Most classes at Stuyvesant end at 3:30 p.m. Most classes assign less than an hour of homework. Most final exams count for no more than ten percent of your grade. But, despite its aversion to making exceptions, the Stuyvesant Music Department has proven itself to be—in all things—exceptional.
Don’t get me wrong—I’ve loved chorus every minute of the four years I’ve been a part of it; in a lot of ways, the Music Department feels like a family. It breaks my heart to criticize it—but I have to, because there is something fundamentally wrong with how it functions.
I’ve seen my chorus grade drop a point or two during the years for various absences from after-school rehearsals, but I avoided serious skirmishes until this year, when I unwittingly committed to a prom with a friend in December, only to discover at the end of March that the annual spring concert and the prom were the same evening.
If you are in chorus you understand the terror this kind of conflict causes. My terror abated, however, when I realized that an obvious compromise was possible. I could miss the last 10 minutes of the concert—the finale, with the two choruses, band and orchestra—and just be a little late to the prom (allowing me to leave during the hour-long, non-chorus part of the concert).
And, if you’re in chorus, the next part of this saga is predictable. I suggested this compromise to chorus teacher Holly Hall and was flat-out told to “expect a city diploma,” because she would fail me. I went to Assistant Principal Music Raymond Wheeler—the response was the same. My options, I was told, were to sing the concert or see 10 minutes reduce my grade by 45 points.
Fast-forward several weeks. I have written letters to the school. I have spoken to teachers and assistant principals, many of whom have interceded on my behalf. My parents and I have met with Principal Stanley Teitel and Wheeler. The Music Department’s answer has not changed substantially. If I put a personal commitment before an “academic” one, my grade would be reduced by at least 20 points, and I would be barred from the entire concert.
There are more examples of this aversion to compromise—the Music Department prides itself on not creating a precedent for performance absences. But its “all-or-nothing” approach, while producing fantastic concerts, comes at a price—it encourages students to avoid honesty for easier approaches: make up a funeral, get a doctor’s note, say you’re feeling feverish and ask to leave the stage, lose your voice. This ruling makes a mockery of the department and encourages abuse and hollow commitment.
This is not department policy—because no policy exists that charts out what concerts are even worth. I was told that I could not have known the official policy until I triggered it—but an inaccessible, verbal “policy” is no policy at all. The Music Department’s policy is a parody of precedent, arbitrarily defined and arbitrarily applied.
But the choral program’s problems (and, by association, the Music Department’s problems) extend beyond these ambiguities and lie in its inability to accommodate students’ needs. Instead, it resorts to blatant intimidation. By confusing a class with an extracurricular activity, the department gets the best of both—a grade that counts towards our GPAs, and a way to require that students undertake a hefty time commitment inside and outside of school. Extracurricular activities are disguised as necessary class participation.
The department grades students erratically, and focuses on attendance instead of effort. This breeds resentment, as one student—who wished to remain anonymous—noted after a series of erratic grade shifts just this term. Many students were given unusually low grades without explanation: “[They] wonder why our attitudes have been deteriorating. Maybe it’s because we live in constant fear of being arbitrarily yelled at and failed.”
No class assigns two and half hours of homework, and no extracurricular activity changes a student’s grade. Except chorus. With extracurricular activities, we can choose to put academics first when we need to—but chorus, orchestra and band have created a punitive “policy” that leaves no room for negotiation. These are problems that can easily be fixed. Allow for some degree of flexibility. Write a comprehensive department policy. Allow for some recognition of personal conflicts. Create make-up volunteer work to mitigate the grade reduction. Tell students the dates of the concerts in September to avoid ambiguity. But as long as the Music Department doesn’t recognize its flaws, conflicts will continue.
This is their policy. And, unwilling to see my grade suffer when I had done nothing wrong, and unwilling to jeopardize my college acceptances or my scholarship applications (many dependent on my GPA and senior transcript), I arrived at the prom three hours late, lest a 300-strong performance miss the absence of one soprano.
But don’t worry, because I passed chorus. It’s the Music Department that failed, miserably.
Thank you so much for writing this!
YOU GO GIRL! Way to be brave. This article is not cruel, and it is completely and utterly fair and true. The Music Department should not be allowed to intimidate students any longer.
I respond to this essay with sympathy. You have my deepest condolences for your compromise, and I admire your bravery for writing this. I have found documentation and comprehensive syllabi to be paramount when it comes to understanding the responsibilities of students and faculty. However, I do have some problems with your stance.
I respect the Music Department for numerous reasons. Some of the faculty go above and beyond in order to fulfill the otherwise incomplete education of Stuyvesant students. As a student who loves the arts, whether performing or otherwise, I am appalled with the lack of artistic culture within the Stuyvesant curriculum, and certain decisions and attitudes that hinder Stuyvesant students from cultivating their creativity and absent education. In spite of this, the Music Department has managed to give an artistic outlet to hundreds of students who I believe would otherwise be without a full education.
And with art comes the unspoken rules of commitment, which are the foundations of performance. As the English department prepares students for the necessary skills one needs to understand the inner workings of Charlotte Brontë , the Music Department prepares students for the future professional expectations one would face in its respective field. Without upholding these same expectations of commitment, and yes, attendance, I feel that the Music Department wouldn’t be doing its job: Educating the students of the world that is performance. In a professional setting, a missed essay or article will get you fired. In a professional setting, a missed performance will get you fired. And while one may argue that the Music Department “assigns two and half hours of homework” with outside performances and rehearsals, one can also argue that as well as giving students pretty generous grades, the Music Department does let students out of certain required courses in exchange for one’s participation.
As someone who has had to give up a lot of time for performances (also due to the Music Department in part), I feel your pain. However, as a Senior I find it hard to believe that you were unaware of this sacrifice when you signed up for chorus during your last term. Proper attendance is essential in the performing world. Sure, you missed most of your event. But “several weeks” was enough time to see that you had overbooked, and it was enough time for your prom date to find a replacement. It’s a crappy sacrifice, but its one that’s expected in a class based on performance.
On a final note, I do believe there are problems with the Music Department that need to be fixed, as well as the whole institution that is Stuyvesant when it comes to a student’s academic expectations. But I don’t think that this is a case. While attendance in chorus is a “verbal policy”, I think it goes without saying. On the same note, I am truly sorry for the frustration that you have gone through, and wish you only the best.
-CC
While you demonstrate valid points, you leave out the fact that Chorus/Band lets most people get a 96+ for just showing up.
I don’t know about you, but most people would do anything to get a 96+ just for showing up to class.
There really is nothing else that the Music Department can grade you on, so your grade is made up of 100% attendance.
You might have to miss a few social events but you also leave out the “perks” that people in Chorus/Band get.
For Example
- A 96+ for a class where the only requirement is to show up
- The ability to not take Music Appreciation
- The ability to not take 10 Tech (Or was it 5 Tech?)
Thank you for writing this! As a chorus member, I couldn’t agree more.
Sweetie, that’s where stuy did you wrong. Anyone with any sense would have ducked out early on concert night without a word. In a crowd of 300 no one would have noticed.
I was just reading the comments on the music dept and want to say why not expose how many high schools force HS students ot take algebra that 99% will never use for any purpose in life and a major reason many drop out all over America.
The teschers who push algebra down people’s throat are experts in it and legally it violates student rights.
So does forcing some HS students to learn physics or chemistry 99% will never use.
whu has the courage to reply?
eric
tortoise1@mail.com
i’d say that most of that 99% decide to go into careers that don’t use their full knowledge. To be frank, are there ANY jobs that force employees to have a complete scale of knowledge from all their HS or colledge courses? I’d say not.
Oh, dear. I would be very interested to see the author of this article attempt to complain how the Math Department wouldn’t let her out of a midterm exam to attend a cousin’s birthday party. No department in any high school or college will accept a personal schedule conflict as an excuse for missing a mandatory event, particularly for an elective course. But, please, when you go to college, do try explaining to your professor that you could not give a required final presentation in your Friday evening class because you promised to attend your friend’s sorority event.
Chorus, Band, and Orchestra are *performance* courses. If you don’t perform, you don’t pass. It is really that simple. The policy on not missing performances (as well as class or the extra sectional rehearsals) has been consistent and explicit since at least 1994 (and I can personally attest to this as a former section leader). The author admits her knowledge of the policy that unexcused absences from class or sectional rehearsals result in a lower grade; it is illogical that a senior who had been in Chorus for four years would believe that missing a major concert should be somehow permissible. It is self-serving to suggest that a zero-tolerance policy on unexcused absences implies students would lie, fake illnesses, and otherwise cheat to get out of a performance. Chorus is an elective – if you don’t want to be there, then drop the class. Otherwise, accept that you have made a binding commitment, including active participation at concerts.
The author states she was told, “If I put a personal commitment before an ‘academic’ one, my grade would be reduced by at least 20 points, and I would be barred from the entire concert” and additionally claims that grades are based on attendance instead of effort. For the vast majority of students in Chorus, Band, and Orchestra, the only way to demonstrate one’s effort is through attendance. It is the only quantifiable and impartial means of determining a student’s grade, unless the author would prefer that only the “best” performers get the high grades. Were such the case, we would undoubtedly see an article lamenting the unfairness of subjective grading.
I further challenge the author’s statement that the school is equating “a class with an extracurricular activity.” The confusion is the author’s, not the school’s, but I am happy to clarify: if it appears on your program card and you receive a grade, it is a class. Swim Team, Speech and Debate, ARISTA, SING!, student government, and any clubs/pubs are extracurricular activities (not on program card, no grade). Despite the extracurricular nature of these activities, however, I sincerely doubt a coach would allow a student to remain on a team if the student wanted to miss an important tournament due to a conflict with a personal social activity.
Casting aspersions against the Music Department in general and its faculty in particular for not accommodating one’s personal social schedule is immature, to say the least. The author states the department should “Allow for some degree of flexibility. Write a comprehensive department policy. Allow for some recognition of personal conflicts.” The department is reasonably flexible in the event of a genuine conflict and does excuse legitimate absences, even from performances. The policy may be unwritten specifically by the Music Department but it is nonetheless quite simple: no unexcused absences (a policy which applies to every class in the entire school and probably appears at least once in the Student Handbook). As for recognition of personal conflicts, the department is under no obligation to accommodate any individual’s social calendar. It is your responsibility as an adult to resolve your own scheduling conflicts and accept the consequences for putting your personal life ahead of your academic commitments.
This article is nothing more than a childish rant written by a teenager who was not allowed to have her way. I am extremely disappointed in the editorial board of the Spectator for allowing anyone to vent her frustrations in such a biased and myopic manner in a regular column in the student newspaper because a department would not make an exception to its established policy for the sake of her social calendar. I truly expected better journalistic integrity from my alma mater.
The worst part is that it has now been three years since this article was written and, to this day, nothing has changed. This rigid unwritten departmental policy has been challenged countless times, yet, every time a student has challenged it, he or she was reminded that Stuyvesant’s Music Department is in island of unbroken and unfeeling dictatorship in our seemingly democratic school. Don’t get me wrong, I love chorus, I have sacrificed numerous things for it, and am willing to continue doing so until I graduate, but different situations require different responses, and that’s a fact that our music department does not seem to want to accept.
a lot of what you say is very true. I totally feel you and I can understand how you might have thought that was unfair. However, if you look at it from the point of view from the music department, you see that they don’t really have any other choice. The concerts are what the intense daily rehearsals build up to; it’s kinda like you spend the whole term making something for a class, you spend so much time and effort into it, and then you don’t hand it in at the end. They can’t grade you on your voice, so they grade you on effort–which is pretty much reflected by attendance. I’m sorry about what you had to go through, but if you think a little more carefully you can see that it’s not really an easily fixable problem.
When I read these, I not only have to criticize, that this is an Opinions piece. The Alumni who had posted before, this is an Opinions piece, and you can’t blame Spectator for not putting it out there. While you may think it is a childish rant, it DOES express an opinion of the student body that deserves to be heard. While you may or may not agree with the piece, Spectator has every right to publish this work. In fact, the title is “The Diary of a Mad Senior” for a reason.
As for the content, I agree, and yet I disagree. While I do agree that events should be made and cleared upon months in advance, I believe that it is fair. I do understand the Significance of prom and everything, but chorus requires effort. Effort, those words get tossed around all the time, but it is what it is. The final concert is what you’ve been working towards, it’s a display of the work you did all year. That I agree on.
The Music Department has policies that I can’t agree with, and I do believe that there should be a written policy so that there would be absolutely not confusion. But alas, problems remain unsolved.
You are 100% right Georgia. Its three years later, and bureaucratic nightmare’s remain Stuyvesant’s biggest failing point. Prom is way more important than 10 minutes of a performance. But our school lack’s priorities, and official policy trumps real and legitimate decision making. This issue – which remains relevant today – doesn’t seem to end. I have a friend who had to attend his sister’s Bat Mitzvah (Jewish coming of age ceremony) and was threatened he’d fail if he didn’t show up to the concert. Ms. Hall, and the entire music department need to reflect on their overinflated sense of importance for one moment and realize that sometimes there are more important things than “official policy.” One thing Stuy doesn’t teach, is that people matter. We aren’t all just one math equation or a 4-digit idea. We’re human beings.