– Yesterday a report was published (See below) by Pat Loeb of CBS News regarding the final day of school where instrumental music teachers played a farewell concert because the entire classroom instrument education program has been eliminated due to district budget cuts. Here is our editorial based on that sad report.
Phillylabor.com Editorial: How sad is it that the dreams, the self esteem and the futures of many of our children have been altered forever due to the elimination of vital public school programs like music, art, sports and more because we, as a generation of adult Philadelphians /Pennsylvanians have have failed them and instead of fixing the problem, we chose to cut out their programs. If we do not step up and save these valuable programs, whose life lessons often far exceed their actual artistic and athletic value, we will go down in history as one of the most selfish and failed generations in the history of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and we’re gonna need to build more prisons because we are gonna need some place to put the kids whose self esteem we destroyed!
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It was a bittersweet melody at Philadelphia school District headquarters this morning as instrumental music teachers played a farewell concert.
The entire classroom instrument education program has been eliminated due to district budget cuts .
The ad hoc orchestra included the 60 teachers whose jobs have been eliminated, plus some students and alumni.
Traveling from school to school throughout the school year, those sixty teachers managed to serve 10,000 students.
“I wanted to come out and support the music teachers, because without them I wouldn’t have picked up the violin,” said student Lisa Pachecci today. “And they changed my life.”
What will happen to such students now? Teacher Erica Simon is unsure.
“I would say 95 percent of them use school district instruments, and they all had to be collected. I don’t know what they’re going to do next year,” she tells KYW Newsradio.
Schools superintendent William Hite has vowed to fight for the money to restore the program by September.
