 416 or 519.
If low enrolment is the issue for an entire arm of the curriculum, let’s not blame it on lack of interest among rural families. Let’s support programming at the junior and intermediate levels so we foster a curiosity as early as possible and leave those options open in high school, for even the few who choose to benefit. How about supporting our JK to Grade 8 schools and those teachers who struggle to offer art or music, to the point where instrumental music was not available to my son’s Grade 8 class at all this year.
Are we being asked to lower our expectations and assume that ambition, creativity and innovation only happen in larger centres, leaving our smaller communities heavy with complacency or mediocrity? Wellington Height’s recent musical production of Grease was proof, that led by dedicated arts educators, students can soar to the rafters.
The creative process is not about the end product. It is about the journey; the chance to shape identify; to feel included; to mentor and steward; to explore, create and question. It is a soft place to land and a safe place to dream big.
The connection between the arts and well-being is undeniable and the understanding of how the arts breathes life into every fibre of both our economy and our culture is vital. They are not mutually exclusive.
What will happen to the flute in the lovely black box my daughter was so excited to receive for her last birthday? For now, the case remains closed.
Judy Anderson,
Damascus