Al's Morning Meeting

You can read the ruling which has to do with U-2 singer Bono using the F-word during the Golden Globe awards.

(Note: The F-Word is used repeatedly in the following link.) The FCC says as long as you are not talking about a sexual act, it is not obscene. In his case, I guess he was using it as an adjective, not a verb. Can we expect to hear a lot more of this on the radio now?

Jockocracy

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Al's Morning Meeting reader Jim Sweeney spotted a good story about how even the most elite schools in America are lowering their admission standards for athletes. The story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

Elite academic schools are feeling heat this fall because of a new study and book that says they are embracing athletes who lag behind the rest of the student body.

The book, "Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values," was written by former Princeton University President William G. Bowen and Sarah A. Levin, daughter of Yale's current president. Bowen and Levin say that even Ivy League schools and excellent liberal arts colleges such as Williams have allowed a "jockocracy" to take hold, by which athletes are separated academically, socially, and culturally from the rest of the campus.

"Recruited athletes earn far lower grades than both their fellow athletes who were walk-ons and other students," Bowen and Levin wrote after tracking almost 28,000 students who entered 33 selective colleges and universities in 1995.

The book says:

• At schools in the Ivy League, recruited athletes are four times more likely to be admitted than similarly situated applicants not on a coach's list.
• Recruited male athletes in high profile sports (football, basketball, and ice hockey) had SAT scores between 119 and 165 points below their non-athlete peers at the Ivies, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) colleges, and other coed liberal arts schools.
• About three-quarters of recruited male athletes in high profile sports and nearly two-thirds of recruited male athletes in lower profile sports (e.g., soccer, track, swimming) are in the bottom third of their class at the Ivies and at NESCAC colleges, far more than male walk-on athletes or male students who do not play sports.

Al's Morning Meeting reader Eric J.S. Townsend, Education Reporter, Cecil Whig (Md.), sent a terrific story about the fact that high school marching bands are having trouble attracting members. The reason is not a lack of music or even after-school pressures. At the same time, I have found a good bit of data showing kids who join school bands generally outperform those who do not.

Eric writes, "Four of the five high schools in Cecil County, Md., are struggling to recruit students into marching band programs that, in some instances, boomed during the 1980s. The reason: block scheduling. I used the marching bands as an example of what is probably happening in other fine arts/elective programs. If I could rewrite the story, I would try to emphasize that even more."

Eric's story said:

Block scheduling reduces the average number of classes each day from seven to four. Rather than take a 45-minute course all year, for two marking periods students spend 90 minutes per day in the same classroom.

Fewer periods during the day leads to scheduling conflicts. Students interested in music must sometimes choose between band and Advanced Placement classes or upper-level foreign languages. And there's no way for a trumpet to compete with free college credits, which Advanced Placement can often provide.

"Block scheduling is not conducive to a successful performing arts program," said Andrew Keim, band director at North East High School. "Most of my band class ... are freshmen. They don't have to compete with AP classes."

Several studies indicate that block scheduling isn't without benefits.

Researchers at the University of Virginia's Center for Innovative School Scheduling report fewer discipline referrals and more exposure to technology resources in schools that utilize blocks. Honor rolls grow, grade point averages increase, and graduation rates improve.

Eric also found:

Directors acknowledge societal factors also influence turnout. Marching bands shoulder the "nerd" image exaggerated by movies like "American Pie" where actress Alyson Hannigan plays band geek Michelle Flaherty.

Feeder programs affect marching bands as well. Some high school directors say their counterparts in the lower grades encourage young musicians to join older ensembles, while other directors claim that middle school directors are apathetic about eighth graders eventually marching.

And then there's family income. Prosperous families tend to encourage children to pick up an instrument, which partially affects Rising Sun High School's band numbers.

But a common thread (depressing band participation rates in) most high schools is block scheduling.

In some states, block scheduling caused such a problem for marching band programs that parents turn to legislatures to change the laws. The new laws allow kids in marching bands to count the credits as Phys Ed classes, which are required. Here is a 2002 petition from South Carolina's band parents and band directors to change the law there.

The petition states:

According to the most recent edition of the Shape of the Nation Report published by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, six states now allow participation in band programs to fulfill all or part of PE requirements in high school. They are California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, and Texas.

Resources: There is a wide body of evidence about the benefits of music and arts teaching. Go to the Americans for the Arts website.

More Music = Better Students

The National Association for Music Education says:

Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2002, SAT takers with coursework or experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 41 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or no experience in the arts. Scores for those with coursework in music appreciation were 64 points higher on the verbal and 43 points higher on the math portion.

Musicalprogressions.com

Students who participate in their school band or orchestra are 52 percent more likely to go on to college and graduate. A Rockefeller Foundation study discovered that music students have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools. Studies in other countries have demonstrated that along with these benefits, there is a significant relationship between music instruction and education performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening and verbal abilities, and motor skills. (Note from Al — I spent a half-hour or so trying to find the actual Rockefeller study. I have seen it cited several times but have not been able to get my hands on it. )

The St. Petersburg Times published a sad story about the disturbing number of suicides that occur on the Skyway Bridge here in Tampa Bay. The story explains that despite the installation of emergency "call boxes" on the bridge, people kill themselves at an alarming rate. 10 people have jumped from the Skyway Bridge this year.

Suicide is, in my opinion, an under-covered story. Suicide ranks 11th as a cause of death; homicide ranks 13th.

Resources:

The American Association of Suicideology offers some great tips and guidelines for covering suicides. Print these out. Circulate them in your newsroom.

The World Health Organization also has a thoughtful handout.

The states with the highest rate of suicide in 2001 (latest available) were:

New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Alaska, Idaho, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona (Caution: Annual fluctuations in state levels combined with often relatively small populations can make these data highly variable. You should use several years' data to get accurate trends.)

Other 2001 suicide stats, from Suicidology.org:

• Average of 1 person every 17.2 minutes killed themselves.
• Average of 1 old person every 1 hour 37.5 minutes killed themselves.
• Average of 1 young person every 2 hours 12.4 minutes killed themselves. (If the 279 suicides below age 15 are included, 1 young person every 2 hours, 3.7 minutes.)
• 11th ranking cause of death in U.S.
• 4.1 male deaths by suicide for each female death by suicide.
• 765,000 annual attempts in U.S. (using 25:1 ratio).
• 25 attempts for every death by suicide for nation. (100-200:1 for young; 4:1 for elderly.)
• 5 million living Americans (estimate) have attempted to kill themselves.
• 3 female attempts for each male attempt.
• Senior citizens made up 12.4 percent of 2001 population but represented 17.6 percent of the suicides.
• Young people were 14.0 percent of 2001 population and comprised 13.0 percent of the suicides.

Stateline.org says:

23 states lack suicide prevention programs because of budget woes and an overall lack of funding for mental health services, state officials and prevention advocates said. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Utah.

"Most of the states that don’t have (suicide prevention) plans are poised and ready to go but they can’t really implement them without getting at least a little money and resources," Davis C. Hayden, a suicide researcher and psychology professor at Western Washington University, said.

We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.