Super Bowl

One of us!

Each year the Super Bowl includes the arts at some level with music, movement, and creativity at its best and oh, those commercials! I sometimes wonder how many individuals who work on creating the commercials were “ARTS” kids in school? This year many of the commercials communicated much more about where we are as a country and how much work and thought and change needs to happen in order to grow. My favorite commercial by far was the Jeep one with Bruce Springsteen. It wasn’t the promoting of Jeep that struck me but the message was so well communicated. The photography, the emotion, transitions, images, movement, color, and more – all of it grabbed me. If you didn’t see it, embedded below.

I grew up in a football family but I’m not crazy about the game this point in my life. However, I do watch for the ‘entertainment’ value which, as you know, sometimes it means sifting through ‘not so good stuff’ to get to the outstanding content. I was moved by the three individuals who were called Honorary Captains – veteran James Martin, educator Trimaine Davis and nurse manager Suzie Dorner. Suzie tossed the official on-field coin toss ceremony before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs faced off.

I was so proud to watch as one of us, a teacher, represented all of the amazing work that teachers are doing this year during the pandemic. Trimaine Davis said this about his role: “I’m really excited about this opportunity just to showcase that all three of us, myself, James and Suzie, share this common bond of service and stewardship,” Davis said. “The fact that we’re able to highlight the importance of this, that it comes from everyday folk who are in the position to do this work to inspire others, I think is incredible, and I’m so honored to have that opportunity.”

My favorite new poet, Amanda Gorman, recited the poem she wrote specifically to honor the three Honorary Captains. Amanda included these words describing Trimaine and below is the entire poem.

Trimaine is an educator who works nonstop. 

Providing his community with hotspots

Laptops and tech workshops

So his students have all the tools

They need to succeed in life and in school.

Football or Music?

Super Bowl 50 is history

The Sunday football game is over and once again the commercials and the music were powerful components of the event. The highlight for me? Seeing the young people from the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, the ensemble founded and directed by Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, performing alongside Coldplay.

Coldplay practicing with the students for the Super Bowl half time performance.

Youth Orchestra Los Angeles was founded in 2007 and now serves more than 700 students in the Los Angeles area. Kids between the ages of 6 and 18 take lessons, participate in orchestral ensembles and receive mentoring and academic tutoring at sites in South Los Angeles, the Rampart District and East Los Angeles. The program also supplies free instruments to students who participate. How cool that they had a chance to be part of Super Bowl 50!

Along with the excitement of student musicians in this blog post I also want to share an article that was in Education Week online in June 2015. It is called Football or Music? What’s the Best K-12 Investment? and was written by John R. Gerdy. He looked closely at the use of funds for football and music in schools. His conclusions are based on his own experiences. He is the founder and executive director of Music For Everyone, a non-profit dedicated to cultivating the power of music as an educational and community building tool. He was the son of a high school football coach and was an all-state basketball player and went on to play professional basketball. His conclusions are based on his experiences and research.

The reality of communities and school boards having to make tough decisions about spending is nothing new. About 5 years ago I asked a superintendent, that I had been working with for several years, how he made his decisions when it came to cutting funding in creating the school budget. His response was that it was equal between sports and the arts. I was shocked and said: “Why would you look at a program that is outside of the school day up against courses that are taught during the school day?” My shock turned around when he said: “I never thought about that.”

Mr. Gerdy points out in the article that very few people go on after high school and play football yet many continue with music. Please read the article to learn what Mr. Gerdy has to say on the topic.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/06/23/football-or-music-whats-the-best-k-12.html?cmp=ENL-CM-NEWS3