Alrighty. If I don't write this entry now, I probably won't until sometime next week, which will result in a huge conglomeration of stuff that no one will want to bother reading. :-P So. Before I get back to my schoolwork (I'm behind already...yeah...), here is a wonderful entry of randomness...
I finally finished reading "The Queen's Fool". I loved it. I think it would make a really cool movie, but either it would be really long, or they'd have to cut a lot of stuff out. So I'm not sure how well it would work, but I think the potential is there. It is a very engaging story, filled with tons of great historical detail. I can't wait to read more of Philippa Gregory's books.
I also recently read an article in Newsweek about the pressure put on kindergarteners and first-graders to succeed academically. Of course they should succeed, but the way some schools (not to mention parents) are going about it is absolutely insane. I was appalled at some of the stuff that was in this article. Young children falling asleep in the morning at school because they're up late at night doing homework, not only too much of it for their age, but stuff that is too difficult for their age. Parents who want to know how their kindergarteners rank against the other kids in the class. (since when does class rank apply to kindergarten?) This amount of stress cannot be healthy, physically or mentally, for such young children. I'm glad that curricula are improving, but children also need time to learn to play and socialize while in school. The schools that are mentioned in this article are going overboard. Combining playtime with academics is a very important part of children's development. (this is where my psych background kicks in. :-P). It's called childhood for a reason. I was just so shocked.
Anyway. On to stuff that doesn't piss me off.
This weekend I watched "March of the Penguins" and "The Brothers Grimm". "March of the Penguins" was really good. Extremely interesting. The parents take turns walking across Antarctica for food, so the other one goes without eating for months at a time while they are protecting their chicks. When the mothers are gone, going back to the sea to get food, the fathers all stand in a big blob with their backs to the blizzards that are going on, and they rotate so that everyone gets a turn in the middle of the blob so the same penguins aren't exposed to the wind and snow the whole time. Pretty smart.
"The Brothers Grimm" was...strange. Terry Gilliam was the director, which explained a lot, but still. I found it strange even for him. It wasn't what I expected at all...I wouldn't say it's a bad movie, but it's not one of my favorites.
Thursday night Annie and I saw the CSO at Millenium Park. It was the start of World Music Festival Chicago 2006, which I didn't know beforehand. It was awesome. Music included Russian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and a piece that included some Mongolian throat-singing. That was pretty interesting. It was really cool mixed in with a classical piece. One of the Middle Eastern pieces was especially pretty, and their encore was a Middle Eastern piece that was amazing, but of course, being the encore, was not listed in the program. And it was one that I would have liked to find a recording of. Oh well. Fantastic concert.
I've been listening to my new Karl Jenkins cd...and I really wish I could find some more of his string music. (assuming there is more.) The cd I found is a bunch of selections from his larger works. I'm not totally sold on the stuff from "Adiemus" yet, but that's where the "Adiemus Variations" on the Diamond Music cd are from (duh), and I think I like the string version better. The stuff from his "Requiem" is pretty cool. It sort of reminds me of Orff's "Carmina Burana". But overall, I prefer the string stuff on the Diamond Music cd. So I hope there's more. I mean, there's a "String Quartet No. 2" on there, so shouldn't there be at least a "String Quartet No. 1"?
And I found the coolest little coffeehouse...Gourmand Coffeehouse! Had no idea it was even there, over on Printers' Row...the cafe mocha is amazing, they have a really good selection of food, (plus ice cream!), and it looks sort of like Espresso Royale back at U of I. Very cool indeed. :-)
Okay. Time to get moving on the shit-load of schoolwork I have to do. Whoo!
Ciao ciao.
2 comments:
While I agree that kindergarteners shouldn't be overworked, I do believe that our elementary schools overall need to be more academically challenging. Later grades need to improve their academic rigors, for sure.
Our elementary, junior, and senior high school systems are getting progressively... um... dumber (that sounds very harsh and critical, but I stand by my point).
Now, if we want our high school students to achieve better, our junior highs need to be more rigorous; if we want our junior highs to be more rigorous, then we need elementary school to be more rigorous. You see in which direction this goes.
American schoolchildren are miles behind schoolchildren in Asia and Europe in academic achievement, and it become impossible to ignore this trend by the time high school and college roll around.
I suggest that the schools have the perfect intentions by pushing for more academic standards, even in kindergaten. Perhaps they are pushing too hard for now, but there is a dire need to reverse the current regression in American academics. The reversal will be a little rough, especially at first. But I think children are a lot more capable than we give them credit for, and if we train them young, they are better prepared for academic excellence later in life.
If they were to make a movie of "The Queen's Fool," I think that it would have to be a miniseries in order to get the full story. Perhaps it could be released on two discs, and these discs could come in two different cases. No, I'm not bitter about having to rent two different discs to see the entire "Elizabeth I" miniseries. ; )
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