<p>boysx3 - in our district, students who want to do 4 years of band/orchestra/choir/drama or 4 years of sports - also have to take summer classes. My boys were lucky because they had a lot of extra credits when they transferred in from our overseas school. </p>
<p>starbright - yeah…big school!!! It was quite a shock to my boys, coming from a VERY small overseas school!</p>
<p>I wish it did, but it definitely doesn’t. At my school though, it takes over the music/art requirement…</p>
<p>In our big (4200 students) public high school, band is a credit course, all band members (360 students) are required to be in marching band, and all band members get a PE waiver during the fall semester due to the extra demands of the fall marching season.</p>
<p>Auspicious - same here. Are you in TX?</p>
<p>We’re in Illinois. Big suburban Chicago high school.</p>
<p>grcxx3, Wow, you have a huge high school. While we have award winning bands, we don’t have the numbers you have. </p>
<p>Our band director is also very committed to the belief that “We are not Peabody Prep”. All kids are able to participate fully in band and sports. It takes a lot of cooperation between the coaches and music department for that to happen. It takes trust for the director to be able to say, “As long as you are here and ready to play on the first downbeat, it’s all good.” We have our share of kids running from the end of lacrosse games to jazz band concerts, and kids juggling field hockey practice with marching band practice. Kudos to the kids, but major kudos to the adults who can accept that few kids are going to earn their livings in music performance, and few are going to play pro sports, so we need to allow them to flourish in an atmosphere that appreciates both. </p>
<p>(And right about here is where I’m going to get flamed about the need for our kids to REALLY COMMIT to something at an early age, and how important that is in admittance to the “tippy top” colleges. Let it fly.)</p>
<p>I really wish our school will give the band kids PE credit. But it doesn’t and the PE requirement is set as stone. </p>
<p>I heard that just starting from this year (my oldest just got into HS) that all students who want to do concert band are required to do marching band. Jazz band is different. Jazz band practices at 7am in the morning. My D. doesn’t function well that early so she is not doing jazz band. Therefore if she wants to do band (so she is eligible to try out for All State) she has to do concert and marching band, which is a serious time commitment. </p>
<p>My impression is our band teacher is very good, probably as good as eastcoascrazy’s school’s band director, in terms of working with students who have multiple activities. but I’m not sure, since our D. hasn’t missed a single practice or band meet so far.</p>
<p>No PE credit. Even school sports don’t earn a student a PE credit. Oh, and PE is required every semester for all students in grades K-12. The the only way out of the PE requirement in high school is if a student fills every hour with academic classes AND participates in physically active school sponsored extracurriculars all year. So, dd2, who is in marching band (fall), cheer (winter), track (spring) and softball (summer) can take 7 classes. Somebody without the physical extracurriculars would get pulled from a class and put into PE. When dd1 was a level 8 gymnast, training 4 hours a day every day year round, she could not get a PE waiver because gymnastics was not a school sponsored event.</p>
<p>Herandhis, I’ve found that the key is to let the band director (and the coaches) know about other commitments way, way, way in advance, and to ask, very, very nicely for their cooperation in working together to make participation in both activities possible. Nobody is happy if your kid just doesn’t show up for practice. </p>
<p>We’ve always supplied coaches/band director with a full schedule of games and band competitions/performances, along with a promise that we would make sure our kids were where they needed to be, on time, and ready to participate. This has involved some madcap drives from games to competitions with kids changing in the back of the car from one uniform to the other, but it has worked.</p>
<p>It also helps if the principal and athletic/sports director are fully supportive of that philosophy. And if you’ve got a coach or band director who is unwilling to be a bit flexible, this absolutely wouldn’t work. </p>
<p>(It also has helped that our school is just small enough that some of the most outstanding musicians are also excellent athletes. Under these circumstances it is in everyone’s best interests to cooperate.)</p>
<p>At our school, marching band is done AFTER school…how would that interfere with classes held during the school day? </p>
<p>Our school does allow varsity athletes to be exempt from PE class during their sport season…but that is as far as it goes. Marching band is not considered a sport.</p>
<p>At our school, band is a class - 3 cr./yr. In the fall, you either do marching band or if you have a conflict (can’t do summer band camp, too busy with other ECs in fall or simply don’t want to) you do “tech band.” Tech band practices music but doesn’t perform. After Thanksgiving, Tech Band is dissolved (marching band continues until the football team is done) all students in band audition for the concert bands (there are 3). There are about 200 students who chose to do band and maybe 50 who do Tech. Noone gets out of PE.</p>
<p>Our public HS does not even give PE credit for playing varsity sports, although I believe that may change this year due to budget constraints for PE teachers.</p>
<p>“Band” is a class, and that entails pep band, orchestra, and ‘marching band’ (which is only marching in 4 parades a year). If you are in band, you are obligated to go to home football games, but they do not march, the kids sit on the bleachers and play. The kids get regular class credit.</p>
<p>gsmomma - no marching at games? Just playing playing in the stands and doing a few parades? That’s no fun!!! :(</p>
<p>The high school band my son was in played and marched at every game - home and away. They practiced the music every day in class, and spent 4-5 afternoons a week (12-15 hours per week) practicing and perfecting the complicated marching drill. They marched in a couple of parades, but mainly performed their 9-minute drill for a variety of area marching competitions (state competitions are held every other year). </p>
<p>It was incredibly hard work, and well worth the PE credit they received.
More importantly - they had fun!</p>
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<p>My son and daughter would totally disagree. They loved playing the music but HATED marching. HATED IT. Luckily their high school band only marched in 2 parades a year (they thought THAT was too much). They didn’t have a football team at all…band played from the bleachers for the homecoming soccer game. They played from the bleachers as a pep band for a few basketball games.</p>
<p>It wasn’t a huge issue for DD who played the oboe…there isn’t “marching band” music for double reeds.</p>
<p>This was a big issue in S. Cal (inland) a few years ago. PE teachers threatened legal action to require Band kids to take the mandatory 2 yrs PE for graduation as a separate class. Lots of posturing on both sides, and the school district decided to uphold granting PE credit for marching band. Band kids get 1/2 year of PE credit per year of band. Now the district also offers PE as an online class. Laugh now.</p>
<p>thumper1 - I think it may depend on what kind of marching they are doing. If it’s the simple, march and make fun shapes (lots of simple designs), then that is kinda boring. That’s what my son does now in his college band. It’s a different drill every week, so it can’t be complicated - but the roar of the giant stadium crowd makes it fun.</p>
<p>The high school bands in this area do drum corps style marching drills - very complicated movements that are very demanding physically. It’s intense but the kids enjoy it.</p>
<p>Auspicious - I wish our big (4200+) Illinois suburban public high school would take a cue from yours. As with all Illinois schools, mandatory P.E. for four years, marching band is extracurricular so no credit, no P.E. waiver despite 4 days/wk practice (starting 4 wks. prior to school), Fri. games and Sat. festivals.</p>
<p>AL34, wow, that is a pretty tough scenario. Maybe my kid’s school gives the PE waiver because marching band is a required part of the band curriculum. The PE waiver helps to keep more kids in band. Without that waiver, many more kids would decide not to be in band at all.</p>
<p>Our school only has 350 students in grades 9-12 and about 100 kids are in the band. Since our school is so small, many of the students are involved in multiple activities. As a result, many of the football players and cheerleaders are also in the band. Obviously, those students do not have to play in the pep band at the football games.</p>
<p>Trust me, after seeing them ‘march’ in parades, I am not sure that I would want them to do any formations at a football game. They have trouble walking in a straight line down the street!</p>
<p>It’s interesting how this varies. At my kids’ school (a suburban public school including an IB magnet), concert band is a class, and marching band is more-or-less required for kids in the concert band. But the extra time commitment is very small–home football games, fairly minimal marching, no competitions and no parades. I think if it demanded much more time, all the IB kids (who probably make up half, if not more, of the band) would take something other than band. Oh, and no PE credit for band–but PE is only required through 9th grade.</p>