About a year ago, I blogged about the Christian nature of choral music, and discussed how we run away from that Christian-ness when we discuss choral music in the public schools (posts here, here, and here). A few months ago I was asked to rewrite those posts into an article for the choral journal (follow this link to see the article, though it requires you be logged in to ACDA.org).
What has happened in Portland to spark this post, is that the largest school district, the Portland Poublic School District, has decreed that choirs may no longer sing during the holidays at “The Grotto” where they hold a “Festival of Lights” around the winter holiday season. From the Oregonian article, quoting a district spokesperson, “The district received a complaint…citing concerns with students performing at a religious venue and that admission is charged for the festival, Miles said. She said the district’s legal team reviewed the complaint and found that the district could be at risk of legal action if choirs continued to participate. The district informed staff of the decision last month.”
Make no bones about it: the Grotto is affiliated with a church. It is a Christain event, but it has become a tradition with Portland and other school choirs to sing at the Grotto. Lots of people from all over Portland (a city with some of the lowest church attendance in the country) attend the Grotto, not necessarily for religious reasons, but as a winter tradition, and to hear choral music. I sang there as a young man, and thouroughly enjoyed it and a musical event.
But more important than the local tradition of singing at the Grotto, is the fact that perfoming carols and other choral music at Christmas time is an inherent part of the tradition of choral singing. To block this performance is inherently dishonest. This is akin to the tweaking of history texts books in Texas to that called slaves from Africa “workers.” It’s a revisionist tactic and doesn’t allow for the truth of the nature of choral singing. This cowardly move by the legal team in PPS district is shameful and only hurts students, and goes against all logic and common sense (though not against legal overcautiosness).
If you’d like to support the students, parents, and directors in Portland Public School, please take a minute of your day and sign this petition. If we can get a lot of people to be involved, maybe we can effect some positive chage.
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