Thursday 12/11 Update - The Aycock Middle School Bands under the great direction of Juli Parker came through. All three grade levels as well as the flute and clarinet ensembles treated the overflow crowd to some familiar seasonal music that suited everyone.
I told her of my disappointment at the other two concerts we had attended earlier and she shook her head with understanding and offered a true musician's response to why she included so much seasonal music, including a great 8th grade performance of Anderson/Story's Sleigh Ride. Sez Juli, "It is an instrumental concert, no words. The tunes are great and familiar to the audience so I choose to walk the fine line."
In other words Juli plays to the crowd - not to political correctness. Only one of her selections was "Christian" and Forte's fun Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa was offered by the 7th graders, the balance of the repertoire was familiar and wonderful and definitely put EVERYONE in the "holiday spirit" as evidenced by many smiles and singing along.
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Full Disclosure: We are not an especially religious family, we rarely attend an organized church. We are, however, a family that believes in and practices Tradition... that being said...
The expunging of any vestige of Christmas tradition from Guilford County Schools is nearly complete.
Last night two of my children had music programs at their respective schools. Jack, playing tuba with the Grimsley H.S. Band, and Jesse, singing with the fourth grade chorus at Jones Spanish Immersion. Both were billed not as "Holiday Programs" but as "Winter Programs". We always make every attempt to attend all of our children's performances but because both were at the same time at different schools, Jinni and I split duties.
Among the seasonal favorites that I enjoyed by the excellent Grimsley Wind Ensemble were Overture Energico (Barnes) and Visions of Flight (Sheldon). The jazz band brilliantly performed the holiday favorite Tower of Power's "What Is Hip". Jinni reports that the Jones 4th grade students sang some tune from the Revolutionary War, the sing-along favorite "Happy Kwanzaa" and a Hannuka tune that, because of her Baptist upbringing, she just couldn't identify... but there was not one note sang of Christmas, Santa or Oh, Tannenbaum.
Over the years, my children have learned a of number of Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Hannuka songs and I know they are richer for it but I think that the minority population of children who are non-Christian could be similarly enriched by at least a smidgen of traditional Christmas music.
My observations are that other-than-Christmas seasonal songs seem to be taught disproportionally, and to the obvious EXCLUSION, of traditional Christmas songs except for perhaps the ubiquitous Jingle Bells. IMHO our public schools are bending too far backwards in their political correctness to the point of going the other way.
What possible harm could come to anyone by singing the traditional end-of-concert tune "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Simply have each student vocalize their observance of choice when it comes to singing the word "Christmas"... We Wish you a Merry ("all together now... Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hannuka") would be a great crowd pleaser.
Josie will be playing oboe tomorrow night with the Aycock Middle School Band, hopefully I will be treated to at least one song that reflects my (and the vast majority of families that will be in attendance) traditions.
Being the son of a band director, I am very familiar with the expansive body of extraordinary traditional Christmas concert band and choral arrangements. If things keep going the way they are, those arrangements may never see another downbeat of a public school conductor's baton until sometime in the future when they are declared an endangered and under-represented body of art.
After such a declaration, political correctness will dictate that those forgotten arrangements should be performed on a regular basis so that students can be exposed to traditions that used to be held by much of society.
8:13:09 AM 
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