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marylandmom3 · 04-25-2008, 10:18 PM

I will agree that a bad teacher is awful in any discipline. But I still think it is worse in some classes, one being Band. Our son had a terrible Algebra One teacher. We had him tutored and started working on getting in to another teacher's class. It took 9 weeks but we finally were able to have him moved to another teacher's class. We had other options that we could persue. So sure you can go to on outside teacher for your primary instruction.

There is usually only one band teacher at a school. Sure our daugher had a private teacher and interacted with other band directors in all-county, tri-county, etc. but so did the top students at another HS 10 miles away. And their band director stayed after school and helped them prepare for competitions, she allowed the students that played sports to still participate in the marching band when they could, and created many more opportunities for her students to play. At our D's school it was the one winter concert and one spring concert and that was it. Her band director often called them morons, idiots, etc. He told us when asked that our daughter just didn't understand his sarcasm. We dealt with four years of this. We also always felt that he didn't particularly care for freshman that made symphonic band. We certainly didn't rely on the HS band class to meet all of her needs but that class is part of what she did. And certainly there are students that don't have the money or the parental support to have the same opportunities as our D. Most college applications asked for recommendations from both the HS and private music teacher. For the first two years of her HS career we lived in a rural area. It was 30 minutes to her HS...45 to the private lessons...the closest youth ensemble was an hour and half away(if you didn't hit any traffic during rush hour)...so that wasn't an option. A band teacher just like every other teacher should be able to meet the instructional needs of all the students. HS English is for All students but the brightest students are not expected to get a tutor in order to have their needs met. Most schools offer AP and other higher level classes for students that excel in English.

BTW research does show that when an elementary student has an incompetent teacher it takes about three years for them make up the difference and be on the level they would have been on without the bad teacher.

04-25-2008, 10:18 PM	#77
marylandmom3 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 61	I will agree that a bad teacher is awful in any discipline. But I still think it is worse in some classes, one being Band. Our son had a terrible Algebra One teacher. We had him tutored and started working on getting in to another teacher's class. It took 9 weeks but we finally were able to have him moved to another teacher's class. We had other options that we could persue. So sure you can go to on outside teacher for your primary instruction. There is usually only one band teacher at a school. Sure our daugher had a private teacher and interacted with other band directors in all-county, tri-county, etc. but so did the top students at another HS 10 miles away. And their band director stayed after school and helped them prepare for competitions, she allowed the students that played sports to still participate in the marching band when they could, and created many more opportunities for her students to play. At our D's school it was the one winter concert and one spring concert and that was it. Her band director often called them morons, idiots, etc. He told us when asked that our daughter just didn't understand his sarcasm. We dealt with four years of this. We also always felt that he didn't particularly care for freshman that made symphonic band. We certainly didn't rely on the HS band class to meet all of her needs but that class is part of what she did. And certainly there are students that don't have the money or the parental support to have the same opportunities as our D. Most college applications asked for recommendations from both the HS and private music teacher. For the first two years of her HS career we lived in a rural area. It was 30 minutes to her HS...45 to the private lessons...the closest youth ensemble was an hour and half away(if you didn't hit any traffic during rush hour)...so that wasn't an option. A band teacher just like every other teacher should be able to meet the instructional needs of all the students. HS English is for All students but the brightest students are not expected to get a tutor in order to have their needs met. Most schools offer AP and other higher level classes for students that excel in English. BTW research does show that when an elementary student has an incompetent teacher it takes about three years for them make up the difference and be on the level they would have been on without the bad teacher.