Totally Frustrated.....

I am extremely frustrated with FHS Mustang Band at the moment.

Bottomline: The marching band has their first contest today and Rachel was not selected to march in today's competition. The other kid who shares the one spot they have both been competing with is marching. However, she has to show up and spend the entire day from 8 am to 6 pm going through the motions, but not marching.

As most of you know from my prior rantings August and early September, the Band experience for Rachel and us, for the most part, has not been a good one as of yet at the high school. The fundamential reason is because for whatever reason (and perhaps I'm just too dense to catch on to it yet) not everyone who wants to march, gets to march. Now, I don't mean there are just 10 Alternates, which in my day would have been those that didn't show up to practices or were screwups or just simply couldn't put one foot in front of another. No, there were 80 kids not given a spot in the Marching Band this year . (I'm told they had roughly 240 in band and only a show for 160). I guess that isn't an accurate statement.... they were given (offered) a spot. The spot was either as an Alternate or a Shadow, but NOT MARCHING. Most of these kids were Freshman who were only given about 3-4 days of marching lessons prior to the BIG tryout date. The sad thing is at least half of them have just quit. Which makes me wonder really what happens next year when you don't have many Sophmores around who know how to march? Anyway..... For those that stayed, however, their parents were asked to pay a lot of money and spend a lot of time transporting their kids each and every day as either an Alternate or Shadow along with all the other kids. So, technically, they are in the band and I, as a parent, have forked over nearly $700 for registration fees and various other fees, but NO, my child MAY not get to march. Ridiculous!

On top of that - the story just keeps changing....
When Rachel was put as a Shadow (which is better than an Alternate), she was told she was competing for a spot. She was told there would be a date in the future when a selection was made between her and the other child as to who had the permanent spot. She was told she still had a chance to actually make the program and march each and every show. Because she wanted to keep going and because I didn't want to ruin those chances, I did not say a word at this point (as I SOOOOOOO wanted to). She kept going and working hard trying to win this position. She WANTS to march! She's at every practice! Unfortunately, the director keeps changing the rules of the game. So, now, it appears that in practice, no one will actually get the permanent position. He'll just make selections on Fridays of each week and determine who will march. Is that the final ruling or will that change again too??

So.... Rachel may get to march, may not get to march. Who the heck knows each and every football game, each and every competition. I do know though that Rachel works hard to meet the expectations of her band directors. She wants to be an active member of the band and wants to have the experiences of marching at football games and competitions. This is frustrating for her and it's frustrating for me. I know what this experience can be like - it should be a wonderful time in her life. Full of fun experiences and serious ones as they compete and win. As a parent, I had envisioned being able to enjoy my child's high school experience through many ways including going to football games and competitions and watching my child participate in a meaningful way in an organization (band) for which I have always had such high respect(across the board). It's extremely sad to see how it is turning out so far for us. Definitely, not a positive experience so far.

Later....