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In the April/May 2018 issue of Choral Director, SBO’s sister magazine, I wrote a piece entitled “The Importance of Our Ancestry,” which discussed the value of knowing the leading conductor/educators in our field.
Last month, we shared the challenges of changing times and community. In our final installment, we share the legacy that continues through community support.
Last month, we shared how the Joliet program maintains their long tradition. This month, we discuss the challenges of changing times and the successes born of determination and hard work. In 1964, with the town population booming, Joliet Township split into three high schools: East, Central, and West.
Read More...There are many companies offering student tours….so how do you choose?
Last month we continued the history of the Joliet Township program and its influences.
Last month we introduced you to the directors of the Joliet Township High School band, and the lineage that links the present with the origin of the program a century ago. This month we continue the history with those that have shaped and influenced its course.
It all started with a pig. It was somewhere around 1895, and a 14-year old farm teen in Jackson Township, Illinois wanted a new cornet.
As a travel planner, it’s the phrase I always dreaded hearing on the other end of the phone: “The school makes me bid this out.”
My whole life started because of a music trip. Wait...that sounds worse than it is. What I mean is that so many of the incredible things that have become my life started because of a music trip.
In my first year of teaching, the superintendent of schools told us the following: “You can lead a horse to water; you can’t make him drink. But you can put salt in his oats.” To be candid, the man was not a stellar administrator. But for some reason, for better or worse, this little tidbit has stuck with me for 30 years.
Clarity comes in surprising places. This summer I spent a week at Boy Scout camp in the forest of northern Wisconsin. My son is working towards his Eagle Scout badge, with a deadline to achieve that by his 18th birthday next spring when he’ll age out. That meant this would be his final year at summer scout camp, and being an assistant scoutmaster with the troop I wanted us to spend this one last time together at Camp Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan.
It was one of those moments where stubbornness and inexperience collided head on.