I don't think anyone assumes it's sour grapes and there must certainly be parents who agree with you that kids should always be allowed to perform every piece with their band or orchestra - otherwise why would the district in the original post institue a mandatory "right to squeak" ?
By the way, kudos to your DD for practicing religiously. I really wish I can say the same for DD and DS - they obviously do practice but they successfully skate by too often. That is one reason why this "right to squeak" horrifies me. Interestingly, I am speaking from the perspective of a parent of a student who was cut from a piece (actually about 1/2 of one piece). DS is the best player (on his instrument) in his grade at school and was invited to join the school honors group (for 7th & 8th graders) at the beginning of 6th grade. Just prior to their first concert of the year, I happened to look over his music and noticed that about 1/2 of one piece was marked "rest". It was a difficult section but not something he couldn't have performed with a moderate amount of practice. He explained that the group hadn't had a lot of time to work on that piece together during practice and he forgot to put in the time to get it right so after the last rehearsal the teacher told him (and other unprepared kids) to not play that section. It made complete sense to DS (and me) and he has been more vigilant about keeping track of music for upcoming performances. I think he would have been stressed and embarrassed if he had been expected to fumble through the section and likely mess up the piece for the other students.
I think music is one of those areas that some people take seriously and others don't or perhaps can't even see why. It's good that people disagree - otherwise, it gets boring pretty fast. For example, I don't take sports seriously at all and I know there are people ready to wrestle me to the ground over that.
We are in a district that actually requires music education for every single student in elementary and middle school. Once you are in high school, only one year is required. However, in middle school, it is up to the band and orchestra teachers to listen to a student play before letting him into an instrumental music class (divided by grade level) unless the students have participated in an elementary school band or orchestra in our district. All other students have two choices: they may register for chorus if they want to sing; otherwise they register for world music if they like to read about and listen to music instead. The one thing I do not like about our system is that a student can be potentially shut out from instrumental music (other than guitar or keyboard in high school) by 6th grade unless they make an effort. For example, DD has a classmate who asked the teacher for help to learn an instrument and he practiced regularly and was let into the 7th grade class the following fall. If our school grouped by skill rather than grade, then there could potentially be a beginning class that could be joined by any grade level.
