I didn't like Christmas music for a long time. It took awhile for me to get over some bitterness from my childhood that had to do with Christmas Carols.
Every once in awhile, the stars align just right and a group of kids are brought together in school that are just the right combination. It may be a sports type team, a academic type team, or as was our case, a choir.
When I was in 6th grade we had a group of kids that were this type of combination. Just the right amount of sopranos, altos, and even baritones. There were 25 of us, and when we sang together it was a small piece of heaven on earth.
That was until the Mom from Hell came into the picture.
You see, we had the regular choirs in school. We had the 6th Grade Choir, the Varsity Choir, and the Concert Choir. Anyone could be in any of these, and Concert was considered the "best" out of that group.
There was also a choir that you had to try out for, and it was called the Swing Choir. It was comprised of 25 kids, and you not only had to be able to sing, but you had to dance as well.
To be in this choir you had to be dedicated. It didn't have a class period every day. You had to get to school twice a week an hour early to practice, and the main bulk of practice time was on your own.
My sixth grade year was the first year all six graders had made this choir, knocking out all the older students. The biggest contests of the year lead to one thing: Christmas concerts. If you won some of the state contests, you would get to go on field trips all over the country singing Christmas songs.
Our sixth and seventh grade years we dominated all state competitions. We came in the top 5 at all country-wide competitions, taking 1st our seventh grade year.
This led to some great things for us, like singing on WLS (which in 1983-84 was a BIG deal), singing at the Mall of America, and finally singing in Washington DC for Congress.
Our eight grade year we had hoped to sing for Mr. Ronald Reagan himself.
This hope was taken away from us with the inclusion of one person: whiner girl.
Whiner girl and her Mom from Hell complained about everything. Someone was always holding her poor child back. The Mom was in school more then most students complaining and bitching about things that were done wrong to her poor child.
Whiner girl wanted in Swing Choir in the worst way. There was one problem: she couldn't sing and/or dance. The kid didn't have an ounce of rhythm in her body.
Whiner girl did have one very important thing: rich parents. Now of days with the whole let's not let our children lose at anything attitude this might not be needed, but back then you still had to buy your way into things you weren't talented enough to achieve on your own.
And so they did. Buy her way in our eight grade year. We had brand spanking new outfits, but unfortunately we sounded horrible. You see, she might not be able to sing and/or dance, but she was LOUD. No matter how hard we tried, we could not drowned her out. Her clumsy dance moves did nothing to help the situation either.
Oh, and she didn't practice either, and bragged about it.
All our hard work was pretty much down the drain. Most if not all of us just stopped trying, and only put in a half hearted attempt at what had once been a full fledged dedicated focus.
It was all gone. That year we didn't place in one contest, we didn't sing on any radio stations, and we didn't go on any field trips.
The funny thing is none of us participated in choir in high school after that. For a group of talented kids like we had to just give up because the one that didn't do the work or have the talent to participate is really, really sad.
I didn't like Christmas music for a long time after that. We did the full spectrum of carols, so most came with what was probably my first realization that life is just not fair sometimes.
So this leads me to think of how things are today. I've read about how some schools are lowering the grade point average on the honor roll so that more kids will make it and not feel inferior. My little nieces don't receive grades in elementary school, they receive check and check pluses, so that no child feels better then another.
Some people are better at some things then others. Some people just flat out try harder then others. Not at everything mind you, but some excel where others don't. Those that don't probably excel in something different.
It scares me that kids won't do the work or put forth the effort if it is not rewarded as such. Leveling the playing field just might flat line us all some day...
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