Welcome,
As new president of Nevada ASTA, my first action is to thank Ryan Watson for his leadership and vision for these past two years. His presidency saw an expansion of the scope of NVASTA events that include the beginning of the NVASTA Music Festival in Las Vegas and the establishment of the first recurring instrument day in Washoe County, Bass Day, which is scheduled to debut on October 13th, 2012. Ryan continues to be the instrument day guru and we hope that he will carry that mantle for a long time to come.
My thanks also to Mark Kovacs who concluded his six year NVASTA leadership cycle in June. I hope you enjoy your retirement from teaching and continue to be musically active wherever you hang your hat.
On a serious note . . .
String education in Nevada is in a perilous position at this time. The non-resolution of budget issues by the politically paralyzed federal and state government is beginning to wear on the education system as a whole. In Clark County we are beginning to see the elimination of string programs through attrition and site based actions. The loss of these programs is but one symptom of an education system that now focuses solely on the high stakes test industry and has abandoned meaningful attention to all but STEM subjects. This is a much larger issue than can be discussed here.
What does this mean for string education in Nevada? We are in a survival situation that makes it imperative that we get more students involved in our programs. The best advocacy tool for your program is numbers. The more students involved in your program, the more valuable your program will be to your administration and your parents. Just two examples of the immediate effects of a larger string program are: More string numbers increases community involvement, which builds a sense of ownership in the school community by parents and students. Your program becomes important to more people. In addition, administrators like the larger string classes because they provide a meaningful place for students to be while easing scheduling problems. Your program becomes more important to your administration.
In the coming months I will be posting a series of articles concerning retention and recruitment. Any anecdotal items, questions or thoughts are appreciated as I work my way through this issue. I can’t guarantee to have the answers but hopefully I can provide insights that can spur dialog and reflection and we can develop answers as an organization.
String education in Nevada will flourish only if we are responsible educators, informed advocates and active participants in the process. The choice is ours.
Until next time – please continue to support the NVASTA events.
Chuck Cushinery
President, Nevada-ASTA
