Middle school drum ensemble: an unlikely experience in classroom democracy

Abstract

Though music has a long and successful history within education, it is often one of the first sacrificial lambs when school budgets tighten. Over the course of an academic year, a documentary film sought to tell the story of an American middle school drum ensemble. The context of this group provided an ideal way to examine the nature of student participation in extra-curricular activities and how those activities provide the kinds of challenges and experiences that lead to satisfaction and self-efficacy in students. Most of these students have never played an instrument, and the group represents a cross section for every type of social group within this school setting. The tone taken by the teacher is one of democratic equalities. Students know and experience this, and it is one of many reasons why the group has continually grown over the short time it has been at this school.