Killing subjects..how school crushes creativity and passion.

In the New Scientist a couple of months ago, Bill Bryson , talking about his recent forays into the world of science, tells his interlocutor :'There is nothing in science that is not worth being excited about. Unfortunately, the place you are least likely to find excitement, in my view, is in schools, when that is the precise place you should be handing it out to people'.
It's the same for English, I am afraid , Bill. I have had a number of very talented, passionately-committed budding young writers pass through my hands when I taught. Sometimes I bump into these (mainly) girls in Lyme or Axminster or Bridport. 'How are you getting on in English?'. They usually pull a little moue of disappointment. They don't enjoy it anymore. They are thinking of dropping it for 'A' level. They don't write creatively anymore. They are dispirited and downcast.
A long chat with one of the mothers revealed the cause...it's not (just) bad, uninspiring teaching. It's..guess what...the teaching to exams, exams which do not like to assess anything that cannot be put in a box. English Language and Literature now have very little to do with creative writing. It's all box ticking 'analysis' ( regurgitation) of the set texts..that limited, repeated and repeated short list of works which the children will have had force-fed in predigested form. The excitement of language, the magic of words have been crushed out of the curriculum, disenchanting a great raft of talented children. No doubt literary creativity is seen as a pretentious middle class habit. The educational process, far from 'drawing out' ( Latin:educere) and developing ability, just dumbs it down, parcels it up, stamps it and sends it out to join the growing pile of greyness. It's WRONG. 

Wow! What bold creatures!

Just sitting at my desk, when I see the peacock look very agitated...and then , from just round the corner from these french windows, come TWO deer...a mum and a babe, cool as cucumbers! Couldn't get my act together with the camera quickly enough and had the lens on close-up for the first pic...but just look! They wandered about, annoyed the peacock, mesmerised all three cats and strolled off! What a treat...though I won't be saying that when they eat the buds off my specimen trees. Must get the mesh out to protect the few I did not armour last year...

Freezing...

The weather is truly vile today. Very cold indeed and raining heavily. I have just sent off for a SAD lamp. Even the BG ( sceptical about such things) is convinced that I have the condition, having seen me transformed into a buzzy, upbeat thing by a ray of sunshine. Not much of that of late...or not for long enough to make a lasting difference. After all, it was only a week ago that Spring seemed to be in the air...

Have also ordered a whole stack of books on twentieth century English Landscape painters..many of the St Ives school, but including Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and the wonderful Ivon Hitchens. I wish I had a lifetime to study, learn, practise...but I don't..so I must crack on. ENough of this seasonal gloom! Pick up a paintbrush, woman, and stop whingeing!

oh...and Shaun White

THE most awesome snowboarder on the planet, he is one seriously brave and talented dude. Heartstopping final run....didn't think he had the speed for that mctwist move of his. AmAzing.
Wanted to include a youtube vid...but nuthin' doin' coz of copyright. Hope you saw it ...will see it sometime.
Loving an Olympic sport you can do in jeans!

Why can't I get on to Guido?

Keen to see if Guido has posted on Gordon's pathetic decision to fight the election on ludicrous class issues, Chippy, or what? However, I can't get on to Guido's site...jammed. Sabotage?
The chippy bit refers to the Prime Mentalist, obviously!

Hanging tomorrow....

Well, that's it...the time has run out! These two will have to go in unframed. I hope I don't sell too many before the private view ( which is ten days after we open to tie in with the exhibition in the gallery above us). Ho, ho! As if! Well, if I DO sell, I hope the buyer(s) will be prepared to leave pics hanging until after 28th. Pic 2 is a 10x10" square experimental semi abstract of Golden Cap from the hills above Charminster.

The boys are at it again!

So the BG is on half term and it's time to blow things up in the woods again. He and his mate, Rory ( a budding scientist ...presumably nuclear physics), made this noisy short this morning.  Amazed that the boys in blue did not rock up, given the decibels....

Rejection

Never easy. Very hard when you really want the job. Hey ho.

Countdown to expo..AND SIMON'S CAT!

We hang next Wednesday! This won't go in...not finished and I think I need a break!
Had an interview today at a fantastic prep school up the road...would LOVE to be the English teacher there. Will know on Friday...please keep your fingers crossed!
One more day of chaos before I can move back to my now-decorated room..and then chaos again when we finally get round to carpeting Hen's and the spare bedrooms. Then we will be just about finished inside. I can't say the same for the wilderness.....

Rugby

After one of the worst migraines ever ( and a horrible nightmare in which my brain exploded and I died...and then woke up and thought I was blind...) I am now miraculously better. Energy levels rising rapidly! Phew!
Odd rugby...scrappy and boring most of the time...it did not feel like a high scoring match...yet the evidence is there on the board..Danny Care's first half try was a high spot. I began to think that England would let it all slip away once Wales were back up to full strength but thank goodness for Haskell. I thought Nick Easter was great in the first half...seemed to know what he was doing. Can't help thinking that England were a bit lucky that the Welsh stuffed up on the lineout and had a Jones sin-binned...

Wiped out

Very annoyingly, caught an innocent-seeming cold which transmuted into a nasty lergy, so have become frustratingly nocturnal...coughing all night, drifting about, knackered, during the day. What a waste of time!
Meant to be going down to E-K's concert tonight ( got the tickets) but I can't see how I can...the BG and mate will be disappointed, but I am already in dire straits without seeing a tribute to the band or the condition!
Glorious day, today.
Anybody catch Question Time? Depressing to see the polished, glued to the rails, unswerving, urbane mendacity of Charles Faulkener pitched against the care-worn, resigned, why-does-nobody-listen truth of Clare Short and many of the audience. Theresa May was dreadful...wishy-washy, insubstantial, irrelevant. Depressing.

Ups and downs...

E-K wins the compo, although I thought (immodestly) that my nursery teacher quip was not bad at all! Prize on Friday, E-K!
sorry about the sketches < . Always like to put something up rather than a blank canvas, as it were. Could bore you with a job application saga/fiasco but, to be honest, I am too depressed/annoyed to do so other than to say that I begin to wonder whether I am employable. Over-qualified, yes. Can't say more other than that prospective employer thought they might get a BOGOF deal.......Well, BOG OFF! My brain is my sole means of putting bread on the table ( don't try to visualise that!) so I can't be using up its precious productive capacity on free stuff! And yes, I know this is cryptic...sorry! Therapeutic semi-rant. Anyway...a dyslexic man walks in to a bra.... Thassorl. X