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About the Author
Stan Katz teaches public and international affairs and directs the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is a past president of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society for Legal History. He comments frequently on policy issues relating to higher education, particularly liberal education, and on the humanities and social sciences, philanthropy, scholarly relations with Cuba, and the interplay of civil society, constitutionalism, and democracy. And on his beloved Cubs.
About Brainstorm
Brainstorm is The Chronicle Review's team of bloggers on ideas, culture, and the arts.
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Mark Bauerlein Marc Bousquet Laurie Fendrich Dan Greenberg Stan Katz Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Bob Zemsky Recent PostsCan You Use Orphan Works? | Comment [9] SNAAP Judgments | Comment [6] Thanks, Karen | Comment [5] Symphony Orchestra as a Team Sport | Comment [2] Is the E-Book in Trouble? | Comment [2] Featured Articles By the Author
Symphony Orchestra as a Team SportWe seem to have accepted the locution “student-athlete” in the academy, though all too often I think we really mean “athlete-student.” all too often. In selective institutions we make special provisions to ensure that a requisite number and variety of student-athletes are admitted — quarterbacks, point guards, pole vaulters, strokes, mid-fielders, and the like. The sports teams cannot do without them, and for a variety of reasons (in my view, some better than others) we find ways to admit them that seem consistent with our academic standards and dignity. We usually justify this affirmative action policy with reference to the values of commitment, hard work, sportsmanship and teamwork that will stand our students well in life after graduation. And I agree that these are important values. But what about our other teams? Surely sports are not the only activity in which these values can be learned. The other teams, however, are taken for granted, possibly because they do not seem to require rhetorical overkill to justify them. Still, we should remember that they exist, and that they serve our students in equally important ways. I am thinking of the debate team, the modern dance team, the community-service team — and my personal favorite, the university orchestra. Think about it for a moment. The orchestra conductor recruits special-teams players just as intensely as the football coach, but instead of seeking punters and wide receivers, he is on the lookout for piccolos and contrabassoons (scarcer than long snappers, for sure). The orchestra engages in team practices throughout the year (like crew, not football), and the individual players practice daily (their counterpart to the weight room?). They need to play skillfully and together, and to perform under the pressure of public scrutiny, though to be sure they get two performances of each program to get it right. And quite a few fans come to cheer for them (and frequently pay for the privilege). Shouldn’t we give varsity letters for orchestra (and the other non-sports teams)? Well, I haven’t seen a letter sweater on a campus in a long time, but you know what I mean. My wife and I attended a championship performance by our team, the Princeton University Orchestra, brilliantly coached and conducted by Maestro Michael Pratt, last weekend. The musical among you will understand the ambition of their performance if I tell you that they played Mahler’s Ninth symphony, one of the longest and most difficult in the repertoire. The first-desk players were all students (there were four or five adult ringers, mostly double bass players), who played their exposed parts with skill and confidence. And the string playing at the end of the fourth movement (some of you will know what I mean) was to die for. Maestro Pratt introduced the 17 seniors who had played for the orchestra for all four years at Princeton. Of them, only one had majored in music. The other majors ranged from chemistry, molecular biology and mathematics to operations research, religion and psychology. My senior advisee, Sarah Vander Ploeg, a Marshall Scholarship winner, is principally a lyric soprano but plays viola in the orchestra and majors in public policy. I wonder how many other teams can boast such academic and intellectual range, not to mention consistent excellence? Go team! Posted at 01:55:47 PM on April 28, 2008 | All postings by Stan KatzComments |
Stan –
Here’s the obvious answer to your question: Follow the money. Varsity sports teams, for better or worse, bring huge amounts of attention and dollars into the university. The same cannot be said of the debate team or the university orchestra. Unfortunately it’s a fact of life in America that athletes are often treated like gods and given every possible excuse when they perform poorly academically, as long as they play well for the team. Yes – our priorities are skewed – but there it is. This is nothing new – when I was an undergraduate at UCONN back in the early 80s, I lived in a dorm with most of the football team. Many of these guys barely graduated from high school, and if it weren’t for much tutoring by myself as well as other students, in addition to laughably easy course loads, would have flunked out. Such is the reality of our jock-sniffing culture.
— Mark Koenig · Apr 30, 10:38 AM · #
I can just hear the cheerleaders now in my mind’s ear:
“Horn section, Horn Section, Hit those harmonics!”
Forget all that atonal stuff And get back to your tonics!”
Somehow I dont think it’ll play—not even in Peoria.
Especially not in Peoria.
Nor in Portland.
— Joseph F foster · May 1, 07:08 AM · #