Rough Day on the Field

It is Halloween and the band seems to be in low spirits at their Friday afternoon rehearsal. Talk of the nights plans were ringing through the arc in an excited fashion; even Mrs. Director seems to be in a hurry to get the rehearsal going so that they could possibly get out early though, she fashioned these words into threats that the rehearsal would go only as fast as they wanted it to, they were in control of how early they got out. It seems as though no one really wants to be at the field this afternoon but at the same time is halfheartedly pretending otherwise to fool Mrs. Director out of making them run extra laps to “liven up their spirits”.

As the band went ahead with rehearsal in preparation for the game the next we find that the drum line needs some extra attention. I noticed this mainly because Mrs. Director had the repeat instructions multiple times after they proved to have not been paying attention by botching the exercise they were supposed to be playing, this did not please Mrs. Director or their Tech (Miss Drumsticks). “You think this is funny?” Miss Drumsticks says to a drummer who laughed after every run that they messed up, “Really? You think this is funny? The whole band has been waiting this entire rehearsal for you to get your act together and you think it is hilarious that you keep messing up?” The drummer who was being yelled at looked at her with a smirk on his face nodding as to say “yeah, I think this is funny” Ms. Drumsticks on the other hand was not amused by his honesty and (by the looks of it, seeing as he was walking off the field with his drum) seemed to have dismissed him for the rest of rehearsal.

As Drummer Dude walked off the field shaking his head everyone looked at him in with a look of surprised and murmurs—both agreeing with and disagreeing with Ms. Drumsticks—were spreading through the band in soft whispers. “I think she did the right thing in sending him home, it will show the rest of the drum line that they’re not invincible” Said Trombone girl to a fellow trombonists who was nodding in agreement. In the drum line part of the field we see looks of disgust and frustration but no one seems to want to say anything, probably in fear of further punishment.

As someone who is planning on going into the field of teaching, I can definitely understand why Mrs. Director is so keen on discipline and order. Although I will not be teaching such a huge group of kids I understand and admire this because it is hard to keep people on task and even harder to keep things going with minimal problems. Students seem to think some teachers as “strict” or “mean” but I think it is important for teachers to keep this façade in order to well, keep order, and I admire teachers who are able to do this well.