[Peace-discuss] FW: PTA Reflections report

[Rosales, Giraldo]

If you would like to forward a comment, melodye can be contacted at melodye at nitrogendesign.com<mailto:melodye at nitrogendesign.com>



Giraldo Rosales,

Assistant Dean of Students,

Office of the Dean of Students

300 Turner Student Service Bldg, MC-306

610 East John Street Champaign , Illinois 61820

Tele. 217-333-0050

Voice Mail 217-244-6588

Fax 217-333-7366

email grosales at uiuc.edu<mailto:grosales at uiuc.edu>







-----Original Message-----
From: Melodye Rosales [mailto:melodye at nitrogendesign.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:20 PM
To: Rosales, Giraldo
Subject: PTA Reflections report



Hey G,



I thought you might find this interesting. A reminder that no

matter how many Consent Decree's we implement---the building blocks

that inspire and drive the creative spirit--the Creative Class, will

continue to bypass the youth who'd benefit most by having access to

it---leaving them to perform and release their energies through less

desirable forms of self-expression.



I am forwarding my assessment of my experience as the Chair of this

year's Franklin Middle School's PTA Reflection's contest on to you.

The annual contest is held at every school in this District with the

winners going on to Nationals----- I was very disappointed. If you

have time to read this, you'll see about midway down where the

crescendo of my concerns are raised regarding the student who was denied her

submission.



-M





>ORIGINAL EMAIL SENT 11/13/07



Hello All!



As this year's PTA Reflection's Chair, I have taken the time to

carefully address your request. I hope you accept my thoughts in the

spirit they are intended which was based on the many hours of

volunteerism I gave to contribute to this contest.



Facts:

a. 6 entries= (5) accepted submissions (1) denied

b. (1) male / (5) female

c. (1) Asian (1) Caucasian (4) African Americans (1) Latina

d. (2) Visual Arts

e. (2) Dance/Choreography

f. (1) Music (submission denied)

g. (1) Film/Video



1. I was very limited in terms of time restrictions and shortened

deadline. I found the outcome and student participation would have

benefited with a longer deadline



2. Teacher-participation-commitment to work jointly with the Chair

would be beneficial to the contests success. Understandably, our

teachers are overwhelmed with individual class work, as well as the

student activities they are involved in, but without their

assistance/support, Reflections cannot produce the anticipated quality

and or results expected



Suggestion:



a. At the completion of every Reflection's contest the next year's

Chair should be named.



b. The nominated Chair's responsibility is to attract and coordinate

teachers who are willing to participate for that following years

contest, thus giving coordinators/volunteers ample time to plan a

successful outcome



c. With Teachers and Volunteers already in place, an organized plan of

action ready to roll, the only matter left would be to await the

announcement of the Theme at the beginning of that school term



3. My overall assessment of the contest was that it inherently

excluded more students then it embraced.



4. The general guidelines appeared lopsided when reviewing the

criteria across all categories



Examples:



a. Film/Video limited students to having access to video cameras and

or computers



b. Music limited students to those who had music lessons which

afforded them prior knowledge of how to write and construct the score

to their composition.



c. Photography was limited to those with a camera or access to one



d. Photography, Dance/Choreography, Visual Arts, Film/Video and

Literature had no criteria that insisted the student had formal

training, thus the only criteria for these categories was limited

solely on time constraints, dimensions, and or word count. Therefore,

judges would ultimately select these categories subjectively and not

objectively on technique, form, structure, theory or professional

training unlike the narrowed criteria for the Music category which, by

default, eliminated the general student population.



Problem:



a. The guidelines restricted students to certain categories if they

were socio-economically disadvantaged (i.e. photography (camera

required), music (knowledge of writing/scoring required) music,

film/video (video camera/computer required))



b. Finding students wanting to pursue an interest and or talent but

limited by their lack of access to a means required to complete tasks

within the guidelines of said category. This can leave the student

emotionally scarred whereby they are more likely discouraged from

trying to pursue future extra curricular activities when "road

blocked" and or "handicapped" and or "excluded" from another when

based solely on a set of expectations and standards that under the

best of circumstances is outside of their accessibility. I often hear

from students who have experienced these roadblocks expressing their

frustrations by their refusal to participate in non-academic

challenges (such as contests)----i.e. "I don't have the tools to

succeed, though I have the talent and desire. So, that's why I don't

participate"-syndrome.



Solution:



a. Film/Video: expand this category into sub-categories 1) up to a 5

minute film/video produced by the student  2) Screenwriting no more

than 5 pages   3) Storyboard no more than 30 frames



Rationale: this would allow "all" children to participate as well as

it educates the student on the professional process that goes into

most productions/films



b. Photography: expand this category into sub-categories 1) montages

created by using magazine and or newspaper images  2) Photographs

student takes themselves



Rationale: this would allow "all" children to participate as well as

broadening the scope of photo imagery through montages using works by

other photographers and "reworking" those images into making their

personal statement (liken this to "remix" in music that this

generation identifies with and understands the concept of).



c. Music: expand this category into sub-categories 1) rap (who submit

a cappella or written words to the rap)  2) lyricist (who submit audio

a cappella or written words of the song)   3) musical composition (who

submit technical sheet containing the construction of the composition)

 4) instruments (audio--includes all who play by ear)



Rational: this would allow "all" children to participate as well as

broadening the scope of their understanding of music and the industry

it flourishes in.  Educating the students to the world of music which

is multi-layered historically, culturally, commercially, and from a

classical perspective.



Final Thoughts:



I feel the PTA's Reflection's guidelines are not only subjectively

compiled, but based solely on Class and Means.  This contest, though

open to all students, excludes the majority by default. If the

National PTA does not revisit their guidelines per category, I feel

the contest should not be supported by our District unless we are able

to provide computers, cameras, video cameras and a music instructor

who can assist those children who do not know how to write musical

chords/scores----to provide a process by which they can submit their

entries in accordance to said guidelines.



On A More Personal Note:

My frustration and sadness of being Chair of this year's Franklin

Middle Schools PTA "Reflections Contest" comes full circle with one

particular student's submission that was denied.



Meriah Porter, 13 year old eighth grade student at Franklin Middle

School who lives within a disadvantaged neighborhood and raised by a

single parent.  This student was ecstatic when asked to participate in

Reflections and whose only "self-identified" talent was singing. I

asked this student if she could make up lyrics and a tune to accompany

those lyrics. She told me she had no means by which to create

instrumental accompaniment. I then asked if she was comfortable doing

her entry a Cappella. Meriah didn't understand that term. I explained

"a Cappella" and she immediately said she does that in the normal

course of her creating her music, she just didn't recognize what that

process was called.



Meriah spent many days trying to create a tune and words to reflect

this year's PTA theme "I Can Make A Difference". Her composition was

remarkable given she had style, delivery, and a song that kept focus

on the Reflection's theme.



However, Meriah's submission was disqualified because she did not

provide a written musical score. In my opinion, this student's denial

was based on a flawed contest with lopsided guidelines that appear to

promote a subliminal form of elitism. In all of my research I can find

no reasonable explanation to justify the denial when compared to the

true definition of "music" (organized sound) and history of, not the

restrictions based solely on National's guidelines.



When given the news, this young girl was heartbroken having never

entered any school competition before for fear of rejection...only now

to see those insecurities realized



As an aside, I would like to provide an argument for why Meriah should

have had her entry allowed.  Brief Background On

Music/Musicians/Musical Scores and Originality:



1) A Cappella (Italian: "in the church style") music is "vocal music"

or "singing without instrumental accompaniment", or "a piece intended

to be performed in this way"



2) Beat boxing: a form of a cappella music popularized in the Hip-Hop

community, where rap is often performed a cappella.



3) Vocal Play: is a variant of a cappella whereas a cappella is

singing without instruments, Vocal Play is singing as "instruments" or

"becoming an instrument with the voice" (i.e. McFarland)



4) If we look at how music is constructed we find:



a. Meter-- this originates from dance which gave "form" to music

b. Structure-- this originates from voice which gave "language" to music



If we can understand this over simplified theory then we can also

determine that music follows "words" (language) to make the "music"

meaningful to the listener. And even if the "voice" is extracted from

the "structure" the music still must have the language to make the

music resonate to the human ear, to the pulse of the soul.



During Roosevelt's term(s) money was allocated to capture and preserve

American "music" through the WPA. One of the more notable compilers

was Alan Lomax. Lomax traveled to far reaches to capture Negro

Spirituals and Appalachian Folk Songs which had to be captured by

audio because these songs were kept solely by vocal preservation not

written words or scores.



5) Comparing classical musical scores/construction between that of

Gustav Mahler and Bach, you can't help but see how incomplete Bach's

work is. For anyone who has played Bach you know there is no finite

score/composition that you can just pick up and play as he may have

played it and or intended for it to be played.  Bach often left out

tempo indications, dynamic markings, ornaments and affetuoso . Thus,

the musician who is playing an instrument  or a conductor is

orchestrating a Bach score must use their own interpretations and

choices when performing his work. Whereas Mahler wrote everything

down---bowing of strings, breathes, metronome markings, and even how

the musician is to feel. ----Was Mahler to be revered over Bach? Or,

is Bach not considered a "legitimate" composer because he disregarded

such rules when constructing his pieces? More to the point, would

National have rejected Bach's music entry based on his lack of a

standardized structure?



6) Take Josef Hayden, he liberally took (volk---German for people)

folk songs and rearranged them, carefully blending them into the base

of some of his most popular compositions.  Therefore, Hayden, in

effect, acknowledged the importance of these more natural forms of

unwritten "music". One often wonders if that wasn't actually an act of

musical plagiarism--. Similarly Beethoven took Irish, Welsh and

Scottish folk songs and rearranged them into "written" musical scores.

Again, carefully blending the melodies and notes to make them his own.

Later, composers like Liszt, Brahms, Bruch, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak

used these materials more liberally--- with total disregard and or

credit to the origin of their work/musical compositions.



It makes many wonder, were these icons really geniuses, or just

masterful technicians who distinguished themselves from the "lower

class" (how they classified folk music and its performers, as well as

the audience members who it entertained) by forcing anyone who

considered themselves Class Conscious/Elite to only dignify and praise

"classical" compositions that were recorded in "written" form using

majors, minors, bars,  meters, measures and so forth.



If we look at these famous composers in more detail we might begin to

question--Does the act of writing how the music was constructed

legitimize the music, or can a cappella, beat boxing, vocal play, folk,

spirituals be accepted and recognized for their importance as the

roots of any technical method of preserving and or constructing

musical scores?



7) This brings me to popular musicians/composers/vocalists of today

who don't read or write music.  Does that stop us from paying top

dollar to buy their CD's or attending their concerts? Or calling them

"musical geniuses?" Do we first ask, "Can you write your own music

scores for others to follow", before we celebrate their work? Their

originality?



a. Jewel: didn't study music. Never took music theory. Did study

classical voice for a short while, but can't read music. She wrote her

own songs. Self taught to play guitar. Her thoughts on formal training

to learn to read and write music, "A certain amount of training is

fine, but it can homogenize your style. One of the nice things about

the way I grew up learning music on my own and from family is that I

learned to have my own style."



b. Celine Dion: Does not write or read music. For the most part she

sings other song writer's tunes written for her, though she has

co-writing a few songs.



c. R Kelly: has written for Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Mary J.

Blige, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson, Notorious BIG,

Kirk Franklin, Toni Braxton, Bow Wow, Usher and several movie themes

"Space Jam" and "Batman and Robin". His "I Can Believe I Can Fly" has

been sung by just about everyone----and yet----he can't read music or

write musical scores. In fact, he admits to being functionally

illiterate.



This list could go on and on.  So I leave you with, "Where do we

distinguish the criteria for Reflections' 'music' category?" I guess

National draws the boundaries on technical privilege and not natural

talent rooted in construction. Taking the Meriah Porter's of school

districts and separating their expression to perform the creative arts

by culturally and socially stratifying their abilities and

maintaining a threshold of subjective standards that are impossible

for them to reach.









On 11/11/07, Mark and Kathi <mkritten at earthlink.net> wrote:

>

>

>

>

> Hello.

>

>

>

> Thanks for all your work on the events you have chaired or are chairing. We

> appreciate all you do for Franklin.

>

>

>

> To help with events for next year, I am attaching an event report form that

> Mary put together. That way whoever chairs the event you are overseeing this

> year can benefit from your insight and experience and will also help the

> plan accordingly next year (both financially and for volunteers).

>

>

>

> If you could take a few minutes to complete this once your event has

> finished, and return it to either Mary or myself (electronically or on

> paper, whichever you prefer), it would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you

> have any trouble with the attachment I can either send the text to you or

> give you a hard copy.

>

>

>

> Hope to see you at the PTA meeting this Tuesday, Nov. 13. If you cannot

> attend but have something you wish to share, please let me know.

>

>

>

> Thank you again for all your contributions.

>

>

>

> Kathi

>
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