The incredible seriousness of performing.

This paper was sent home with my son a week before his school's spring concert. It came attached to a form for the parent to sign. I found it to be pretty funny & just a smidge over the top. What do you think?
Alane



CONCERT ATTENDANCE POLICY

Concerts are a team effort. It is essential that each member of a performing group participates or the group will not sound as good as it should. If a student does not perform in a concert, the other members of the group cannot perform at their best. In the past, we have had students fail to attend concerts. For this reason, we offer an ice cream party as an incentive to perform. The requirements for attending the ice cream party are based on the following three layer system.

Layer 1: Students who perform in the concert will be treated to an ice cream party the following day. This will include the viewing of the video tape.

Layer 2: Students who do not perform in the concert but who bring a note from home with a valid excuse for not attending will be allowed to attend the ice cream party and view the video tape. They will not be treated to the ice cream. The student's grade will not be affected. The validity of the excuse will be judged by the music director and the classroom teacher.

Layer 3: Students who do not perform in the concert and who do not bring a note from home will not be allowed to attend the ice cream party and view the video. The student's grade will be lowered.


Note: A student may also be held out of the party if his or her behavior is not deemed appropriate while performing in the concert or while sitting in the audience.


Policy adopted May 2003

I originally sent this to my dad (a former teacher) to send to his friend (another teacher) cos' dad thought he'd get a laugh out of it.
Then dear old dad replied to me that he thought of another 'layer' and the lightbulb went off...duh, blog post anyone??

Layer 4: Students who do not perform in the concert and who do not bring a note from home and don't like ice cream or care about missing a boring school assembly video will be forced to watch the video over and over again during all recesses for a week.

I love my dad!

But seriously, does this make sense to you?

We do have a very small school, there's like 42 or43 students in the whole elementary, so I get that they need as many kids as possible to attend. But why make the kids who couldn't be there (which is most likely not even their fault) be tortured by watching the other kids eat ice cream right in front of them? It's just rude!

For example, I had a horrid day on concert day. Headache all day, twins acting up & making me crazy, and to top it off, my depression was rearing it's ugly head. I did not feel like going to that concert. In fact, I forgot about it until Sam came home talking excitedly. I did want to see him sing - it's so cute, all those K-kids looking sweet and all - but I did not want to drag my butt over there with all 3 of them. I had to make & serve dinner, get them all ready, stuff them in the car & then try to keep Eli corralled during the event. Then get them all out the door, back in the car & home to get jammied, teeth brushed & homework done - all by myself. So. Not. Fun. I thought about just writing him a note & bagging the whole thing.

But.

Sam really wanted to go, I really wanted to see him sing, Chris really wanted me to get it on tape and I really had nobody to watch things 1 & 2.

And then there's the danged ice cream. If I didn't go, Sam would fall under the dreaded 'layer 2' and have to give up the prized, tiny-cup-o'-vanilla/orange sherbet-with-the-flat-wooden-'spoon' with which to eat it.

So you see, totally not fair to the kid. (Harrumph! sez I)

When I read the thing to my dad on the phone he could not believe they would make such a big deal over it. But after mulling it over he figured it was due to the size of the school. "They must have had a big problem with it in the past." Bla bla bla.

Ok so I just read this over & it's turned into a grumping marathon - sorry!! My intent was to be funny & I was trying to think of snarky comments but I'm just not very good at that. I'm much better at complaining. (and how sad is THAT?)

So.

I hope you enjoyed the silliness of our lil town school drama. I really do think it's funny. Really!