<p>My son is a clarinet player, which is all about the fingering. He is younger than your son, but auditioned into a very prestigious high school program. I am a proponent of protecting the fingers. We encourage son to do that by exercising common sense. He did, however, ask me once if he could try out for football. I laughed in his face.</p>
<p>But I will say that if a kid is a doofus, like me, there is nothing to be done. I once broke four fingers when I failed to catch the basketball properly in gym class. </p>
<p>In my area, being prepared is the only requirement to pass gym. That means showing up and having the correct attire. What are the standards in your area?</p>
<p>At my daughters high school, a couple of her friends took weight training for PE.
The teacher ( who imo, is a witch) set the goals for the students after testing their abilities at the beginning of the year & gave them their grade depending on how much progress she decided they made.
I know these two girls & there was no way they didn’t excel, but they received Cs, perhaps even Ds.
My D however used her team sport to get a waiver, because otherwise she would have not been able to take enough language to apply to college.
Which was what the other girls decided to do after that class.</p>
<p>My son is a violinist at a relatively high level. He continued to play sports for fun throughout high school. He jammed his fingers sometimes - nothing broken, though. </p>
<p>I would encourage you to avoid sheltering your child so much.</p>
<p>Oh my goodness NY requires PE every semester of high school, the musicians (including my kid) all make it through just fine. And yes, the cycle through different sports, my son’s favorite was archery.</p>
<p>There are some mean, discouraging comments here. What if OP’s senior violinist S or D is heading to several international competitions and college auditions including Juilliard very soon? What if your S or D is playing violin at this level? Wonder if you would still leave the same comment.</p>
<p>My dd, also a violinist, broke fingers twice playing soccer. She was highly competitive however. Luckily both times it was her bow hand, and she was still able to perform at state competition with a splint on the broken finger! But she was much younger then… I would definitely appeal to the superintendent on this one. It seems the original intent of this law was to expose freshmen to the sports available at the school to increase participation. Certainly as a senior this is of no importance whatsoever. Perhaps by pointing that out and suggesting an alternate activity, he/she would be understanding about the issue and make an exception.</p>
<p>My son is a pianist. He has had more injury type things happen as a result of practicing than through any sports (he is not very athletic). </p>
<p>I think if there was an agreement between the principal and yourself, than you should consider going to the board of education. It would be better if you had it in the written form. </p>
<p>That being said, I tend to be overprotective with my kids, but try to remember I can’t protect them from everything. How does your child feel about the course? Is she concerned about injuries? The truth is, there are rarely any injuries at our high school in PE courses…there is more concern in the science labs.</p>
<p>My kid’s at Meadowmount right now and they play volleyball there. They also hike. These are kids in the top strings program in the country who manage to get a little physical fitness and they survive. Some of them actually even enjoy it!</p>
<p>Well, OP, I have sympathy for your concern. I’d ignore the nasty, self-satisfied remarks. What some of these people don’t seem to grasp is that the issue here is mostly TIMING. Your kid is coming up on a short but intensive season of crucial auditions. If s/he breaks a wrist or finger NOW it will not be something to shrug off.</p>
<p>Physical injuries are not a joke for kids facing auditions that will determine the course of their education.</p>
<p>S broke his bow wrist right at the plate. Not minor if it ended up restricting his range of motion, which it easily could have. Just before college, he stabbed himself in the palm of his fingering hand and damaged a muscle. For the first 6 months of college he wasn’t able to fully move his pinkie. I guess some people here think that is just something to shrug off. Unfortunately, a person cannot play the violin at a high level if they can’t move all of the fingers of their left hand in a way that regular people–and most musicians-never need to and probably can’t, since years of training develops the ability.</p>
<p>My s was a 3-season varsity runner, and not a violinist at your kid’s level. If he had been in your kid’s position, and about to be forced to play dumb sports with a ball during this crucial period, I would definitely have been worried. Most likely, of course, there won’t be a problem.</p>
Where you are, are marching band kids allowed to opt out during the football season? In NYC, they can (if they choose) replace PE with marching band during the season and I think that is fair since the marching band kids train hard over the summer and through the fall.</p>
<p>As I said, my daughter (not a string player) did audition all over the country her senior year, as did her classmates (woodwinds, strings etc). Yes, they were musicians “at this level”. Yes, even Julliard! Do what you can, OP, but life goes on.</p>
<p>My daughter jammed her pinkie catching a football in PE and the teacher told her to ice it and continue on. This was a couple of days before a scholarship audition. When she showed it to me after school I was horrified as it wasn’t jammed it was broken. I called the school nurse and she indicated she had trouble with that coach taking “digital” injuries seriously. At that point she was sent to the Doctor’s for an x-ray and immobilization. She had to postpone her audition.
My point here is to let the PE teacher know of your concerns and hopefully activities can be accommodated. Our school is small so there are not options but perhaps yours is bigger. I’d recommend something other than ball sports.</p>
<p>Forgot to say that daughter is a violinist. Her broken pinkie was on her fingering hand Later in college she broke her bowing elbow and the sports therapist for the university worked with her daily to ensure range of motion. Big contrast on who gets it.</p>
<p>I don’t think the comments are “mean,” but this is the Parents Forum. Over on the Music Forum, they are different. I’m also in a strings family, (D, DH, grandfather was a pro,) and there have been injuries not related to sports, at all.</p>
<p>It sounds this is perhaps a private school? ( re: school leader- rather than principal)
In public schools, generally a great deal of warning is given before any requirements are changed, *years *go by while they contemplate adding requirements, & then generally requirements are added to increase college acceptances, not requirements that are superfluous to admittance.</p>
<p>In the case of a private school,as long as graduation requirements reflect state requirements ( usually private schools well exceed state credits), waivers should be available for cases like OPs.
If the director or " leader" isnt reponsive, go to the school board.</p>
<p>And as already mentioned, increasing strength & flexibility will decrease risks of injury.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the marching band gets and exemption. My older son refused to be in band because they force the band members to do the marching band freshman year. Younger son played violin so it wasn’t an issue. </p>
<p>Here in NY the idea is not to recruit team members it’s to get kids to realize that regular exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle. We have one of the lower obesity rates in the US, perhaps that is part of the reason?</p>
<p>I had a friend in high school who now plays in the violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra. He participated it gym class, it wasn’t a big deal. His father played a string instrument professionally as well, and his parents didn’t seem concerned about it.</p>
<p>He is now an avid bicyclist, and rides all over the place. One fall or accident could literally end his career, but it doesn’t stop him.</p>
<p>I play in a community symphony orchestra, and for the last five years or so starting at a very young age we have had a piano soloist perform with us who is a legitimate world-class prodigy - he’s performed on 4 continents, the list of competition results is incredible, he has played for heads-of-state, I could go on. His parents let him play organized baseball.</p>
<p>I think this is well put. There is risk in everything we do in life. High School PE probably has a low risk - they simply don’t do many activities anymore that could result in injuries due to liability. Gone are the days of dodgeball or every kid having to do balance beam or the hurdle…it’s pretty benign. My son tells me they can’t even play hackey sack or tether ball at his school anymore because someone got beaned in the eye with each activity and the parents threatened to sue. The kid needs to be careful, but you can’t wrap them in bubble wrap either. Whether you dance, or play a stringed instrument or are a vocalist you can get sick or hurt in day to day living.</p>
<p>Sorry, no, it’s not wrapping in bubble case, nor avoiding PE case at all. Many years ago, my older one was in school PE, he was sent to ER because his finger was sprained badly by dodgeball. His swollen hand became almost double sized. It happened only a week before the scheduled international piano competition, and had to miss it. So, with my own experience, I am indeed a little bit more cautious than most of you. Sorry about that.
But, like your kids, my kids too, have been involved and enjoyed in many physical activities. So avoiding PE in general is not an issue here. It’s about, as a senior, when you have scheduled msome big performances, have to play with balls daily under very restrictive class environment, where there is no flexibility what so ever, you can not be excused even briefly, say, a few days right before the scheduled performances, when having injury during this time means you have to simply miss them, with having not enough time to recover. Again, I already have heard enough, thank you all.</p>