Norah Colvin

Live Love Laugh Learn … Create the possibilities

Tag: Writing

  • Talking interviews

    BITE SIZE MEMOIR

    Lisa Reiter is writing her memoir and sharing her stories on her blog. She also invites others to join in and share their memories through her Bite Size Memoir prompt. Her prompt of the moment is “Interviews”.

    In my role of teacher over the years, I have conducted many parent-teacher interviews, each with varying degrees of pleasure and stress. And that’s just for me! I have also sat on the other side of the desk attending interviews to find out about the progress of my own two children.

    I mostly worked with children in their first year of school.

    When conducting interviews with parents, particularly at the beginning of the year but at any time, I always invited them to talk first; to tell me their impression of how their child was going, to raise any concerns they had and to ask any questions they wanted answered.

    There are a variety of purposes for beginning an interview in this way:

    • It gives the parents a voice and acknowledges their importance in the child’s life and education.
    • It ensures that any concerns parents have are raised and discussed first, and not left until the end or even missed out in the short time allocated to each interview scheduled on a parent-teacher night.
    • It provides an insight into the child’s life and how the attitudes of the parents may affect, or be reflected in, the child’s attitude to school and learning.

    Often times I have found that parents share my concerns, and discussing them is easier when raised by the parent. One of the most difficult things is raising and discussing an issue of which the parent is unaware.

    Over the years I have found that what parents most want to know is:

    Is my child happy?

    Is my child well-behaved?

    Does my child have friends?

    How does my child’s progress compare to that of others?

    Prior to the interviews I would make a checklist of things I wished to discuss with each parent, including responses to the queries listed above and any other issues I wished to raise or anecdotes I wished to share, ensuring the positives always outweighed the concerns. I would gather samples of the child’s work to show and have at hand suggestions for ways the parents could continue to help with their children’s learning at home, which generally meant reading to them, talking with them, playing games together and possibly involving them in daily activities such as setting the table, writing shopping lists etc.

    But I digress. My purpose in writing this post wasn’t really to talk about parent-teacher interviews, it was to list 10 memories about interviews in response to Lisa’s prompt. Like the parent-teacher interviews, many of them have a link to education.

    www.openclipart.com http://goo.gl/EY7z5L
    http://www.openclipart.com http://goo.gl/EY7z5L

    I remember interviews

    15073-Briana-web

    School days

    • I remember brushing up on my conversational French for an interview as part of my final exam. I remember the interviewer laughing at something “funny” I said. I’m not really sure if he was laughing at what I meant to say, or at what I did say!

    Employment

    • I remember not having an interview for my first teaching position. I was awarded a three-year teaching scholarship which, in return for my training and a small living allowance, “bonded” me to the Education Department for three years.
    • I remember agonising for hours over written responses to selection criteria but being unsuccessful in the interviews; and going without preparation to other interviews and scoring the job!

      bad taste party
      Would you employ this woman? Bad taste fundraising function at school.

    Police

    • I remember being interviewed by a policeman after hitting a pedestrian on my way to work one morning. I was horrified to see the teenage girl bounce off the bonnet of my car. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt as I had only just pulled away from traffic lights, but we were both rather shaken up. She was only a few metres from a pedestrian crossing (also with lights) and the policeman said if anyone was to be charged it would be her. I wish she hadn’t been so impatient. I still worry about the unpredictability of pedestrians on the side of the road.
    • I remember being interviewed by police after our car was stolen. I was so upset I couldn’t remember the registration number. After it was stolen a second time, we got rid of it!

      stolen car
      Our beautiful car – stripped!
    • I remember being interviewed by the police after our house was burgled and giving them a list of items that had been stolen. The most surprising one was a big screen TV. Big in 1999 is not the same as big in 2014. It went as far out the back as it did across and weighed a ton. How they got it out of the house and down the steep driveway without being seen I’ll never know; or even why they did, as newer technology  was on its way and it wouldn’t have been worth much to resell.

    The media (Note: You are neither expected nor required to watch any of the videos included in this section. They are simply for my amusement and learning.)

    • I remember being interviewed by the local paper when offering sessions to assist parents help their children read.

    Satelitte 17.06.92 (2)

    • I remember being interviewed on Radio on the morning of the Family Day Picnic for the year of the family in 1994.
    • I remember being interviewed on a local community television station. I was invited to talk about the alternative school I was setting up. (I haven’t found the footage yet, but below is a response given to a question about self-esteem at a publicity meeting. Apologies for the amateur quality.)
    • I remember being interviewed at school about keeping butterflies in the classroom, twice: each time for different programs and different television studios.

     

    Just as an aside, at about the same time that I was being interviewed about butterflies for the program “Totally Wild”, Bec was also being interviewed at school for the same program. She is proud to say that the times she appeared on that program numbered three to my one! Not long afterwards she appeared on the news a couple of in anti-war rallies!

    Bec on "Totally Wild"
    Bec and friend Elise talking about heating on “Totally Wild”

    Of course, not all interviews occur face-to-face. Interviews can take place online too. During the 15 months that I have been blogging I have passed on a number of awards asking people to answer questions. This post is a compilation of the answers given to my interview questions by my first nominees.

    Thanks, Lisa, for this opportunity to take a walk down memory lane.

    Thank you

    Thank you readers. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

  • Which is your favourite thinking room?

     

    Do you have a quiet place at home where you like to think?

    do not disturb door

    Some people I know like to think in the toilet. (I’m not one of them. I prefer to not be in there long enough for that!) They see it as a quiet place where they can sit and think, undisturbed, for as long as they like. If they are “in the can”, “in the dunny”, “at the loo” or “out the back”, or whatever other euphemism you can come up with, their position is unassailable and their sanctuary respected. Mostly, anyway. Parents of young children may vehemently disagree with that!

    A couple of weeks* ago Anne Goodwin reminded us of World Toilet Day and how lucky we are to have access to toilets and sanitation. Most of us take what used to be the smallest room in (or out) of the house for granted, not giving its use a second thought as we flush away our waste.

    But not everyone is so lucky. It seems that more of the world’s population have access to a mobile phone, and or to the internet, than to a toilet. Visit Anne’s blog for many links that explain why a day for toilets is important.

    WaterAidAustralia explains that

    “The day was created to raise global awareness of the struggle faced by the 2.5 billion people living without access to sanitation. It is also used to explore some of the healthy, emotional and psychological consequences people endure as a result of not having a proper, clean toilet.”

    An article written by Nicole Arce and published in the Tech Times cites the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the information that 2,200 children around the world die every day due to diarrhoea. Proper sanitation would prevent most of those deaths.

    Arce writes that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set 2019 as its target for “total sanitation”. However, as also suggested in Anne Goodwin’s flash fiction piece “Culture Shock”, the problem can be attributed to cultural as well as monetary issues.

    Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch followed Anne Goodwin down the toilet path and extended the discussion to include the effect that poor sanitation has on education, particularly of young girls. The link is not as tenuous as it may first appear as explained here and here.

    Charli decided to use her flash fiction challenge to “spread awareness that toilets matter.” She invited readers to “Help spread the call for human dignity and basic sanitary health” by linking to UNICEF when responding to her prompt: In 99 words write a story that includes the toilet.

    I have decided to do just that, as have many others. Check out Charli’s post at the Carrot Ranch to read all responses.

    Toilet sanctuary

    “Miss. Marnie’s locked herself in the toilet and won’t come out.”

    “What now?” I thought, scanning the troubled face pleading for assistance as much as to be absolved of blame.

    “Okay,” I reassured Jasmine. “Let’s go see what’s up.”

    As we hurried to the toilet block Jasmine reiterated her innocence, she hadn’t done anything, she didn’t know what was wrong (it wasn’t her fault).

    “I know,” I smiled. The toilet cubicles had frequently been Marnie’s sanctuary. But not for weeks.  Jasmine’s kind-hearted friendship had seen to that.

    “She’s got her unicorn again,” Jasmine whispered.

    “Oh,” I said.

     

    *I apologise that this post may appear out of sync with World Toilet Day which was now ten days ago. Unfortunately I have been without internet access for 12 days and unable to publish although I had the post written. Fortunately I still had access to a flushing toilet, and if I had to choose between that and the internet, I’d go for the toilet every time! Though World Toilet Day has passed for this year, the message remains important every day!

    Thank you

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or flash fiction.

     

     

  • What do you bomb at?

    According to my online sources, including internetslang.com, bomb can mean “something really bad” or “something really good”.

    The urbandictionary.com states that before 1997 it meant “something really bad; a failure”; and that since 1997 it has referred to something excellent, and if preceded by the word ‘the’ it means the best!

    My use of the word “bomb” fits neatly into the pre-1997 definition. Perhaps it’s not surprising since I lived most of my life so far pre-1997! Hopefully, should I live long enough, half of my life will be lived after 1997 as well, but I’ve a while to wait to see if that happens!

    In my day the word “bomb” was often used to describe an old beat-up car. I bought my first car when it was ten years old. It may have been described by many as a bomb (it burned oil and smoked terribly amongst other things) but I loved it, adorned it with flower stickers and even named it “Ziggy”.

    car Ziggy

    Nowadays cars seem to last a lot longer before they earn the title of bomb. Dare I say our 1997 car has only in recent years earned that title, and really only after it became unsightly due to hail damage and deterioration of the paintwork. It has been replaced by a car we might call “the bomb” but it still sits in the front yard and gets an occasional outing, too precious for someone (other than me!) to part with.

    magna

    The most common use of the word as a verb was to refer to failure, particularly with regard to exams. After what felt to be a particularly dismal attempt at an exam, various students would bemoan its difficulty saying, “I bombed”. I have talked about failure in previous posts including my “failure” at singing here, and the failure of some aspects of schooling here. The word ‘bomb’ doesn’t appear in either of those posts.

    It was Charli Mills of the Carrot Ranch who got me thinking about bombing with her Nov 12: Flash Fiction Challenge to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a photo bomb (serious scene interrupted by something absurd or unexpected).

    Now Charlie was talking about photo bombs which she described as an “earnest photograph interrupted by the unexpected”, but I thought I would tackle video bombs. I knew I had made quite a few of those!

    In an effort to learn more about making videos, which has been on my to-do list for ages, I also decided to make a compilation of video bombs to accompany my 99 words, while endeavouring to meet both Charli’s criteria and mine:

    Charli:

    99 words

    bombing

    Me:

    99 words that make sense (always a priority)

    find videos to match the 99 words

    make a compilation video

    record the video and words

    My attempt is quite experimental and rather rudimentary at best but I learned a lot in the process. Since my blog is about learning, I decided to share it with you as a checkpoint on my learning journey. I know it’s definitely not “the bomb”, but I hope I haven’t totally bombed.

     

    In the words of C.S. Lewis,

    “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

     

    Video bombing

    Are you a video bomber?

    Ever tried making a video but

    the subject won’t cooperate,

    or turns its back to you,

    or perhaps it even disappears Poof! It’s out of view.

    You shoot upside down or to the side,

    the focus you can’t get right.

    You shoot with the camera supposedly off,

    then close-up your fingers when on.

    You record to capture a photo,

    or snap when it’s action you want.

    If your answer is ‘Yes” to just one of these

    come join the vid-bombers club.

    We’ll commiserate

    And then celebrate

    When your video capture’s “the bomb”!

    Thank you

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post, flash fiction or video.

  • Whose failure?

    I think about education. A lot. You could say it consumes me. It has been my lifelong passion, and although I am not currently in the classroom I don’t stop thinking and reading about how we learn and how learning can best be encouraged. My discontent with how schooling often is and my optimism for what it could be has been a recurring theme on my blog and a driving force in my life. You would not have to open too many posts to find at least one expressing that view.

    education-is-2

    My poem “Education Is” sums up the differences I see between education and schooling. Some schools do education really well. Some professing to be educational institutions school, very badly. What I consider to be one of the major differences is that education encourages a love of learning that lasts a lifetime; while schooling attempts to force-feed content in such a way that learning is neither enjoyed nor viewed as anything other than what one is forced to do in school.

    In traditional schools assessment often takes the form a test which requires students to regurgitate information that has been thrust upon them, whether they like it, or are interested in it, or not. This occurs across all subject areas. I have written about it before in relation to writing tasks in these three posts: Writing to order – done in a flash!  Writing woes – flash fiction  and Who tests the testers?

    I contrasted my choice of responding to Charli Mills’ flash fiction prompts to the lack of choice students have in state- or nation-wide writing tasks. In Writing woes – flash fiction  I suggested that it would be difficult for me, on a given day, with a restricted amount of time, under the watchful eyes of supervisors, to produce my best work in response to a prompt about which I may have little experience, knowledge or interest.

    www.openclipart.org http://goo.gl/Ep1vK6
    http://www.openclipart.org http://goo.gl/Ep1vK6

    In my flash fiction responses I introduced a unicorn as a symbol of escape from the confines of the classroom or other oppressive situation, into the space where one is free to truly be oneself. It wasn’t a deliberate or premeditated choice, simply a response to Charli’s prompt. However I am happy to adopt it in my flash fiction as a symbol of playfulness and imagination unleashed; the basis for all great inquiry and innovation. Thank you, Charli, for the prompt!

    I introduced the unicorn in the post Of rainbows and unicorns – Part 1 – Fantastic creatures and magical realms and used it again in What do you have in mind? , I’m too busy to be tired! And Reading is all it’s cracked up to be: 10 tips for an early childhood classroom

    I have returned to both these themes again in response to Charli’s most recent prompt to In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story inspired by your muse. I’m not certain who my muse is, but I am certain that it would be very difficult to call upon a muse to assist when writing in a test situation such as that expected of students in school.

    My piece is titled ‘Failure’, but this is the question I have for you: Who really deserves the “F”? Whose failure is it really?

    Failure

    She spluttered out the splinters of pencil: no longer tasty, never helpful. The assessor’s steely eyes pounced. She wiped the last vestiges from her mouth; staring blankly, as blank as the paper in front of her.

    Outside the sunlight danced like fairies on the leaves, beckoning. Below, in the shade, the unicorn pranced and called her name.

    “Why do I have to do this stuff? Who cares anyway!”

    She grasped the broken pencil and scored a large “F” on the page.

    Then she closed her eyes and was away, riding to freedom and joy on the unicorn’s back.

    What do you think?

    Thank you

    I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post or my flash fiction writing.

    If you are interested in reading other of my flash fictions pieces, I have collected them all together on one page which you can access here or click on the Flash Fiction tab above.

  • Can you make a difference?

    Can you make a difference?

    My previous post How much of a meliorist are you? attracted many comments and much lively discussion, including comparisons of seemingly pessimistic or optimistic views of the future and the validity of each.

    This discussion surprised me as my intention in writing the post was not to delve into the damage that we humans have wreaked upon the world, but simply to express my belief that we humans, should we desire to do so, have the power to improve the world. We may not be able to change everything we would like to see changed, but we can make a start within our own circle of influence.

    Few-will-have-the - Robert F. Kennedy

    Or, in the words of Michael Jackson, one can “Look in the mirror and make a change!”

    My chosen avenue for making a difference is education; through maintaining my own interest in learning, through attempts to keep alive a love of learning and a curiosity about our world and others, and through improving learning opportunities for others throughout their lives beginning at birth (or earlier!).

    The contribution each of us makes is unique and reflects our own values and life choices. I am grateful to others who help me grow in my understanding of what motivates and drives us, what excites our imaginations and stimulates our curiosity, and what propels us towards choices for improving our individual and combined futures.

    Its-the-action-not-the - Mahatma Gandhi

    Among those who encourage my learning and stretch my thinking are you, my wonderful readers, who selflessly contribute thoughts and ideas to extend my understanding. To you all, my teachers, I express my great gratitude.

    Thank you

    While I may often fall short of the mark and need to make frequent reminders to myself, these are just a few ways I try to make my little spot in the world a better place:

    Smiling

    Being friendly towards those I engage with throughout the day

    Being polite

    Being kind, sometimes randomly and anonymously without requiring thanks

    Listening attentively, to understand and without interrupting or interjecting

    Accepting graciously and without whingeing and whining

    Finding humour in situations which enable me to laugh, especially at myself

    Changing behaviours to reduce my impact on the environment

    Seeking ways to ease the burdens of others

    Accepting and encouraging others to be themselves

    Recognising and accepting my ‘mistakes’ and shortcomings, and those of others

    What about you? What do you do to make your little spot in the world a better place? Please share your ideas so we can all learn from your example.

    At times in my life I have been told that I take life too seriously. At other times I have been told that I don’t take it seriously enough. I think life should be about enjoyment and fun, so I’m going to turn the seriousness of this post on its head and leave you with another quote, this time by A.H. Weiler:

    “Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself.”

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts and ideas about any aspect of this post, whether you agree with me or not!

  • How much of a meliorist are you?

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/103549/old_man01.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/103549/old_man01.png

    Recently I was sent a link to an article titled Cheer up, it’s not all doom and gloom published by the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s The Drum.

    This article mentioned a book by Steven Pinker called Better Angels of Our Nature which had been recommended to me by Geoff Le Pard in a comment on my post about childhood illness. The premise of this book is that humanity, over the ages, has become less violent. After to listening to Pinker’s history of violence, I’m pleased that I live these relatively peaceful times.

     

    The article also introduced me to a new term ‘meliorism’ which means having a belief that the world can be improved by the actions of humans. While the term may have been unfamiliar to me, the attitude is not and I attest that I am a meliorist.

    I have a very strong belief in the power of education to improve the world. Education empowers individuals, and educated individuals empower societies to build improved futures. It becomes very difficult to sustain negative practices in the face of overwhelming evidence and information.

    What better place is there for education to begin than in the home?

    In a recent post I referred to a new book by Michael Rosen called Good Ideas: How to Be Your Child’s (And Your Own) Best Teacher. At the time I had not read the book but now I can say, with great delight, that I have listened to most of it. With messages such as those contained in Michael’s book, it is easy to be a meliorist.

    I think Rosen’s book should be available to, perhaps compulsory reading for, every parent; I consider its message to be that important. In fact, I am off to the shops today to purchase copies to give to parents of young children I know.  It will become part of my gift to new parents that also includes Reading Magic by Mem Fox and a selection of picture books. I have previously blogged about that here and here.

    The “Good Ideas” contained in Rosen’s book, if implemented, will keep alive the natural curiosity of one’s children and oneself. They will encourage the development of thought, creativity and responsiveness.

    In the next few weeks I will post a more detailed review of the book and some of Michael’s ideas for stimulating curiosity, whoever and wherever you are.

    What about you? Are you a meliorist?

    I welcome your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

    Thank you

  • Who tests the testers?

    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/191354/Good_Grade.png
    https://openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/191354/Good_Grade.png

    A recurring theme on this blog has been the inappropriateness of, and the difficulty faced by children sitting, large-scale external exams which require an immediate response to a stimulus that may have little relevance or interest to them. I have written about it here and here.

    Making a judgment about student progress or achievement from one piece of writing, particularly one completed under conditions not necessarily conducive to encouraging one’s best work, is problematic.

    It would be unrealistic of me to expect that everyone would agree with me, (though who wouldn’t want everyone to agree with them?) but it is always affirming to find that others share similar views. Maybe if enough people voice their concerns, change may occur.

    Recently I read an article in our local newspaper that had me nodding in agreement. The article NAPLAN writers have trouble writing a writing test by Mary-Rose MacColl explained that a good part of the reason students didn’t do well on the NAPLAN writing task this year, is that the task itself wasn’t well written!

    MacColl said that the task was wordy and the standards themselves (the criteria against which the writing is marked) poorly written. She pointed out how ludicrous it was for the ACARA CEO to write a letter explaining to parents that students should not view the test as ‘pass or fail’ when many children were experiencing extreme anxiety in the lead up to the test and parents were withdrawing their children from the tests in increasing numbers.

    In addition to writing newspaper columns, MacColl is also a writer of fiction. She is pleased that the focus of NAPLAN is on persuasive rather than narrative writing, and goes on to describe some wonderful writing that is going on her son’s class.

    Many teachers are doing wonderful things helping students develop a love of writing. Unfortunately, those setting external assessment tasks aren’t listening to the professionals.

    I have given only a brief indication of what Mary-Rose MacColl had to say. Please read her article to fully understand her views.

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I value your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

  • Fifteen blogs for inspiration!

    very inspiring blogger

    Recently Julie Stock nominated me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Thank you Julie, I am totally delighted to accept. Julie blogs at ‘My Writing Life’ Julie writes about her journey towards being a published author and offering help to others who are in the same position.

    It is only a short while ago that I posted an acceptance for the same award from Geoff Le Pard. In that post I promised I would do some exploring to seek out other inspiring bloggers to add to our growing community. Since then I have also created a page listing awards for which I have been nominated and those whom I have nominated. I’m sure a quick look at that page will suggest many worthwhile bloggers to follow.

    Here are the rules of the award:

    • Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
    • List the rules and display the award.
    • Share seven facts about yourself.
    • Nominate 15 other amazing blogs and comment on their posts to let them know they have been nominated.
    • Optional: follow the blogger who nominated you, if you don’t already do so.

    Map with Indigenous Australian place names

    The seven facts I am sharing with you in this post are seven locations in which I have lived that are named using a word from the languages of Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Although I have lived in more than 20 homes for varying lengths of time, only seven locations have Aboriginal names.

    1. Yuleba: “the place of water lilies”, about 420km west of Brisbane: birth until about 10 months.
    2. Kallangur: “a goodly or satisfactory place”, about 20km north of Brisbane: 10 months until 61/2 years. I started school at Kallangur walking the approximately 2 miles (3.3km) to and from school with my older brother and sister.
    3. Wooloowin: “fish”, a suburb of Brisbane: 1970 – 72 (teacher training).
    4. Duaringa: “a meeting place on the swamp oaks”, about 116km west of Rockhampton: second year of teaching.
    5. Koolyanobbing: “large hard rocks”, approximately halfway between Perth and Kalgoorlie (i.e. in ‘the middle of nowhere’): about 18 months during 1977/78.
    6. Wagga Wagga: “the place of many crows”, approximately 450km south-west of Sydney: 1979 (university).
    7. Jindalee: “bare hills”, a suburb of Brisbane: 1997-2004 (though have lived in adjoining suburbs since 1981).

    In this post I am nominating fifteen blogs that I have not before nominated for an award. If I have nominated you previously, you are still on my list of wonderful blogs to follow (see page).

    It is up to each nominee whether they wish to participate by accepting the award and/or paying the compliment forward. The purpose of my nomination is simply to share with others how valuable I consider the blog to be.

     

    Julieanne To Read To Write To Be

    teacher versus mum

    Irene Waters Reflections and Nightmares

    Linda Petersen Raising 5 Kids with Disabilities and Staying Sane Blog

    Geoff Le Pard TanGental

    Carrie Gelson There’s a Book for That

    Matt Renwick Reading by Example

    Michael Michalko Imagineer7’s Weblog

    A.J. Juliani Teach Different

    Three Teachers Talk

    Sarah Brentyn Are you kidding me?!

    Shelley Wilson Live Every Day with Intention

    Ross Morrison McGill @TeacherToolkit

    Jean Cogdell jean’s writing

    Tara Smith A Teaching Life

    I hope you find time to visit some of those blogs. There is much to inspire!

    Thank you

    Thank you for reading. I value your feedback. Please share your thoughts on any aspect of this post.

  • Sounds like . . .

    Kookaburra in my backyard
    Kookaburra in my backyard

    The flash fiction challenge set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch this week is all about sounds, specifically a sound that heralds change.

    Of course I think immediately of the school sounds: the bells, buzzers or sirens that mark the beginning or end of a school session or day; children’s laughter in the playground interrupted by the cry over a scraped knee or elbow; the hush that overtakes the classroom when the teacher’s footsteps in the corridor announce her arrival; the monotonous chant of sounds parroted repeatedly as cards of letters are flashed in unrelenting sequence, marking the imposition of content-driven curricula where once were child-centred approaches and talk was king.

    I think, too, of the sounds of nature that tell me of the changes in the day: the birds that sing outside my window heralding each new day – the kookaburras, butcherbirds, magpies, little corellas and koels; the rainbow lorikeets that chatter noisily telling me that evening is on its way; the screeching and whooshing of fruit bats as they wing their way across the darkening sky; the thud of a possum landing on the fence and the scratching of its claws as its scrambles from tree to tree under cover of the night.

    Cockatoos looking for food, Hamilton Island
    Cockatoos looking for food, Hamilton Island

    We are fortunate in Australia that we don’t have a great number of large menacing animals terrorising our neighbourhoods. Sure dingoes, crocodiles and sharks may be scary but you don’t often come across them, and our most dangerous animals are more likely to be small and quiet and sneak up on you, like our spiders, snakes, jellyfish and ticks. There are no sounds associated with these to give you a warning.

    That’s not to say there are no scary sounding animals. Any sound, if you don’t know what is making it, has the potential to be scary; as in this 99-word flash (memoir):

    Awakened suddenly, I didn’t dare breathe. The sound was unrecognizable: guttural, movie theatre loud in surround sound. I sat up. The sound continued. I wasn’t dreaming.  I nudged Bob. No response. Gripped with fear but needing to know, I tiptoed to the window and peeked through the curtain slit. I expected to see The Creature from the Black Lagoon. There was nothing. Now it came from the front, inside the house? My son! I tore down the hall. He slept peacefully! Back to the bedroom. Bob awoke. “Did you hear that?” he asked, wide eyes staring . . .

    The following day I phoned the Queensland museum and attempted to explain what I heard. The fellow at the other end of the phone mimicked the sound exactly!! He identified it as a male brushtail possum warning others of its territory. These possums are very common in our area and I was amazed that I hadn’t heard this particular sound before. I hear it frequently now as every night they are moving about in the neighbourhood trees and running along our fences and roofs. I have never again heard it at the intensity of that first time, and now that I know what it is, it is no longer scary. In fact, possums are rather cute, as long as they are not living in your roof, eating the produce of your garden or stealing your Christmas puddings!

    This video gives a hint of the brush tail’s sound I heard:

    Another sound that I found quite unnerving at the time of first hearing was that of the mutton birds in the still of the night while we were holidaying on Heron Island, just off the Queensland coast at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. I had always thought the cry of the curlew to be quite eerie, but it didn’t match that of the mutton birds whose cry was more like that of the banshees.

    I have written about this frightening experience in the following 99-word flash (memoir):

    The boat tossed mercilessly. I battled to contain my insides while all around were losing theirs into little paper bags offered unceremoniously to obliging staff.

    Finally, just before landfall, I joined in. Then it was over – for me. Bob’s queasiness laid him up for the night; but I went to tea.

    The path back to the cabin was unlit but for a splash of moonlight. Suddenly horrific wailing assaulted my ears. Was Bob being murdered? I hurried back. He was fine, but the eerie sound unsettled us far into the night.

    In the morning we laughed: mutton birds nesting!

    I was fortunate to have not tripped and fallen as the mutton birds nest in burrows and these were dotted all over the island! Of course, once the source of the sound had been identified, we were no longer concerned.

    While my two snippets of memoir don’t fit Charli’s criterion of fiction, they are about sound and I have used them to point to the power of education to change one’s situation. When the source of the sound was unknown, it was frightening. Once we knew what it was, it was no longer scary.

    Knowledge is power. There is a saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you” but there is also another that says “What you don’t know won’t do you much good either”. I have written about this previously here.

    Conspiracy theorists believe that those with power withhold knowledge from the masses (e.g. aliens are among us); but I believe that schools that favour test marks over individual development; content over creativity and critical thinking; and conformity over diversity are conspiring to contain the masses. One of the easiest ways to suppress and maintain control over others is to keep them ignorant. I am not suggesting that schools keep students ignorant, but they could do a lot more to maintain children’s natural enthusiasm for learning. I look forward to sounds that will herald positive changes in education.

     

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  • The best of days

    school cropped

    It is often said that school days are the best days of our lives.

    Considering that I have had far more days at school than not (as student and teacher) then I should probably agree, else I’d be saying that most of my days haven’t been the best.

    For many adults it is not the in-class time that is most memorable or of which they have the most pleasant memories, it is the playtimes and the before and after walking to and from school times.

    For some children, the in-class time drags while they daydream of long summer holidays and activities with family and friends. Other children thrive with the structured learning, soaking up everything offered to them.

    19178-School-Building-Graphic

    In her post, School: A Suitable Place for Fiction? Anne Goodwin wrote that she is ‘always pleasantly surprised when children these days claim to enjoy school’. On the other hand, in a comment left on previous post here, Lori Schafer said that all her life she had ‘failed to understand why most children don’t like school. Why don’t they enjoy learning, and why don’t they enjoying studying, and why don’t they enjoy writing papers? Because, of course, there are a small percentage of us who do genuinely appreciate the discipline of schooling.’ She was one of them.

    In his post, School’s Out – and Education’s In, Geoff Le Pard said that ‘People confuse school with education, as if they were synonymous’. (I have written a poem to express differences I see between education and schooling. You can read it here.) He goes on to say that ‘education is a constant, not a time limited schooling experience’ and disagrees with the cliché that school days are the best. He says that ‘all those days and bits of days when learning occurs make up the best days of your life’. I agree with Geoff that learning new things, particularly things one has an intrinsic motivation to learn, gives great joy.

    Irene Waters said in her post about school that she loved her primary school days. As the end of her high school years approached, unable to see the point in continuing, Irene wanted to leave and start her nursing career. Her parents convinced her to stay and finish year twelve. While she didn’t at the time, she now appreciates the value in having done so and is grateful that her ‘parents laid down the law’.

    Talking about education and schooling is nothing new for me, that’s what my blog is about after all. However for a lot of people, once finished, school is a thing of the past and not much thought is given to it later. The reason why so many others are talking about it this week is the flash fiction prompt set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch. Each week Charli challenges writers to pen a 99 word story about a particular topic. This week her topic is school.

    old school room

    In her post, Charli describes an abandoned one-room schoolhouse that is close to her home. She explains that these schoolhouses ‘were often among the first structures built by pioneers’ and comments on the importance that was placed on education in those pioneering days. Indeed education has been important throughout the history of humankind. It is what sets us apart from other creatures.

    In the words of Jean Piaget,

    The-principal-goal-of education - Piaget

    I have touched on these aspects of education in previous posts and will definitely do so again in future posts.

    In a tweet Anne Goodwin hinted that she thought I may find this post difficult to write as I have so many options to choose from. Charli Mills thought I might mention how we wrote on slates when I was at school (my children would probably have suggested I write about using dinosaur bones to scratch crude messages in the sand!)

    Instead, I thought about the strategies schools use to create uniformity, and of the many pathways that one may take through life after finishing school.  I hope the analogy makes sense to you.

     teacherbell

    Chocolate balls

    The final school bell tolled and the students erupted from the building like a burst box of chocolate balls, scattering in every direction and at varying speeds. Some stuck together along pathways safe and sure. Others crashed and bumped over roads less traveled seeking excitement, new discoveries and secrets to explore. Others stopped abruptly, their journeys foiled by stubborn obstacles. Still others, rolling upwards, failed to maintain the momentum to carry them over and beyond with those more adventurous others.  

    Who would know?

    Inside the box, they were identical, centers hidden. Outside, their uniqueness was on show.

    My year 10 class - only 20 went on to year 12.
    My year 10 class – only 20 went on to year 12.

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