Is Sliding a Trombone a Workout Equal to Sliding Into 2nd Base?
May 11, 2011
High-school marching-band students in Utica, Mich., have begun a symphonic crusade to convince a local school board that tooting horns is as athletic as shooting hoops. Band members, and their parents, from the district's four high schools took demands for a physical-education waiver to the Utica School Board. This month, they managed to win a compromise: The board will grant gym waivers to seniors, but not to all members of the band. ``It's a nice start, but it just doesn't cut it,'' says 17-year-old Christa Aguirre, a trombone player in the marching band at Henry Ford II High School. ``For the younger students, it's not satisfactory.'' Shanta Culberson, a 15-year-old member of the color guard at Ford High School, contends that ``marching band is harder than PE. You have to work like a sports team, and you can't goof off like you do in phys ed.'' A study by Michigan's department of education reports that 25% of the state's school districts offer waivers for students in marching bands. And more are jumping on the bandwagon, says the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Some schools rationalize the decision as a way of counterbalancing tougher academic requirements for graduation and college entrance. But some health advocates warn that students need a more complete physical-education program. ``It's ludicrous,'' says Jule C. Yuette, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. ``If we turned on music during PE, we wouldn't say they were prepared for marching band.'' Ms. Yuette acknowledges that many performers do spend long hours training. But she says that playing in the band doesn't provide a full range of movements. Players from Utica respond that they work plenty of muscles, marching up to six miles some days while holding up heavy instruments. At summer ``band camp'' practices, players traded stories of sprained ankles and heat exhaustion. School-board members still aren't convinced. ``We can't make two requirements -- one for band students and one for everybody else,'' says district spokeswoman Renteria Starr. But the band members are undeterred. They say they will keep beating the drums for gym credit in the coming school year.
