Music and Athletics

lkf725
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:24:57 +0000

I have a son who managed to “do it all” in high school: varsity letterman, many music awards, top academics. When he went to college, he let the sport go and participated in a casual way as he had time (it is an individual sport). So he tried to keep up with the study of music performance and theory/composition while studying engineering. It was not long until he had to choose, not because he couldn’t do both but there were just not enough hours in a day. S eventually relegated music to casual lessons with a flexible teacher and playing in a local chamber orchestra, while studying engineering. He decided that making A’s was his first priority. He also tried to double major in engineering and German, which turned out to have many scheduling conflicts as the engineering schedule is fairly rigid and intense. Realistically, a minor is be much more doable.

You can’t tell your children what to choose either…it’s just too hard. I think students know when they are getting overbooked and they are sometimes even relieved to hear from you that they don’t have to do it all.