Maybe I'm just too old to understand all these new fangled ways--but I don't get it. Why would I want my painting, band or play Judged by some panel of experts. I thought this plague was confined to high schools, now I find it in community theaters too.
I'm a full-time professional quality manager, so I understand the concept of being audited, but in my opinion, the market place and the students are the best judges of the success of an arts program, not a bunch of snooty academics picking and finding fault with little nuances the public will never see and couldn't care less about.
Am I wrong?
What's the point of this silliness?
Should real gluten world results count more than silly, artificial "grades"?
What do you think?
I am an adjudicator, so I expect you to hit me with your best shot. No, art cannot be *reduced to a number* - but there are practical applications for adjudication - and many places where, as you say, it is irrelevant. If we wish to offer students the opportunity to perform in Honors ensembles, such as All-State, then some form of adjudication and competition is needed. Leading up to that level, there are preliminaries for younger students, all of which we endeavor to make a positive growth experience. I have sent thousand of kids over my teaching career, and as an adjudicator, Greenock estate agents I have heard thousands. I often have 10 minutes to hit seven major categories, check off points, give pluses and minuses for certain areas, write a narrative about their performance, and still hear their scales and sight-reading! More advanced kids get 15 minutes - and the works are often long, so we need to make cuts. Each year, we expect to see the student progress through the six levels of literature offered in each instruments or vocal area. Here in NY state, we hear about 300,000 kids a YEAR, so need to be efficient, if we are going to continue to offer this service. Not all students wish Cell Phone Repair to participate - fine. SOME teachers require this as a type of independent final exam - that is up to the local school district and the policy of the group that the students has freely chosen to join.
If you move up to college auditions, then certainly adjudication is necessary - there is quite a difference in the ability level of a student who is accepted to Oberlin than one who is accepted into a Department of Music in a local state college. The students who attend the latter would like to think that yes, they COULD have gotten into Juilliard - if only (fill in the blank with the lame excuse of your choice) - but we know Dixons voucher codes that to be a fantasy. There are a lot of fantasies HERE on YA; if you stick around long enough, you read questions in mis-spelled English from kids who want to know of they can study hip-hop at Jooleeyard (the only college they have ever heard of . .), since they already have taught themselves the ukulele - and they don't need to read no freakin' notes, and don't wanna take lessons from no stupid teacher! At some point, some judicious mid-course adjudication would have prevented an eventual broken heart - and possibly convinced this student of the merits of legitimate study. When I try pool tables for sale to tell them that - I often am met with incredible denial and resistance - but I got to be Top Answerer here for a reason, and this is sincerity (some call it v bluntness - hey, I don't have all day, you know . . ) and quality of my advice. Not everyone WANTS advice- some people just want you to AGREE with them, right or wrong . . .
Yes, the public can discern quality - even if they do not have the background to analyze why. I watch the Olympics - I could never in a million years do ANY of that - but I can recognize quality. I watch ML baseball, college basketball - again, skills I do not instant weight loss possess, now or ever - yet I can tell quality from lack. Yes, the public votes with ticket sales - same as in professional music. But to GET to that level, students and amateurs need some kind of motivation, and a dispassionate way to be assigned to the spot that makes the most sense for them, and for the greater good.
I am reading between the lines here - but from your question, I *infer* that either yourself or a loved one was denied a plum spot in an amateur production, and are therefore miffed. If so, perhaps the "real word results" satellite tv need people who possess different skills than you presented? Diplomatic enough?
