Kent graduate wants music, PE kept in budget | Letter

I just read (Steve Hunter’s) article on the Kent School District (proposed) budget cuts (April 1 edition) and I’ve been very concerned since it was first brought to my attention. I am the son of one of many whose jobs are at stake with these cuts.

When I attended Pine Tree Elementary, I fondly remember my general music and physical education classes. Entering the fifth grade, I joined band and played the trumpet, which I kept up all the way through high school at Kentlake. It was a great way to broaden myself, make new friends (which I still keep in touch with) and travel places and do things I would have never done otherwise. Our Kentlake jazz band won numerous awards at jazz festivals and it was an accomplishment I am to this day proud of.

I am to understand that in the case these are cut, it becomes the classroom teachers’ responsibility. This raises the question, are the teachers going to be required any further training to properly teach these classes? What about child obesity? Are there previous districts who have cut PE and found an increase with this?

It’s also a little funny how so much emphasis is placed in math and science, while the general populous overlooks the fact that reading and playing music can improve a child’s math skills.

Imagine this, you’re entering the seventh grade. You were fortunate enough to have your braces removed over the summer just before school starts. You strut through the door in your new threads and you’re ready to shout throughout the halls, “Hey, check me out!.” It’s your first day of junior high.  Nervous, excited, anxious, and skeptical are knotted up in your stomach, but you don’t let it show.

Suddenly, you notice kids giving you odd looks like, “What the heck is he carrying?” Is that a suitcase or something?” They’ve never seen a trumpet case or a saxophone case or even a flute case before. You get to the music room and fumbling put your instrument together, trying hard to remember how as it’s only your second or third time. The band teacher (who was lucky enough to keep his job) steps to the front of the class and all the kids settle around you. “Open up your books to page one,” he says, “we’ll start with ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’”

“What? I cannot play this song, I’m in the 7th grade. That stuffs for kids!”

Okay, so a little dramatization, but still. These kids are going to be entering junior high school and learning how to play these instruments for the first time while being ridiculed throughout because all the beginner books for these kids start with songs just like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

No 13 year old kid is going to want to risk the humiliation. Now a 10-11-year-old kid in fifth grade? That’s not going to bother them too much and then when they hit grade seven, they’ll be ready for some big boy songs.

Let me tell you where music got me today. Music opened my world and gave me a whole slew of new possibilities in life. From playing it, to recording it, to learning about music production, to forming a band and working at my college radio station, which led me into communications and majored in broadcast production, to filming local bands and editing their videos, to editing video for the Seahawks and finally to moving to Los Angeles where I currently work in TV production.

You see, starting in music led me to a completely different career path, but if it wasn’t for music and my opportunity to learn about the arts, I wouldn’t be sitting in my edit bay today writing this e-mail.

To this day, I still play my trumpet and guitar. In high school, I could play about three or four different instruments. It was and still is a part of my life.

I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that I liked reading the article, it was very informative. Please keep up the good coverage as the budget crisis progresses.

I could rant for hours on how this situation is completely messed up, but I shouldn’t take up any more of your time. Hopefully, my stories can provide some insight on the importance of these programs. Kids need exercise and the proper knowledge of health and fitness. The arts need to stay in school, they promote higher learning abilities, and open doors and possibilities those kids can only dream of.

Michael Sarver

Los Angeles