"The Day The Music Died"

"And the three men I admire most

The Father Son and the Holy Ghost

They took the last train for the coast

The day the music died."

(Don McLean, American Pie 1971)

     The above lyrics, that you will probably have in your head for the rest of the day, you can thank me later, are from a song that commemorated three talented musical artists that died in a plane crash in 1959.  Buddy Holley, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, Jiles Perry Richardson Jr.  They were all young, 23, 18 and 29 respectively, and when we remember their songs like,"That'll Be the Day, "Summer Time Blues" and "Chantilly Lace" we wonder, had they lived, what other music they would have created.  

     This past week, more music died.  A small school district in the county cut their band program and the position for that particular teacher.  The reasoning of the board was, since the state is making more cuts to school districts, it will save them around $30,000.

     The school board didn't stop there, they cut their Ag program, along with that teachers' position too.  They estimated this will save them another $70,000.

     Cutting an agriculture program in the heart of an agriculture community makes no sense to me.  

     There was no mention of cutting sports programs.  There also was no mention of what sport programs cost a school district.  I can assure you, just on the transportation cost side of the equation, the amounts are extremely high.

     I understand sports are important.  They are supposed to teach team work and help to build strong bodies.  Sometimes sports are the only reason a student will even give a rat's behind about getting a passing grade.  Some students, and even their parents, have a goal of playing professional sports to make a living.

     Let's take a look at those figures.  The following is taken from the Georgia Career Information Center, Georgia State University in 2006.  It says that only 1 in 16,000 high school athletes attains a professional career in sports.  The article gives percentages of student athletes from high school to college, college to pro and high school to pro.  None of the percentages are high.  Considering that

our county's population is just a tad bit more than 16,000, those are not very good odds to go pro.

     I'm not bashing sports, I understand that the percentages of someone being a professional musician are probably even lower.  I'm not blaming this particular school district for making these cuts either.  There are many more districts in the same boat because the financial state of our state is in complete shambles.  Rather than the state making cuts of useless spending and putting more dollars into the education of our children, they would rather tax the bejaybers out of the rest of us.

     But what happens to our kids when certain academics are deemed unimportant?  I've seen many a pro athlete in the news who obviously missed out big time on certain academics.   Has learning to grow a plant or how to compost to rejuvenate the soil and cut down on waste become unworthy?  How about knowing how to use a hammer, read a tape measure, cut a board, is that now considered a lowly position?  Is being able to read a piece of sheet music going to be a thing of the past?

     The answer to these questions lies somewhere, but if we are not academically smart enough to figure it out, that will indeed, be the day the music dies.