Life out here by Bret Kofford: Many bubblers,but no rhythm, no soul, no music

Bubblers ... there was a whole generation in our town known as Bubblers. They could read and write some, and they did their sums OK, but more than anything what the Bubblers were proficient in and most practiced at was filling in bubbles on standardized test forms.

Once they removed most of the music, arts and sports programs from the schools in our town, filling in bubbles was what they did the most, too. The Bubblers thought that was what school was all about, and the best Bubblers, those who could fill in bubbles with speed and accuracy and aplomb, were highly regarded by peers, teachers and administrators.

“Look at her work that Scantron ... Wow! Just remarkable,” school officials would say admiringly as a highly talented young Bubbler bubble-filled beautifully.

Some people liked the town the way it became as the Bubblers grew up. It, all in all, was a quieter place.

There were fewer fifth-graders waking folks from their naps on Saturday afternoons as the kids squawked away learning to play the saxophone. There weren’t any nascent teen punk bands pounding away and screaming in neighborhood garages, which meant there were fewer kids with hacked-up haircuts hanging around town. (Many people thought kids in the town generally looked more wholesome than other places.) Young people didn’t play music at high volumes while washing cars or driving around town because they never had come to appreciate music, having never been exposed to it much. And one wonderful thing was there were fewer young people crashing their parents’ cars because they were trying to change CDs. Bubblers simply didn’t care for music.

All in all it was a more sedate, less noisy place, our little Bubbler town was.

There were some negatives with the Bubbler generation, though. Because they were bored little Bubblers, vandalism skyrocketed, and because there were no more art classes, the artistic quality of the graffiti even dropped. The schools tried to schedule dances but that didn’t work because the Bubblers didn’t really like music, and the kids who tried to dance couldn’t, and we’re not just talking about the white kids.

After dropping most arts education and sports, the school district’s dropout rates went up. Some kids said without arts and sports, there was nothing to interest them in school. And standardized test scores went down, even though school officials were concentrating almost all their resources on educational “basics” and bubbling-filling practice to prepare for standardized tests. The town, which once had regional science fair winners almost every year, did not even have participants anymore. Bubblers had no interest in science because it involved creative thinking, which was foreign to them.

Almost no one went to the varsity high school sporting events anymore because the players were terrible, having had no experience or coaching on the freshman or junior varsity levels. The high school pep band, with Bubblers just learning to play their instruments, didn’t exactly fire up the teams with its spirited versions of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Ring Around the Rosy” (although they were good at the “all fall down” part, the highlight of the performance each week).

Many of those in the community, including teachers, parents and even kids, who had supported keeping full arts education and athletics programs had predicted such problems if such programs were eliminated. They insisted that music and art and dance and sports made kids’ minds more active, more directed, just plain better, and those activities gave young people more self-esteem. While they had some support on the school board — except for a couple longtime inexplicably “anti-band” board members — the majority of the school board took the stand that what was most important was for the young Bubblers to fill bubbles well and get high scores on standardized tests for the district. Of course, as we know, even that didn’t happen.

What did happen is a whole generation of Bubblers in the town walked the streets aimlessly or sat in houses, eating fish sticks and Tater Tots in front of the TV each night while watching “Wheel of Fortune” (though they could never get the rhythm down to the “Wheel ... of ... Fortune” chant that starts the show.)

It had become a sad town. Some people wanted to bring the arts teachers and the coaches back after finances improved in the school district, but none of these professionals came back. They had moved on to places where they were appreciated. They had no interest in returning to such a heartless, lifeless town.

It was a town without rhythm.

It was a town without soul.

It was a town without music.