What is the biggest pain in band directing?

It has to be the kids! Nope! How about the long hours? Nope! The parents and administration? Nope! Here it is...SCHEDULING!

The students have began signing up for next years classes and I know it was coming. "I can't schedule band next year. I have too many things I have to take." My response...OK. I quit fighting this battle long ago. If students want to be in band, they will find a way to make it work. It is not easy. Many students are encouraged to take AP classes in high school. It sounds like a good idea. They can get college credit in high school. My response...If you want to have your freshman year of college your senior year of high school, go for it. College classes taken in high school do not prepare a student for college. Many of these students end up having to retake the classes in college because they either can not pass the AP exam or do not score well enough on the placement tests once they are in college. Many students struggle in these classes and they actually end up lowering their GPA their senior year. Here's another one. "I need 3 foreign language credits to get into college." The fact is that most college admission offices value classes and activities like band far greater than how many foreign language credit a student has obtained. For most students, band will boost their GPA too. I have heard it all. It is just a battle I no longer fight. If students and their parents want them to be in band, they will find a way to schedule it.

This may very well be the issue that pushes me towards teaching at the college level one day. It may also be the very issue that allows bands in many schools to deteriorate to level that they are not longer valued or wanted. All bands across South Carolina have fallen in numbers due mostly to this very issue. Until classes like band are valued by all, this trend will continue and the answer is not to cut the time in band to 45 minutes a day just to increase numbers. Then you will just have a big, bad band.