So Many Dishes

My first thought, when I saw this prompt, was to vent about one of my pet peeves when it comes to driving in Florida, and have my billboard say “use your turn signal.” But then I saw this photo from Vaughn Fleischfresser, and I knew I had my sign:

Obviously, as a musician and music teacher, I believe in the value of music education. But I also know that the arts are easy pickings when administrators are looking for ways to save money. In the county where I taught, because of how teaching positions are allocated, only about half of the middle schools had a chorus teacher. And our school leaders were very supportive, compared to many other school districts in Florida.

The lessons that students learn in music classes are often life lessons. At one point, all teachers were mandated to put an “I can” statement on the board each day, a daily learning objective. I told my administrators that the statements in my classroom would begin “we can,” because we accomplished our objectives together. That’s just one example of a skill that transfers to many areas outside the music classroom.

Advocating for music education is definitely a worthwhile message for my billboard.