When I went to school, in the 50s-60s, they tested all of us before we went into Junior High or Middle school. (They also gave lots of sugar cubes. Vaccines I guess?) This was the first year they started Junior High in NYC. No more 8th grade. You went from 6th to JHS for 3 years then went to High School for 3 years. We started High School in the second year.

After we were all tested, we all wound up in different classes with different subjects.
I was in the Special Progress Classes. I had foreign language, band and orchestra, algebra and whole bunch of other High School courses.

Everyone else had other classes, like math and shop and all the regular ones as well.
The Music and Foreign Language classes I had were majors. Which meant if we failed any of them we got left back? Band counted as much as English or Math.

It all turned out to be a disaster for the school system, but I was exposed to Musical Instruments and playing by the time I was 12. I chose Tenor Sax. I should have picked Violin. The sax weighed a ton. It was a long walk to school with a ton of books and a Tenor Sax.

After that, in High School there was no music at all. It was like I was back in the 5th grade. What a waste. Years later when my wife was still teaching High School English, there was a big campaign for music, because they proved that it improved Math scores. So they started Music Classes and all the kids Math scores went up. Then 2 years later they dropped the music classes and we were back to where we started. No music or hardly any. They spent a lot of dough on sports though.

I loved it. I don’t think I would have gotten into music without school. I only started playing the guitar at 21. I bought an old guitar from an old guy on my block for 5 bucks and I was hooked. I got me a book called E-Z Guitar and learned it and I was off and running.

Our school in town now, had a great band in the late 80s and 90s, now it’s pathetic. It’s very sad. I believe many children have no idea they have musical talent.

Wayne,

"My Music Page"