Extracurricular differences, part II

I want to return to the extracurricular differences for a bit. As I explained, when there is poor funding, there are poor activities. But what about well-funded schools?

If the after-school activities are running like they should, such a system might be favorable over the European system. Music and the arts are much more accessible for the students and there is less of a barrier to join, say, the jazz ensemble, the student orchestra or the drama club.

Music wasn’t a big part of my high school experience. The first one or two years we learned musical generalities once a week in class and I remember embarrassing myself on the keyboard in some kind of musical variety performance. But that was it. I wonder if this would have been different if the school had that jazz ensemble or student orchestra, or for other arts, if the school had that drama club or fine arts group.

This specifically counts for more rural areas, where these musical ensembles are hard to find. Erp, the village where I grew up, had a fantastic wind orchestra. But that was it and I wasn’t particularly interested. Would I have been interested in playing the cello if they had a string section? I don’t know. Would I have been interested in playing jazz? Maybe, I don’t know, but it wasn’t there. Urban areas can offer this variety and are not as greatly affected. But in the rural areas, where you can’t always find such a great variety of opportunities, wouldn’t it be invaluable if the schools could fulfill that need?

Or maybe it’s just another case of the grass being greener on the other side.

23 January 2007 | Cultural Affairs, International Affairs | Comments