Band Kept Me In School
I was not good at school.
The classes were usually so dumbed down that I just saw it as a colossal waste of time. I'd already read the books we were now supposed to be learning about - years prior. I'd complete assignments to kill time during class, then leave them in my locker without handing them in. Teachers who cared, and weren't already completely burnt out, would later review them and tell me if I would just have handed them in, my grades would be in the high 90s.
Instead, I learned to do just enough to skate by. I think I graduated with an average of 58.
I loathed going to middle and high school. It was a tremendous fight with my parents, teachers, and the asshole principal (he was an abusive drunk with a mean, adolescent temper).
There wasn't a lot for me at school. I tolerated classes taught by the few intellectual teachers we had - particularly in high school - but just hated the rest.
The one thing that kept me from dropping out entirely was the band program.
Band in my high school (gr 7-12) was taught by a single person. We had multiple grades of full band (the band you likely think of when you think of school band), jazz band, and for those of us who were keeners, there was small group (jazz combo; usually 4-5 people). I also took private lessons from the same teacher because he was a really good saxophonist and always encouraged and challenged me. He didn't charge my family for lessons so that it wouldn't be seen as favouritism or conflict of interest.
I started looking at school as a bunch of arbitrary stuff I had to sit through in between band classes.
After high school, I moved to a different city, playing gigs and busking for 3 years before going back and attending university for music performance (imagine that: going to school for music!). I went on to play countless gigs with many super talented folks, released a bunch of music, and keep at it today; learning new stuff, making new sounds, making new connections, and generally feeling good that I get to make music.
Like most pro musicians, I have a day job because the arts often don't pay enough to live well. Maybe my day job doesn't bring me the same type of joy that music does (not unlike my school years, except my day job is decent), but it doesn't matter because I have music. I had that opportunity in school. I had someone to encourage me to do something I really love when I hated virtually everything else.
Band kept me in school. Band brought me to university (where I met my future band-teacher wife). Band keeps me part of a community. Even if I feel like an odd weirdo, humming along with the microwave at lunch, I know there are other odd weirdos out there who have had similar experiences. Maybe we'll get a chance to jam one day. HMU :)
Band isn't just some noisy waste of space and money in school. Its where kids can go to learn how to be part of something. It's where kids can learn to be themselves. It's where kids can go to learn how to create music!
Support music and the arts. Especially in school. It matters to those kids more than you might think.
See also: Music Education Matters - they're trying to kill school band in my hometown.