A Book or a Buck?

My school has about 90 students in band. There are lots of things to keep track of: your instrument, your music book, and sheet music. Also, there are extras like cork grease, cleaning cloth, tuner, and metronome. Further, there are time constraints in putting away your instrument in your locker and all your other stuff too to get ready for the next class. Well, all this hustle and bustle is the perfect recipe for leaving stuff behind. This creates both a problem and an opportunity for our band teacher. It is a problem because the band shares the room with another group and has to be cleared out quickly. The opportunity is a big money maker. He fines us for leaving our stuff behind. Big fines too! To be fair, he doesn’t keep the money. It is donated to the school’s music association.

One day I left my music book and sheet music behind, but I couldn’t find it when I went back to the band room to look. Then, my mom went and bought me another music book. About a week went past and I had forgotten about the misplaced music book when my band teacher came up to me and said, “I have your music book, it will be nine dollars to get it back.” Nine dollars! These are big fines. I told him he could keep it, because I had already replaced it. Then, he asked if I had the sheet music too. Here I bluffed. I said I did, when I only intended to copy it from a friend. This left the band teacher in a little bit of a situation. What is he going to do with a used music book that has my name all over it? I didn’t know, and I think he didn’t either. He then dropped the price to $1 and I said OK. I might lose my music book again, so an extra copy is not a bad thing. Even though I question this fining tactic of making “forgetful and clumsy” seventh graders indirectly raise money for band activities, this was a win-win. I got my music book back and my band teacher got a buck for band activities.

Lawboy-