What Can The Church Learn From The High School Marching Band?
By: Lyle E. Schaller

"How has the high school scene in America changed since you graduated?" That question evokes a huge variety of responses!

The retiree who graduated in 1958 emphasized one consequence of affluence. "Last Tuesday, my wife and I drove by the new high school on the east side on our way to the grand opening of a new supermarket. The student parking lot at the high school will accommodate more motor vehicles than the parking lot at that new supermarket." His wife answered, "Where I went to high school, every student ate lunch at school. Now the kids can leave the campus to buy their lunch at a fast food restaurant."

"Twenty-two years ago, the four-year high school I attended had an enrollment of about 700, and there were 153 seniors in my graduating class," explained a 40-year-old bank teller. "Two years ago, it was replaced by a new three-year school on a 50-acre site that is designed for an enrollment of 3,000!"

A graduate of 1953 commented, "The teenagers of today are a lot taller than the kids I went to school with 50 years ago."

"I believe the most important difference is today's teenagers have access to many more advanced placement classes than I had 20 years ago," reflected a mother of two high school students.

A 45-year-old high school teacher in Chicago lifted up what is clearly a distinctive perspective. "Last year, our Chicago school system opened what is the first public high school in America to be affiliated with the United States Marine Corps. Next year, in 2009, we expect to open our first public high school to be affiliated with the Air Force. That will give us a total of six military academies including older ones affiliated with the Army and the Navy. In addition, the Chicago public school system has more than 30 Junior ROTC programs based in high schools plus Middle School Cadet Corps in 20 other schools."

"Why in the world do you have so many military schools?" asked a teacher from a private Friends elementary school. "Are you trying to encourage today's teenagers to enlist in the military services? I don't believe that is an appropriate role for tax-supported public schools. Your job is education, not recruitment."

"We point to three big reasons for our increase in the number of military academies," explained the Chicago teacher. "The most obvious and measurable is parental demand. We continue to have a long waiting list of youngsters who want to enroll. From my own personal point of view, the No. 1 reason is we want our students to learn how to succeed in life in whatever career they choose. At headquarters, the official explanation is to provide more choices and include one option that is organized around structure, discipline, clearly articulated high expectations, and a focus on leadership."

This observer, who is the father of six high school graduates of the 1967-82 era, uses a longer timeframe to reflect on changes in that part of the world populated by American-born teenagers. (For today's teenagers brought to America by their parents from another country, this is a completely different story!)

My timeframe for this long trip down memory lane begins when I was 12 years of age and heard a respected and successful neighbor reflect, "I don't believe everyone needs a high school diploma, but I do believe everyone should have two years of high school." I knew he had dropped out of high school after his sophomore year to help his father run the family business. One reason I can date that comment is that was the day when my 17-year-old brother graduated from high school.

Six years later, I graduated from that same small-town high school. My favorite uncle and his wife made the 60 miles roundtrip to help me celebrate that memorable achievement. He explained to me, "Your Aunt Ethel and I came to help you celebrate because this may be the only time you will graduate."

Those two paragraphs introduce what I perceive to be the most significant change in the central theme of the high school experience over the past several decades—and one that is closely paralleled by another significant trend in American Christianity.

From Achievement to Values
For more than three decades, following the termination of the military draft in 1973, one of the requirements for enlisting in the United States Army was a high school diploma. That symbolized success! That proved the candidate had learned how to learn. That was consistent with a culture that placed a heavy emphasis on achievement. World War II may have marked the high point in this emphasis on achievement. The G. I. Bill adopted in 1944 to provide peace time benefits for veterans focused on three achievements: a college education, a steady job, and home ownership. These reflected the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The 1960s brought national visibility to a radical change in the American culture that really began in the 1950s. The end of the two wars, one in Europe and one in the Pacific, was celebrated as two great achievements—victory in Europe and victory in the Pacific.

Less than a decade later, the focus had begun to shift—from achievement to values, from the achievement of a successful transition to an economy built on peace, not war, was built on a new set of values, one of which is called equality. The old system was organized around results or outcomes or achievements. "Sure you went to high school, but did you graduate?" was a relevant question as recently as 1950. The value-based successor question is, "I see you have a high school diploma (or a college degree), but did you learn how to become a self-motivated lifetime learner?"

That paragraph introduces what this old-timer sees as one of the most interesting changes in American high schools since World War II. That is the recent rapid increase in the number and popularity of high school marching bands. Why lift that up when the vast majority of today's high school students are not members of a marching band?

While membership in a high school marching band can be described as a commendable achievement, this is not the point. The high school marching band is organized around a remarkably large collection of important values. An incomplete list includes the following:

1. That band affirms the growing recognition that music can be a more powerful channel of communication than either the spoken word or the printed word.

2. In a culture that places a high value on individualism, the marching band challenges every member to learn how to be a contributing member of a team.

3. This is a unifying activity that requires all participants to be active contributors to fulfilling that central purpose.

4. The band provides both the challenge and the path to excellence—to do "better than you believe we thought we could do."

5. It opens the door wide to becoming a multicultural team.

6. If this door is opened to parents and other adults on special occasions, such as participating in the local Labor Day parade, this can create a meaningful and memorable multigenerational experience.

7. Unlike high school football players, marching band members rarely suffer ankle injuries or concussions!

8. The band teaches each member to appreciate the value of structure in group experiences.

9. Outside that high school environment, marching in one or two local parades every year does represent a valuable response to that call to community service—plus additional practice time learning how to incorporate "outsiders" as valued members of "our group."

10. The high school marching band models a redundant system of helping newcomers gain a sense of belonging: (a) "The uniform proves I belong to this tribe;" (b) "I know I belong because my special gifts or skills are appreciated" and affirms the biblical concept of a diversity of gifts; (c) "I know I belong because people tell me they missed me when I was absent;" (d) I know I belong because I know I am needed;" and (e) "Many of my closest friends today also play in this band." (The other side of that scenario is the larger the enrollment in the high school, the lower the proportion of students who gain that sense of belonging. One example is the distinction between "they" or "we" a sophomore uses in referring to the student body. "We" is the appropriate word in referring to membership in the marching band.)

11. Whether in a parade or at a high school assembly or at a football game, when the marching band plays, that is not only a change of pace, it also enhances the sense of unity among the other people who are present.

12. Whether high school or college level, the marching band also illustrates a central point in the life of groups. As the number of participants goes above 40, the leadership skills of the team leader become increasingly important. This principle also explains why the leadership of the head coach in professional football is more critical than the leadership role of the manager of a major league baseball team with only 25 players on the active roster—and also why the leadership ability of the senior pastor of a Protestant congregation averaging 700 at worship is far more critical than the leadership ability of the senior pastor of a congregation averaging 350 at weekend worship.

13.  The applause generated for each of the five marching bands in a long civic parade reinforces the message, "This is a game where we have winners and no losers."

14. "Yep! Practice does make a difference!"

15. That videotape or DVD is a great gift for Grandma who rarely is able to leave her home.

16.  "So our athletic team lost the game, but our band was far better than theirs."

17.  The marching band teaches every member how to excel in multitasking.

18. Watching and listening to that high school marching band often generates in 12-year-olds a dream, "That's what I want to do when I go to high school." (That contrasts with a desire to join a street gang!)

19. When the choice has been made to create a high school with an enrollment of 2,500 or more rather than one with an enrollment of 500 to 600, the downsides of that decision can be partially offset by using the marching band as a model of how to organize a very large school so it consists of scores of smaller groups where everyone can feel, "This is where I belong," thus reducing the degree of anonymity and also discouraging anti-social behavior by lonely individuals. (The very large marching bands model how to create in a group of more than 100 individuals a sense of unity around a common purpose.)

20. Perhaps the most important lesson is the high school marching band demonstrates most of the key organizing principles on how to transform a loose collection of a few dozen individuals born after 1990 into a tightly knit and cohesive very large group.

21. Finally, and some readers will move this to the top of the list of benefits, that high school marching band provides every participant with the opportunity to experience success as (a) an eager individual learner and (b) as a member of a team.

Two Lessons for Today
First, the larger the size of the congregation in contemporary American Protestantism and/or the greater the demographic or cultural diversity and/or the faster the rate of turnover in the constituency and/or the faster the rate of numerical growth and/or the shorter the typical tenure of the pastor and/or the senior minister, the more urgent it is to help every constituent of a smaller ministry team or task force or group to conclude, "This is my tribe! This is where I belong." The Women's Missionary Society of 1915 to 1950 was one model. The adult Sunday school classes for recently married couples in the 1930s and 1940s were another model. "Our congregation's marching band" could be a relevant model in the first decades of the 21st century. Or, it can be used simply to illustrate the concept of redundant organizing principles.

Second, a parallel pattern in American Christianity is the old value system often evaluated congregational performance based on receipts exceeding expenditures or on an increase in confirmed membership or on improving the real estate. In a growing number of congregations today, the No. 1 criterion in self-evaluation is the transformation of people's lives via meaningful and memorable experiences.

Lyle Schaller enthusiastically applauds every marching band in every parade he watches.

Copyright 2008 by Lyle E. Schaller