Anyone who doubts that the arts can be used to motivate students to achieve excellence in other areas could learn a thing or two from McMath Middle School’s jazz program.
McMath’s Tiger Jazz Band has won the Foundation for Music Education’s top honor for middle school jazz for the second time, and we congratulate each of the students on this achievement.
For McMath band director Travis Harris, the honor wasn’t so much a trophy as it was a fulfillment of the philosophy he shares with his young students.
Harris started the jazz band six years ago, when he took the position at McMath Middle School, which is named for a musician. Harris said the band program has doubled in size since he started, and the jazz band has 18 musicians this year.
The jazz band is a premier ensemble at McMath, Harris said. Musicians audition each year. Harris said he looks for musicians who display a budding professionalism and a slight streak of independence during auditions.
The returning eighth-graders were in the band that recorded the music that earned the band the second national honor. The Tiger musicians were among 35 ensembles who submitted recordings to the contest.
Harris said he wouldn’t have the jazz band without the support of McMath’s administrators. He credits Principal Debbie Nobles with eliminating a 45-minute advisory period from the school day so that the schedule could accommodate an eight-period day. That made room for Harris to teach the jazz band.
Nobles said the jazz band has been a teaching tool that crosses into other curricula.
“He really teaches the genres, which means he’s teaching these students American history,” Nobles said. “He’s teaching them Texas history.”
Nobles said former Denton school district Superintendent Ray Braswell and his successor, Jamie Wilson, have supported schools using the arts to supplement language arts, social studies and mathematics.
Nobles praised Harris for his rigorous curriculum and his teaching skills. In addition to founding the current jazz band, Harris and associate director of bands, Kelsey Gaskill, have led the program to superior ratings in middle school University Interscholastic League contests.
The UIL measures school performance in arts and academics according to size classification, and then rates school performance through expert judges.
“High expectations breed high expectations,” she said. “He expects the students to prepare for class, and he expects them to perform in class. And they meet his expectations. So many people are surprised when they hear the jazz kids play and then find out they’re in middle school.”
The success of McMath’s Tiger Jazz Band is a point of pride for the district and community and it sounds to us like the young people involved are learning as much about character and responsibility as they are about music.
Those are lessons that they can fall back on throughout their lives.
