Abstract:

Over the past decade, music, sports, and general physical education have slowly but surely been disappearing from the daily curriculum of primary and secondary school students in many of the United States public schools due to extensive unavoidable budget cuts. Realizing that these programs are indeed an integral part of the students’ academic development, educators and parents, as well as state and federal bureaus have been trying to find an economic solution to meet these needs. As a result, after-school programming and/or programming scheduled during the regular school day offering musical and physical education activities funded by outside sources (private donors, grants, or federal or state monies) have become increasingly prominent in the public school system. While appearing to be a viable solution, there are a few trends developing that could lend themselves to counterproductivity: (1) students now have a school day that may extend from as early as eight am (ante meridian) to as late as six pm (post meridian); (2) students are signing up for multiple programs and unable to commit to and meet the demands of each separate program; (3) homework time for "regular" school subjects may be compromised due to the late hour the student arrives home creating a rift between state/institutional educators and educators brought in from outside sources; (4) because the outside programming is not mandatory, there is a tendency to promote its entertainment value rather than its educational value to entice students; (5) because the outside programming is not grade-based, the commitment level of the students and their parents may be marginal since absences won't effect the students’ Grade Point Average (GPA), and the absences may be tolerated because the program will be dropped if it does not have a certain number of students to justify the funding; (6) because the programming is not "in-house," classrooms and the space provided are not necessarily conducive to the activity, which may compromise the quality of the instruction; (7) support from the site staff/faculty may vary greatly depending on how the programs are funded; and (8) support from the site staff/faculty may vary due to how much value the site director, principal or CEO places on the music/exercise/sport programming.

The paper will explore the various issues as described by students, educators, funders and donors participating in and offering these programs throughout the Chicagoland area, compare variables between the highest and lowest functioning programs, and discuss possible ways to standardize the quality of the programming, and thus ingrain in the students the discipline and habits necessary to achieve excellence.

Keywords:

Music, sports, physical education, students, primary, secondary, after-school programming, solution, Chicago, educators, funders, donors, quality, excellence.