Every music student, from orchestra to band to choir, is required to attend a minimum of four sectionals per quarter. Failure to fulfill this criteria results in a lowered grade, which could hurt a student’s GPA.
To attend a sectional, students must leave their class fifteen minutes into the period. This allows students to collect work for the subject and receive an introduction to the class, although a majority of the class is missed.
“I think having to attend sectionals is fine. Sectionals don’t really affect my school life except for when it falls on a more intensive class like math or science, which could make me stressed to miss the material. Usually, however, sectionals are productive, making them worth attending. Although having to miss some classes doesn’t really affect me, I can see how it may impact those with busier schedules,” said freshman Sophia Wang.
Having to miss the classes of more intense subjects could leave a student behind in that class or give them an excess amount of homework that they might not have the time to complete. However, most students are able to avoid this by planning which classes to miss for a sectional and only missing classes that they are comfortable with making up the work for. To make up for the sectionals that students may miss, however, music teachers offer make-up times.
Most students are barely affected by the need to skip four classes out of the many class periods every quarter. More often, students choose to embrace the short break that a sectional provides.
“I like the change of pace that we get when attending a sectional every once in a while. Most of the time, sectionals are relaxing and fun. I feel neutral about the system of sectionals, but my only suggestion is that if a teacher has a more packed schedule, the number of sectionals for their students should be lessened to reduce strain on the teachers,” said freshman Sophie Liu.
Having to run many sectionals for students under a limited amount of time for busy teachers becomes challenging. Sometimes, lesson groups may be combined to form larger groups. With the addition of students who have all chosen a specific period to miss, individual time to work on student-specific needs becomes scarce. However, students can still use the time during sectionals to practice individually when they may not have the time to practice outside of class.
“I think needing to attend four sectionals per quarter is fair because people need to learn how to play their parts to be able to play well as a group. Just like how students receive homework in their other classes to further learn topics, music classes have sectionals that can help students improve their playing and music learning,” said junior Vivian Leung.
The overarching objective of sectionals is to improve the playing abilities of students so that they can play well in a group. This is important because students can improve more effectively and peers who may not take private lessons outside of school can still receive individualized instruction.
Another benefit of sectionals is to enforce the idea that music classes aren’t “less important” than other classes.
“I personally think that it is fair to need to attend sectionals because most people don’t consider music classes to be ‘real classes.’ Having sectionals helps make music classes a more legitimate class and helps people take them more seriously. Sectionals also help specific ensembles to learn the music better,” said freshman Emily Mark.
Enhancing the idea that music classes are important may help students treat the class more seriously and practice more. This can help elevate the musical skills of the students and help them learn better, and maybe even lead to a future career in music for many.
Overall, having sectionals has many benefits. Although it may be hard to find times when attending sectionals is convenient, sectionals are a fair way of grading students, as putting a grade on attending at least four sectionals per quarter will encourage more students to attend sectionals. This leads to more students reaping the benefits of learning an instrument.