December Spotlight

December Spotlight

This December Spotlight was an easy choice after the 2017 MCHS/MJHS Christmas Concert.  Even though Ms. Gallip and Mr. Hannan packed this concert with about seventy minutes of music, the event seemed to last only moments.  The audience was treated to performances by the MJHS Band, MJHS Choir, MCHS Band, MCHS Jazz Band, MCHS Choir and countless other ensembles.  Over 165 students participated in these performances, which accounts for almost 20% of the total student body at MCHS and MJHS.

Program Designed by Sam Coram

As many of you know, one out of five students involved in performance arts such as this is really quite remarkable for our area.  This really speaks volumes about the immeasurable effort put forth by Ms. Gallip and Mr. Hannan as well as all the parents who support their children in the Arts.  There is a strong correlation between participation in extracurricular activities such as these and success in schools.  Even more, research suggests that participation in performance arts has many positive academic, behavioral, and social impacts on students.  One study, Arts Education and Positive Youth Development even found the following effects on students who study performance arts:

• Each additional year of arts study was significantly associated with a 20% reduction in the likelihood that an adolescent would ever be suspended out-of-school.
• As adolescents, students of the arts are significantly more optimistic about their chances to attend college than non-arts students. 
• As adolescents, Music students were 24% less likely than non-music students to use marijuana. Dance students were 47% less likely than non-dance students to have used marijuana during adolescence. Conversely, visual arts students were 29% more likely than non-visual arts students to have used marijuana as adolescents.
• Emerging adults who had studied music, theater, or the visual arts scored slightly, but statistically significantly, higher on a standardized test of vocabulary as emerging adults than did their non-arts peers.  
• Echoing their higher levels of postsecondary education optimism reported as adolescents, former arts students were 55.38% more likely to have attended any postsecondary school by adulthood than were former non-arts students. Each additional year of arts study was associated with an 18% increase in the likelihood of having attended any postsecondary schooling.
• Former arts students were significantly less likely to be involved with the criminal justice system than were former non-arts students: Adults who had taken arts coursework were 26% less likely than those without high school arts coursework to have ever been arrested. Each additional year of arts coursework was associated with a 9% reduction in the risk of being arrested. 

This list could continue and is likely far more reaching than current research has found.  With all of these positive impacts, it makes one question why the Arts and particularly performance arts are often cut from schools whenever budget issues arise.  The simple answer is of course the cost.  Band can be a very costly venture for the school and especially for parents.  Instruments aren't cheap, and the total cost of purchasing and maintaining them can almost rival the most expensive extracurricular activity.  However, much of this cost is passed on to the parents and students.  Even so, the potential benefits of the performance arts far outweigh all the costs.  The overall impact that Ms. Gallip and Mr. Hannan have on Massac Unit #1 is impossible to quantify, and it reaches much farther than success in musical performance.  This truly is a success story for Massac.

I recorded the following videos on my cell from a seat on the bleachers.  They aren't the best quality, but they do capture the true talent of these students.