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"I have no pre-choir memories."

So begins a marvelous college admissions essay by Annabel La Riva recently published by the New York Times.

We seem to live in an age when parents (and, yes, I'm a rookie parent myself, so I feel like I have a new, budding qualification to speak about this) over-program their children with multiple sports and other extracurricular activities. But at the same time, commitment to these same activities is not stressed, and when the going gets tough, the parents simply find "something else" for the child to do. Often commitment is not stressed, but busyness is.

Ms. Riva's tale sings the glories of sticking with something. In particular, sticking with something as good as a chorister training program. Many of these programs are associated with the Royal School of Church Music in America. St. James' Church on Madison Avenue in New York, where Ms. Riva is a chorister, is one such program.

I begged and pleaded with my mom to let me follow the path of my friends and retire my choir robe, but she persisted, always replying with a curt “no”. She believed that in the long run, going to choir would benefit me both educationally and socially.

One of Ms. Riva's discomfort with the ritzy St. James' Church in Manhattan was that her peers seemed to universally hold a higher socioeconomic status. But the beauty of music ministry of this type is that those kinds of differences really fade away with the work of singing and in finding meaning in things that are older, bigger, and deeper than yourself.

When I was younger, I had always followed the older, more experienced singers. I would wait for the right pitch, or follow the pros to figure out when to come in, but little by little, letting go of my reticence, I began to trust myself: starting the pitch and coming in when I knew we were supposed to sing. Eventually, other singers began to follow my lead. Parishioners started to acknowledge me for my voice rather than my address. I began to appreciate this music that I had heard throughout my youth, yet had always dismissed as boring and religious. Soon enough, my habitual complaints about choir completely stopped.

We commend the entire essay to your reading. Published here.

(h/t J.S. for alerting us to this story)

Labels: church music, education, RSCM, singing, St. James Madison Avenue (NYC)

It is not the place of this blog to add anything substantial to the discussion of the recent events at General Theological Seminary in New York City (see today's New York Times for an overview of the situation: "Seeking Dean’s Firing, Seminary Professors End Up Jobless")

But we would be remiss if we did not at this occasion quote the Rt. Rev. Euguene Sutton, Bishop of Maryland and his sermon to the Annual Conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians this summer.

My brothers and sisters, this bishop believes that our parishes need to focus more on their community’s worship as the vehicle for the kind of evangelism that works for us. The problem for the Episcopal Church is not that we are neurotically and unhelpfully fixated on music and liturgy. Rather, the problem for us from an evangelical and church growth stance is that we are not focussed enough on our worship.

"The Two Calls"

This seems to pair well with the perspective of Derek Olsen on the situation at General Seminary:

One of the points of controversy regards the current Dean’s approach to the liturgy and his alteration of this fundamental schedule. Apparently in the name of relevance he has cut this schedule back: there’s no Morning Prayer on Monday and Thursday, there’s no Eucharist on Wednesday or Friday (or Saturday or Sunday). Medievalists and those with a grounding in classical Anglican liturgy will, no doubt, note the irony of skipping Eucharists on Wednesday and Friday…

What’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is that this pattern teaches our future clergy that their spiritual obligations can be altered and shifted if they conflict with more important things. Of course, as time goes by, life interferes more and more until the very idea of an obligation is dispensed with in the name of efficiency and—I suppose—relevance.

"On General Seminary"

It should be noted that one of the faculty members in question is the noted church musician David Hurd, whose work is found throughout the Hymnal 1982

It should also be noted that the hymn tune GENERAL SEMINARY takes its name from General Theological Seminary and was composed by former professor David Charles Walker. It is found at Hymn 382 to the words "King of glory, King of peace".

Labels: David Charles Walker, education, General Theological Seminary, Hurd, Hymnal 1982, hymns, NYT

There's no question that the number of screens we have available to us have changed our lives and can change our schools. There's also no doubt in my mind that we need to limit the amount of "screen time" that kids have.

But I take real issue with an angle in a recent NPR story Kids And Screen Time: Cutting Through The Static.

Thirteen-year-old Tom Zimmerman gets it: "One example: this one kid who was, like, in this room, and he had, like, this fake lightsaber, and he was acting really crazy. And it looked really stupid. And it was funny, but I'm sure that kid won't want it in the future. But so many people have taken that video and put it on their channels that there's no way of getting rid of it."

That 2002 video — of one teen boy in a heated lightsaber battle with himself —has been watched millions of times, but the so-called "Star Wars Kid," now in his 20s, says he was bullied because of it and had to leave school.

And that gives principals like Brad Zacuto not one but two big reasons to worry about screen time: 1) Because of what's not happening — important face-to-face time; and 2) Because of what is happening — kids putting themselves out there in embarrassing and potentially dangerous ways.

links removed

I beg to differ. Thirteen-year-old Tom Zimmerman doesn't get it. Neither does reporter Cory Turner.

The problem with the "Star Wars Kid" video is not the video; it's the bullying. Why aren't we talking about the bullying?

Because the video "is pretty amazing", or so comments reporter Cory Turner in the audio version of the story.

Just see for yourself:

So, step back and look at this. What is being proposed here is that kids not "put themselves out there" at all.

Is that wise? In this increasingly digital economy we want to stifle this form of creative self-expression too? We've already taken away art and music, and now kids can't even make awesome YouTube videos in their basements?

So what if you embarrass yourself? Make another one! There has to be a happy medium here. Kids have to be able to play around with this stuff. We've never had video tools available like we do today. Don't we want kids to play with this stuff?

The odds of your video going viral are next to nothing (not discussed in the NPR story) and the odds of you encountering bullying are pretty high (not addressed in the NPR story).

What's really "dangerous" here is stifling imagination, risk-taking, and a sense of play. What's really "dangerous" is telling kids that they must conform to their peers, not stick out in any way, and not have any original ideas, lest they be bullied by the enforcers of the status quo.

The answer is more creative self-expression, not less. Every kid should have to submit a "Star Wars" video.

At least you would in my class.

Labels: education, film, NPR, Star Wars