Dog and Pony Show

I've told you previously about the coming problems with the instrumental music program in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District (where my son still attends), and tonight was what the kids call the "Dog and Pony Show" where musicians from all of the elementary, middle, and high schools are gathered together in one place. The real purpose is to encourage 6th grade musicians (and their parents) to go on to play in middle and high school

The gathering place was the Laguna Hills High School gymnasium, jammed full and stiflingly hot. They used to do this show at Saddleback Church until some idiot parent demanded that the church take the cross down and the church withdrew their generous offer. Saddleback was a much better venue. It was air conditioned for one thing, and there was much more room for all the bands and their parents.

Here's just part of the crowd:

In addition to a whole flock of 6th grades the bands from Los Alisos and La Paz Middle Schools performed, along with Laguna Hills and Mission Viejo High Schools. I grabbed a shot of the Mission band during their performance:
The band was jammed into one corner of the floor in a really hot room with bad acoustics. They did well, though, as expected.

Tuesday night is the big board meeting at which many of these parents will be making the case that the instrumental music program shouldn't be the first thing the board tries to cut everytime the budget gets tight. I hope the board noted how many kids and their parents jammed the gym tonight.

(By the way, the pictures I took were just from the band portion. The district orchestras had filled and emptied the building before I got there. There are a lot of kids in this program.)