For Excellence In Education

For God’s choice for the Secretary of Education to be discerned so that our nation’s schools and teachers may be strengthened

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
—James 3:1

O Lord Jesus Christ, You are the great teacher of all persons. You taught with wisdom and truth words that bring meaning to all lives—today and in the past. I praise and thank You for being our Great Teacher and the one in whom all truth holds together.

For the sake of our nation’s students, schools and teachers, Lord, I ask You to identify and bring forth the person best suited to be Secretary of Education in the new administration. Because of Your love and passion for children, O God, help newly-elected Barack Obama as he chooses this vital cabinet member. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This is the latest in the series of prayers led by the Presidential Prayer Team for the new President and for our nation. If you are interested in receiving the email with each day's prayer assignment you can click here and sign up.

Another Great Outing

Well, tonight I was treated to another South Rowan High School Jazz Band concert. Once again they did a fabulous job. Tonight we got to preview their version of Sing, Sing, Sing! and It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing. Not bad at all. Both are very tough songs and they did a pretty decent job with them considering that they just started working on them recently. I can't wait to hear them at the final concert of the semester.

One of their Senior trumpet players wailed on his solo. I think his name is Nader. (Sounds like 'Mater, like TUH-Mater without the TUH!) Everyone was cheering for him.

The band leaves on a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC tomorrow after school for a big jazz festival/competition that they are having down there. They won't be competing, but they will be playing. I'd love to go down there and hear them. Unfortunately, I think they have to play pretty early in the morning on both Friday and Saturday - I think. I look forward to hearing what the competition is like. I don't know if this is all high school jazz bands or if it is an open competition.

My hat is off to Justin Dickson, second year band teacher, who blew the doors off of my high school band teacher. I dare say that he is the best band director in Rowan County. If any of the others happen to read this and want to prove me wrong, then let them provide soloists from each section of their band that can improv over jazz and swing tunes and sound good. If they can do that then they may enter the discussion. Otherwise they need not apply.

If you live in the area and want to see what a high school band should be like, come out to the year end concert. I'll be posting the dates here as soon as I know about them. You WON'T be disappointed, but you WILL probably be shocked. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I wish I'd had a band teacher like that.

I Wish I Had Had A Band Director Like That...

Tonight I went to the South Rowan High School band concert. I really didn't go with terribly high expectations - after all it was a high school band concert. I expected a good bit of out of tune playing and a few weak sections, but an overall tolerable evening.

I was blown away.

The first part of the concert consisted of a mixed band of freshmen and upperclassmen. I was absolutely surprised by how well they played. Given another month they would be ready for competition. They played March of the Irish Guard arr. by James Ployhar, Norwegian Folk Song Suite by Frank Erickson, and Dorian Rhapsody by Eliot Del Borgo.

For the next movement of the concert, the freshmen left the stage to a skeleton crew of upperclassmen. This crew tackled some really tough pieces. First on the docket was Habanera by E. Chabrier arr. by Albert Davis. It was a very intricate and tricky piece. They followed that with "Sleepers, Wake" from Cantata 140 by Johann Sebastian Bach, arr. by Philip Sparke. "Ah, Bach..." Need I say more? And they closed this set with the Disney show tune Under the Sea by Alan Menken, arr. by Jerry Nowak. I don't remember ever hearing a band number whose melody was carried for the majority of the song by the baritone horn. I'm not sure the name of the young man who was playing, but he did a fantastic job and had a wonderful tone.

This was all well and good. These bands did a fine job, but the real treat was still to come.

The final set of the evening was performed by the South Rowan Jazz Ensemble. They set the house on fire right out of the gate with William Chase and Richard Marinan's Get It On (arr. by Paul Jennings). They followed that with Sammy Nestico's Orange Sherbet. I just cannot do justice to the job these guys were doing. They totally rocked the house.

That was followed by Jimmy Forrest's Night Train (arr. by John Higgins). The band tore it up. There were extended jazz improv solos!!! My band director never taught ME how to improv! And these kids were GOOD. They were relaxed and having a good time. It was amazing!

The next song in the set was Embraceable You, the George Gershwin tune arr. by Roy Phillippe. That was the only laid back number in the entire set. They were right out of the gate again on the next song - Vehicle (written by James Peterik and arr by Paul Jennings). I'm not sure where I heard that one before, but it had that 70's groove to it.

Then the band turned to swing with the old Glenn Miller standard American Patrol arr. by Paul Lavender. They had a false start with this one, but the band director wisely pulled the plug and started over. Once they got things together they did a fine job with it.

The last song in the set was Sermon by Erik Morales. They hit it out of the park. When the concert was done they received a well-earned standing ovation... and the audience was treated to an encore! They finished up with the Glenn Miller signature In The Mood. It was a great show.

I say all of this to say that this was all brought about by the vision and skill of a 2nd year band director. Never ever ever never have I ever heard of a band program that actually taught the students about music. At least not around here. Justin Dickson has done a STELLAR job with this band.

Many of his students came to him hardly knowing which end of the horn to blow into. Many literally didn't know what a whole note or a quarter rest were. These are the very building blocks of music, and they had managed to get to his band without knowing these things. And he had them playing Bach for crying out loud!

Back in the day I was a pretty good trombone player, but if I had had a band director like Justin Dickson, I might still be playing today. He is teaching these kids how to make music and not just memorize how to play songs. There is a HUGE difference. There is nothing more frustrating than having music inside of you and having an instrument and having absolutely NO IDEA how to get that music out of you through that instrument. Justin has bridged that gap for many of his students.

The sad thing is how long will it last? Every year he has to battle against people who convince his best musicians that they can't afford to "waste" a credit on band. He has to deal with ill-prepared students coming from middle schools in the area. He has to watch as other students are turned off to band because of poor programs in the schools that they have come from. And on top of all of that he has to battle block scheduling which keeps him from being able to have a cohesive band throughout the school year.

Oh my goodness what he could achieve if he had these kids for an entire year. His bands would become LEGENDARY.

Justin, my hat's off to you, buddy. Keep up the excellent work!