depressed
Ooooohhhh I'm sooooooooooo inspired to pen this down after reading some (nah I didn't waste time reading all) of those politically-correct reflections splashed out all over the web. Singapore's education system has taught everyone well, so it seems.
This has got to be the MOST CLICHED AND OVER-SUBSCRIBED catch-phrase ever invented to make the weak feel stronger, and to make the stronger seem more humble.
"It's the process that really matters, not the result."
So what does it mean then?
1. Funding. It sure does take quite a fair bit of funds to manage a big CCA group like the band or chinese orchestra, which has an average of maybe 40 to 50 members. Usually the number of instruments will outnumber the no. of students as the money for equipment comes from another separate fund, so the yearly budget for the band will go to the day-to-day running requirements roughly broken down into: purchase of scores/training materials, purchase of expendable accessories such as reeds, maintenance of instruments due to general wear and tear (music instruments are still so fragile no matter how well they seem to be designed), and other miscellany, perhaps some money set aside to aid preparations for a public concert e.g. printing of tickets, posters, booking of hall, etc. Now there is no "guideline" given to schools as to how much is to be spent on the band alone, some schools get exorbitant amounts of (TAXPAYER!) money to fund their activities or even for the purchase of new and more expensive, top-of-the-line, professional-level instruments, which will often land in the hands of a student who is far less equipped in terms of skill to really fully utilise the instrument's capability. Really depends on how much the person at the top wants to give - regardless of whatever result that has been achieved at SYF, but it follows that better results may mean more budget for the group. It also follows that more money will be given to the CCA groups within the school that produces better results. Make sense?
Maybe $5K or $6K in yearly operating funds is reasonable, but I am aware that this amount could go up to $50K, and as low as..... $500. "Why should we give you more money if you can't produce results? We'd rather spend it on sending all our graduating students for a workshop given by Adam Khoo."
Maybe the band can turn to EM-OH-EE for help. Nahhhhh. EM-OH-EE only helps bands that have achieved two consecutive Silvers and above at SYF (and ONLY SYF, not any other kuching-kurap band competition organised by reputable companies or organisations be it in Singapore or overseas), and even then the band needs to have at least 66 registered members, to qualify for this "minimum" amount for the grant, which works out to be about $10K, but wait...this money is only to be used to buy INSTRUMENTS and NOTHING ELSE. Has there been anything else that has been addressed to really help groups obtaining the highly prestigious COP award at SYF? Nope. EM-OH-EE's next very-busy job will be spent on organising the even more highly prestigious opening ceremony event where only the very bestest of the prestigious of our school bands will get to play in front of a prestigious minister; now I wonder who that will be this year, since the GE seems to be coming up real soon. Nahh don't bother them, they're just too busy to care about what's really happening.
Waaait a minute. Why does this all seem too familiar... the rich getting richer while the poor getting poorer... isn't this Singapore? Nahhh... I'm just a foreigner living in my own country. Sorry for this in-the-election-mood-season snap.
2. Membership. Who wants to join a sec sch COP band? Even primary school kids are better educated now. "Chinese Orchestra got Silver for SYF last year. I think they have a better instructor and I can learn more." Oh let me extend this concept to a Silver or Bronze band at JC level. Who wants to join a Silver band?
"Oh my band got GOLD or GOLD WITH HONOURS and I cannot bring myself down to join a band which is of a lower standard than my previous band."
"I cannot get used to the sound of the new band, so I just continue with my sec school alumni band."
"Ever since I joined an outside band, I learnt so many new things that helped improved my playing. I had to quit my (some post-sec institute) band because I couldn't stand what I was hearing in rehearsals."
"Oh (after CCA posting exercise) we had to give the bulk of Sec One students to NCC because we need to fulfil their quota."
"The band here sucks."
I really don't know what to say after hearing such words, some coming from even my own kin.
3. Employment insecurity. Band instructors in Singapore are not like school teachers (in Japan they are!!! and are treated with equal respect!!!), a large majority work on contract basis with schools. So naturally whether or not the renewal of contract is subject to the performance of the instructor at....ta-dah.... SYF. So naturally, instructors that have brought their bands up to a level of COP at SYF will have their tenures threatened, both internally and externally. Internally by upper management who do not see the point of carrying on with an instructor who has failed to achieve even a Bronze medal at SYF. Externally, by other instructors or nowadays, "companies providing all-in-one-solutions with proven track records" ringing up COP schools to ask if the group wants a better instructor. Oh nowadays we can even extend this concept to Silver bands too. Especially when there's a change of principal, or even some band-teachers-in-charge. "Oh I'm thinking of bringing in someone else that I can work with, and can definitely produce results."
Who gives a hoot nowadays about how apparently good an instructor seems to be. Not everyone sees, or wants to see, how the instructor goes about doing his job. At the end of the day, results still does matter.
***************************************
I know I've said this before, but now would be a good time to bring this up again. Band was never like this when I was still in GESS. Gee we even got Grade IV (COP??) in SYF 1988, when the set piece, Anne McGinty's "A Jubilant Tribute", apparently handpicked by a certain local associate professor, was TEN TIMES HARDER than some of the crap commissioned for our students to play nowadays (no I do not mean Leong Yoon Pin's Daybreak and Sunrise or Kelly Tang's Overtures No. 1 and 2, these were the best things that ever happened in band SYF). But there was hardly any competition. Anyway cos no one was allowed to watch the Central Judging, other than the adjudicators themselves. And I guess back then the way for us to know how good we were compared to others was to watch each other's school concerts - a pretty good gauge of band standard anytime even up to now. Now? I don't know. Maybe intentions to improve the SYF system were indeed genuine, but along the way, just like many other EM-OH-EE policies, it just gets warped and warped to produce a rather unhealthy elitist culture among our students, glorifying only the best, and leaving the worst to rot. You know this when you encounter students from supposedly Gold/GWH bands who join outside bands and still cannot count their rhythm for peanuts.
There I've done my reflections, since it's so like the "in" thing these days at school. Have you done yours?
I may be lucky for now (and I can't say the same about other COP band instructors), but even if there's such a thing as luck, it will run out at anytime anyway.
This has got to be the MOST CLICHED AND OVER-SUBSCRIBED catch-phrase ever invented to make the weak feel stronger, and to make the stronger seem more humble.
"It's the process that really matters, not the result."
So what does it mean then?
1. Funding. It sure does take quite a fair bit of funds to manage a big CCA group like the band or chinese orchestra, which has an average of maybe 40 to 50 members. Usually the number of instruments will outnumber the no. of students as the money for equipment comes from another separate fund, so the yearly budget for the band will go to the day-to-day running requirements roughly broken down into: purchase of scores/training materials, purchase of expendable accessories such as reeds, maintenance of instruments due to general wear and tear (music instruments are still so fragile no matter how well they seem to be designed), and other miscellany, perhaps some money set aside to aid preparations for a public concert e.g. printing of tickets, posters, booking of hall, etc. Now there is no "guideline" given to schools as to how much is to be spent on the band alone, some schools get exorbitant amounts of (TAXPAYER!) money to fund their activities or even for the purchase of new and more expensive, top-of-the-line, professional-level instruments, which will often land in the hands of a student who is far less equipped in terms of skill to really fully utilise the instrument's capability. Really depends on how much the person at the top wants to give - regardless of whatever result that has been achieved at SYF, but it follows that better results may mean more budget for the group. It also follows that more money will be given to the CCA groups within the school that produces better results. Make sense?
Maybe $5K or $6K in yearly operating funds is reasonable, but I am aware that this amount could go up to $50K, and as low as..... $500. "Why should we give you more money if you can't produce results? We'd rather spend it on sending all our graduating students for a workshop given by Adam Khoo."
Maybe the band can turn to EM-OH-EE for help. Nahhhhh. EM-OH-EE only helps bands that have achieved two consecutive Silvers and above at SYF (and ONLY SYF, not any other kuching-kurap band competition organised by reputable companies or organisations be it in Singapore or overseas), and even then the band needs to have at least 66 registered members, to qualify for this "minimum" amount for the grant, which works out to be about $10K, but wait...this money is only to be used to buy INSTRUMENTS and NOTHING ELSE. Has there been anything else that has been addressed to really help groups obtaining the highly prestigious COP award at SYF? Nope. EM-OH-EE's next very-busy job will be spent on organising the even more highly prestigious opening ceremony event where only the very bestest of the prestigious of our school bands will get to play in front of a prestigious minister; now I wonder who that will be this year, since the GE seems to be coming up real soon. Nahh don't bother them, they're just too busy to care about what's really happening.
Waaait a minute. Why does this all seem too familiar... the rich getting richer while the poor getting poorer... isn't this Singapore? Nahhh... I'm just a foreigner living in my own country. Sorry for this in-the-election-mood-season snap.
2. Membership. Who wants to join a sec sch COP band? Even primary school kids are better educated now. "Chinese Orchestra got Silver for SYF last year. I think they have a better instructor and I can learn more." Oh let me extend this concept to a Silver or Bronze band at JC level. Who wants to join a Silver band?
"Oh my band got GOLD or GOLD WITH HONOURS and I cannot bring myself down to join a band which is of a lower standard than my previous band."
"I cannot get used to the sound of the new band, so I just continue with my sec school alumni band."
"Ever since I joined an outside band, I learnt so many new things that helped improved my playing. I had to quit my (some post-sec institute) band because I couldn't stand what I was hearing in rehearsals."
"Oh (after CCA posting exercise) we had to give the bulk of Sec One students to NCC because we need to fulfil their quota."
"The band here sucks."
I really don't know what to say after hearing such words, some coming from even my own kin.
3. Employment insecurity. Band instructors in Singapore are not like school teachers (in Japan they are!!! and are treated with equal respect!!!), a large majority work on contract basis with schools. So naturally whether or not the renewal of contract is subject to the performance of the instructor at....ta-dah.... SYF. So naturally, instructors that have brought their bands up to a level of COP at SYF will have their tenures threatened, both internally and externally. Internally by upper management who do not see the point of carrying on with an instructor who has failed to achieve even a Bronze medal at SYF. Externally, by other instructors or nowadays, "companies providing all-in-one-solutions with proven track records" ringing up COP schools to ask if the group wants a better instructor. Oh nowadays we can even extend this concept to Silver bands too. Especially when there's a change of principal, or even some band-teachers-in-charge. "Oh I'm thinking of bringing in someone else that I can work with, and can definitely produce results."
Who gives a hoot nowadays about how apparently good an instructor seems to be. Not everyone sees, or wants to see, how the instructor goes about doing his job. At the end of the day, results still does matter.
***************************************
I know I've said this before, but now would be a good time to bring this up again. Band was never like this when I was still in GESS. Gee we even got Grade IV (COP??) in SYF 1988, when the set piece, Anne McGinty's "A Jubilant Tribute", apparently handpicked by a certain local associate professor, was TEN TIMES HARDER than some of the crap commissioned for our students to play nowadays (no I do not mean Leong Yoon Pin's Daybreak and Sunrise or Kelly Tang's Overtures No. 1 and 2, these were the best things that ever happened in band SYF). But there was hardly any competition. Anyway cos no one was allowed to watch the Central Judging, other than the adjudicators themselves. And I guess back then the way for us to know how good we were compared to others was to watch each other's school concerts - a pretty good gauge of band standard anytime even up to now. Now? I don't know. Maybe intentions to improve the SYF system were indeed genuine, but along the way, just like many other EM-OH-EE policies, it just gets warped and warped to produce a rather unhealthy elitist culture among our students, glorifying only the best, and leaving the worst to rot. You know this when you encounter students from supposedly Gold/GWH bands who join outside bands and still cannot count their rhythm for peanuts.
There I've done my reflections, since it's so like the "in" thing these days at school. Have you done yours?
I may be lucky for now (and I can't say the same about other COP band instructors), but even if there's such a thing as luck, it will run out at anytime anyway.
confused
awake![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
crappy
calm
blank
cheerful
it's freezing here!
determined
