End-of-year music concert

We had a busy weekend.

First up on Saturday morning Belmont Music Centre (BMC) had its end-of-year concert.

We were up bright and early for that, arriving soon after 8am to unlock and help set up before the concert started at 10am.

(I wrote previously about how we've recently got more involved at BMC.  With still no manager as yet, my Big Sis has been helping out by doing the essential manager-duties to keep the Centre from closing.  I've been there when needed as her assistant.)

A few dozen BMC students (and most of the teachers) performed in various ensembles and bands during the concert, which lasted an hour and three quarters.  They all did an amazing job, and we were thoroughly entertained throughout.

The concert also doubled as a 50th anniversary birthday party for BMC, which first opened its doors in 1969.  Apparently, BMC started when the headmasters of three local schools -- Belmont Intermediate, Belmont Primary and Bayswater Primary -- got together and set things in motion for a Saturday morning Ministry of Education-(partly-)funded music centre.

The schools' opinion was that the local children's music education would best be developed by the schools joining forces and recruiting specialist expert music teachers to teach their children out of school hours.  Lesson fees were to be kept as low as possible to reach as many families as possible, with volunteers donating their time to help the kids.  A committee was formed, and teachers and a supervisor (now manager) hired.  The rest, as they say, is history.

It was all a bit like a Dr Who special, with previous supervisors and managers attending as VIP guests.  It was inspiring to meet BMC's first supervisor Oonah Caldwell.  Betty Dance, the supervisor when I was a student there in the mid-80s, also attended.

Mulan and Miya were also kept busy.  Before the concert, in between band warm-ups, they joined in with several other children to set up the decorations.

They were also active participants in the concert:

• Mulan and Miya played recorder together as a duet (and trio with their teacher).
• Mulan played flute in the wind ensemble (with one other student and their teacher).
• Mulan played cello while Miya played violin in the string ensemble.

Immediately after the string ensemble finished playing the final piece of the concert we had to pack and go, driving straight to the girls' end-of-year ballet show (we arrived at the ballet theatre less that 30 minutes before the dress rehearsal started -- we'd warned their ballet teacher in advance that they'd be a bit late!).

Unfortunately this meant that we missed the BMC prize-giving and party.  Both Mulan and Miya were awarded prizes in absentia.  Mulan, who will be too old to re-enrol next year, was one of a few students who were awarded medals for senior excellence.

(I'll write about the ballet show when I get time later.)

Book review: The dog who could fly

Usually I'm the one who passes books to Mulan and Miya as reading suggestions.

This time it was the other way around.

Lately, Mulan and Miya have got interested in fighter planes -- especially those of the First and Second World Wars, and they have been getting fighter plane books out of the library.

One book they learnt about was Damien Lewis' The Dog Who Could Fly, a true story about a dog who flew bombing runs during the Second World War.  After they finished it the girls passed the book on to me and said I had to read it.  So I did.

It was an excellent choice.

Lewis wrote a direct, easily readable, child-friendly account of Robert Bozdech, a Czech airman who escaped via France to Britain during the war.  Flying for the French Air Force, Bozdech was shot down in no man's land, where he found a puppy in an abandoned farmhouse.  He tucked the puppy inside his jacket and crawled to safety.  From that time on Bozdech and Antis the German shepherd were inseparable.  When Germany overran France, they escaped to Britain, where Bozdech again flew bombing raids against Germany.

For many of the bombing runs, Antis flew with Bozdech, usually sleeping calmly at his feet.  A dog-sized oxygen mask was made for Antis, for when the unpressurised planes flew at higher altitudes.

Antis was injured on several occasions, but survived the war as beloved camp mascot and hero wardog.

It is a beautiful story of mutual loyalty between man and dog, and I highly recommend it.

My only complaint is that the narrative is a little too one-sided patriotic.  We can surely all agree that Second World War German command was evil and the German population was far too compliant in following and actioning the evil.  Nonetheless, the German people were still real people with real feelings.  They were not mere objects to be blown up and eliminated.  Too often, Bozdech came across as too single-minded in his determination to take revenge and kill as many German people as he could.  In keeping the storytelling simple, Lewis' writing style created a simplistic narrative which dehumanised the many people who Bozdech killed.

Sadly, for a book which was readable for Miya-aged children, I felt the book glorified war a little too much, with heroic goodies and impersonal baddies.  I think a better book would have been one that worked a little harder to emphasise the tragedy of war and acknowledge the shared humanity with those who happened to have been born on the other side of the border and consequently were drafted to fly the opposition aircraft.

Book review: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I'd had Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie sitting in my bookshelf for a few years, after picking it up cheap at a book fair.  I'd heard of it as a worthy story, and thought it might be similar to the excellent movie Dead Poets Society (which the girls and I watched a few weeks ago).

Sad to say, Jean Brodie was a disappointment.  I wouldn't recommend it.  (Although I read that it is listed on the BBCs 100 most influential novels, for class and society.)

The story is set in a girls school in 1930s Edinburgh.  Just like Dead Poets, it's about an influential teacher (Miss Jean Brodie) whose personality inspires a small group of students to stand out and be different from the rest of the conservative school.

But unlike Robin Williams' character in Dead Poets, Miss Brodie is, at least in my opinion, right from the outset unappealing in pretty much every way.  She's an unprofessional bad teacher with wrong and ignorant ideas who arrogantly thinks she is right.  Her teaching colleagues mostly don't think much of her, and it seems that it's only a small (but strong) group of her students who are inspired by her to the extent that they are known throughout the school as the "Brodie set."  Presumably, her dozens of other students didn't find her inspiring.

Having an unlikable main character makes it hard, but not impossible, to be drawn into a story.  If the characters are psychologically deep and interesting, then a character-based story can still be engrossing.  But in the case of Jean Brodie, all the characters were presented superficially, as stereotypes with one-line descriptions, and throughout the story never rose much above that.

The back cover of the book informs us that "for comic observation and spicy dialogue it is impossible to outclass Muriel Spark."  I disagree.  Unless the comic observation was intended as bone dry and intensely self-depreciating, what social observations I saw were superficial.  As for the spicy dialogue, as far as I could see this mostly amounted to attention-grabbing out-of-place immature sexual references.  It was as if the author was trying to grab the reader's attention with light smuttiness.

The plot of the story jumped around oddly, with tension dissolved too early when it deserved to be built.  What I thought to be the two big mysteries of the story -- who betrayed Miss Jean Brodie and why Rose was famous for sex -- were explained early and cheaply.

At 128 pages it's a short story, and easy to read in a few hours.  So at least time-wise it's not a big investment in reading.  But I won't bother keeping our copy, and I won't bother offering it to Mulan to read.

Ballet exams

I've been super-busy lately, and haven't had time to online-congratulate Mulan and Miya for their awesome ballet exam results.

So, Mulan and Miya both sat their RAD ballet exams last term.  Results have been dribbling back.  Mulan did Intermediate Foundation, and got a high Merit pass (almost Distinction).  Miya did Grade 3 and got a solid Merit pass.

They also did their Contemporary dance exams, and both passed with Honours.

It's ballet show season now; they're busily preparing for their show on 7th and 8th of December.  This year they are doing Coppelia.

(I wrote about their last year's exams here.)

Mulan, swim teacher

School holidays are almost at an end.  (Even though we homeschool, most of our activities follow the school term.)

During the first week of the holidays, Mulan was up early each weekday morning to catch the bus to work.  (I didn't go with her, thinking it better for her to do it herself.)

We'd arranged with our swim teacher, Jean from Swim Lovers' Swim School, for Mulan to start learning how to teach swimming.  So, Mulan was in the pool from 9 am to 11:45 am each day, observing alongside Jean and helping out.

It's early days yet, and Mulan still has several steps to take before she is independently teaching in the pool, but it was a great first time and we'll probably gradually ease into this over the next few years.

The thought is that eventually Mulan will be able to teach the preschoolers during the day in term-time.  And since Mulan is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Jean is keen to expand the business and have some swim classes taught in Chinese.

The main thing for Mulan to work on now is her communication.  Or to put this more precisely, at home Mulan is very good at communicating, loudly and dominantly.  But when she is out with others she is often very quiet.  (I was/am exactly like this, too.)

To be a successful teacher Mulan has got to get into the habit of thinking of teaching as a form of acting, where she presents herself to her students in a way that is not entirely her natural personality.  She has got to verbalise more, as well as smile and show excitement on her face.  (Internally she is enjoying herself, but sometimes she doesn't show it.)  This takes time, and it's a bit scary for those of us who are not naturally this way.  But I'm sure she will get there in the end.

In addition to the swim teaching, Mulan is also continuing to teach Mandarin Chinese here in our home to paying students.  For a few of Mama's preschool students, both Mulan and Miya work in our classroom as paid assistants.  Again, they are both gradually learning the teaching business and are steadily taking over leading the activities in the classroom, as well as lesson-planning beforehand.

Who knows if Mulan will become a professional teacher, but learning to teach now is all good.  It is a great skill to have, and is part of our homeschooler "socialisation" (!!).

(Miya also went with Mulan each day to the pool.  She had a 45 min lesson, and while out of the pool she had fun entertaining Jean's new dog.)

Belmont Music Centre

Belmont Music Centre is really awesome!  All primary and intermediate-aged children in the Takapuna to Devonport area should join.

Yep, this is an unpaid advertisement for our local non-profit music teaching centre.  (Which, by the way, turned 50 this year.)

Sadly, our previous manager had some health problems and had to suddenly resign.  The committee was down to one solitary person, and with no one to run the place we were looking at having to close permanently.

Gugu (my big sis), who was the sole surviving committee member, stepped in and did what was needed to keep things going.  For the past several weeks, for several hours per week, she has been doing the surprisingly many things that an organisation needs done, and all for no pay.

Things are now looking up, we are re-populating the committee, and new and exciting ideas are bouncing around.  Gugu is now Interim Manager and Committee Chairperson, while I have got the title of Treasurer.  We're still looking for more volunteers to help share the burdens and give back to our local kids.

So, here's what happens: We've got 11 brilliant teachers teaching a range of instruments and music knowledge on Saturday mornings during term-time.  They are paid (though far below the going rate for music teachers) directly by the Ministry of Education.  The very minimal tuition fees that each student pays then contributes to the general running expenses of the Music Centre.  Parents who think this is an awesome community service join the committee or volunteer their time in other ways to help keep things going.

Basically, this is an environment where music and community involvement are the driving forces.  We all think that kids learning music is great fun and hugely beneficial, and we get together to volunteer our time to make it happen.

We're looking forward to continuing next year, and we're hoping for more kids playing music and more parents volunteering behind the scenes to make it happen.

Book review: Jeannette Ng

A great way to choose new books is to check out the awards speeches of authors.

Last year I discovered N K Jemisin after clicking a link to her Hugo Award acceptance speech.  She is now definitely up there amongst my all-time favourite authors.  I wrote about her books here.

A few weeks ago I discovered Jeannette Ng, thanks to her awesome speech (text version here) when accepting the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.  What she said was spot on.  Thanks to Ng, the award got a name-change; now it's the Astounding Award.  And rightly so.

So, I requested Ng's book, Under the Pendulum Sun, from the library, as well as the short story collection, Not So Stories, in which Ng has a contribution.

It was a great choice, and I thoroughly enjoyed both books.

Under the Pendulum Sun is a perfectly paced, incredibly creative, beautifully written novel with deep references to the Gothic novel tradition.  Ng's MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies shows.

I won't say too much about the story, as each part builds and reveals layers of mystery.  But in brief the story is set in the Age of Discovery.  Captain Cook has discovered the Faelands -- you get there by becoming thoroughly lost for a sufficiently long period of time.  The novel opens with Catherine Helstone heading there, following her missionary brother who wishes to bring the word of God to the Fae.

The Faelands are definitely weird and wonderful.  The sun is, well, a pendulum -- a lamp set on a long string that swings back and forth.  Days and nights come and go according to where the pendulum sun is at in its swing.  The rest of the world is equally, um, different.  But in an incredibly beautiful way.

Several days ago, when I was part-way through the book, we were out and Mulan hadn't brought enough entertainment.  I passed the book to her and she sped through it, finishing it before I did.  She enjoyed it, although possibly some parts of the story are on the mature side for a 12-year-old.

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The short stories that make up the Not So Stories are often equally creative.  But this is a much more overtly political work.

Most people should recognise that the Not So Stories references Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  Kipling was a brilliant writer, and his stories are deservedly classics.

But Kipling was overly optimistic and positive about British colonialism.  In his storytelling, Kipling (just like C S Lewis, who I discussed here) often presents colonialism as a good, decent, civilising influence on the natives.  He ignores the evils and atrocities.

Not So Stories is intended explicitly as a corrective.  Each of the writers takes Kipling-ish ideas or styles but twists them to acknowledge colonial evils.

Jeannette Ng's story, How the Wishing Tree got its Carapace of Plastic, is perhaps only going to be understood and appreciated by those who have a bit of Chinese cultural background.  Here in our home in the children's toybox we have got a plastic orange, which we picked up from a wishing tree; Ng's story brought back plenty of memories and images, and in my opinion nicely captured the feeling.

Zina Hutton's Strays Like Us is a sweet cat story.  I've passed it to Miya to read, though she hasn't picked it up yet.

Raymond Gates' There is Such Thing as a Whizzy-Gang is, as far as I could see, the least appropriate story in the collection.  All I could see was a campfire scary story, with little to no political or Kipling-ish references.

But in my opinion the final story, Paul Krueger's How the Camel Got Her Paid Time Off, was the most brilliant reply to Kipling.  It is the most perfect response to Kipling's How the Camel got His Hump.  It is an absolute must-read.

A few days ago I played our story CD of Just So Stories, and I've passed Not So Stories to Mulan to read.