Imagine a world with no music. No sound but others voices and your own. Imagine a world with no dance. No one using their body as a tool to leap and convert to the music. Imagine no art, no more color or vibrant swirls to brighten up a dull world. Would you like life without these things? I know I wouldn’t. So tell me this, why is it that the schools art, music and dance programs are so poorly funded? The programs are slowly withering away to nothing as the number of people in these programs and the funding for them is flying away.  Soon, if we don’t improve this problem, there will be no more music, art, or dance. We’ll have nothing but our memory and imagination.

So, why is it that they’re so poorly funded?

I’ll tell you why, it’s because one of the school’s focuses is the football team and their success. I’m not saying that they don’t matter either, they do. But they’re not the only important thing in this whole school district. I think it’s ridiculous that the players don’t have to fundraise that much and still get so many benefits while all us “music makers” get the rough end of the stick. I’m on the schools dance team, and color guard. Bet you’ve never heard of either of those in our tiny town. I bet you also don’t know that three years ago we won the gold medal down in the Tournament of the Bands (TOB) championships in Wildwood New Jersey. And two years ago the silver medal in an even higher class of dance.

And guess what? My teammates and I have to raise $700 dollars each year to pay for all of our needs.

The school doesn’t provide a lick of funding. Not one single penny. We are solely self-funded completely on our own and do countless fundraisers to pay for everything we need. Were represented by the school, so why don’t they provide any funding for us like they do their precious football teams? Apparently no matter what we achieve, we’ll always just be another activity at the school that’ll soon wither away with the rest of the programs.

And I won’t stand for it.

Not only is it the Tyrone Dance Team and the Tyrone Color Guard slowly withering, the TAHS band is nowhere what it used to be. When my mom was in high school, the band had over 200 members and a Color Guard with over 20 members and was the best in the area. They were the pride of the Tyrone school. What happened? The band now has a measly 50 some members and a Color Guard with only 10 members. Obviously it’s not just the Dance Team and Color Guard in trouble–it’s all musical arts programs. If we don’t act to improve this problem, there will be nothing left for the future students.

I know most people don’t think much of these programs, but they don’t realize that music is what makes the world go round. Everywhere you look there’s someone listening to music whether it be on the TV, radio, or internet. We use music every day in our lives. No matter what shape or form it comes in: whether it is marching band, that great group you heard on the radio, or that awesome dance crew you saw on MTV last night. Music and the arts impact our lives daily. Hopefully it’s not too late at Tyrone High School to save the music for one last dance.