SO, if you didn't know, I coach a colorguard. And a winterguard. Or, well, I coachED. This season was my last– for a variety of reasons, I decided it was time to retire.

I love this activity, and will likely still stay involved in some capacity, but I know it won't be the same. Colorguard has been the one constant in my life since 1998, when I was in 9th grade. Through high school, college, my first job, selling my books, becoming a first time author, it was the only thing that stayed the same– sometimes I felt like it was the rope that pulled me through especially difficult times.

I can say without the slightest, tiniest doubt in my mind, that I would be a very different person were it not for marching band and winterguard programs, and arts education in general. More and more schools seem to be pushing for huge academic success, get the most kids into AP classes, shoot for bragging rights over which percentage of students score high on the SATs, and unfortunately this is often all at the expense of arts programs. I can't express to you enough the value of something like dance, art, or music, even if it comes at the occasional expense of taking that Super Advanced Fancy Math Class or The Hardest English Course Ever. Trust me. It'll change your life.

From one of my favorite movies, Mr. Holland's Opus:

Principal Wolters: …if I'm forced to choose between Mozart and reading and writing and long division, I choose long division.

Glenn Holland: Well, I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want. Sooner or later, these kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about.

Here's the high school group, performing their show to "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Ingrid Michaelson:

And the middle school group, performing their very first show EVER to "Don't Unplug Me (Acoustic)" by All Caps.

And a general "about winterguard" video I did:

Mirrored from JacksonPearce.com.

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Published on May 20, 2011 10:08