Back to the Fort

Tomorrow I head off to Fort McMurray for Mike Eddy's retirement. Mike was and is the best high school band teacher in the entire universe. I worked with him for several years at Westwood High School and he was wonderful to work with. I directed 3 musicals with him as my music director. I have yet to work with anyone as good (sorry to all the other musical directors I have worked with but Mike is Mike and you really can't beat him). He is also one of those pianists who can actually accompany a singer. When he plays for you, you actually sing better. It's true. Ask anyone he has ever played for. When I moved to Edmonton, auditions became scary, because I no longer had Mike playing for me. I knew he was good, but I had no idea how spoiled I had become. I have had a few that have come very, very close (Monica Baczuk, Carol Anderson, Sally Hunt, Randy Mueller, and probably Brad Heintzman but I have never had him play for me) but Mike is Mike so the best I can give them is 99.9% of a Mike rating. When I wrote my first play, Mike arranged the music I wrote. When I played Angel in Whorehouse, Irene Molloy in Hello Dolly! The White Witch in Narnia and Mama Rose in Gypsy, Mike was playing. When I sang with the Honey B's, Mike was our drone on piano. He was a cheerleader and a supporter and a friend and a creative collaborator. He always made you better when you worked with him. We shall sing, tell stories and musicians will play and we will celebrate Mike and his lovely and generous wife Lori with music. It is very fitting.

What are the Proper Things to be taught?

I read a response to an article on Bill 44 wherein the writer said that Bill 44 was needed because the proper things were not being taught. What are the proper things? In my mind, those things are the Alberta Curriculum. That IS what is being taught. This curriculum has been developed with input from many educators, industry input, and legislators, many of whom are parents so one could that parents have had an opportunity for input. It is designed to be culturally neutral. What Bill 44 will do is hamper teachers form being humans with personal viewpoints. Sure, they should not be teaching their opinion, however, often in classes you take a position to stimulate discussion. Sometimes it is your own, sometimes not. I worked with a Social Studies teacher who only had one student guess his political affiliation correctly over the course of 20+ years of teaching. He was very good at teaching 'everything' without bias or slant. Not everyone is that good and it is an unreasonable expectation. The important is that kids are able to see that different points of view and opinions exist. Parents always cry out to teachers to involve students so that they engage in the learning. What Bill 44 will do is produce such a neutral delivery that no one will be involved. Teachers, good teachers, will quit and go elsewhere because it will be impossible to work in an environment where they are not allowed to be human.

Bill 44 - Scary Stuff...

If I think too much about Bill 44 my stomach gets upset. I taught for 14 years. The bulk of my teaching over the course of those 14 years was Science, Drama and Math. The first two subjects would know doubt have landed me in hot water if Bill 44 went through as proposed.

I faced questions about creationism routinely when teaching high school science. I believe I dealt with those questions respectfully, but also within the curriculum and within the scope of the current scientific thought. I did say that I did not believe in Creationism, however, I would also say that I believed the bible to be allegorical. That God created us with complex minds that could understand that the story of creation was interpretive and 'who knows how long a day is to God'? I trust the Scientific Method. It's primary tenet is that you question everything. That you never trust that what you have is absolute, but that you challenge your belief so that you can minimize doubt and push the development of scientific thought further. I far prefer a doctrine that has this rigorous attitude than one that prevents change in thought. Subscribing our scientific thought to a belief system that is over 2000 years old is idiotic. There, I've said it. Stupid. An education system should not be encouraging students to be stupid. It should be pushing them to question everything.

I also faced many questions about homosexuality while teaching science and drama (and occasionally in the other subjects too). I would not ignore those questions because someone in the class might have a religious belief that promoted hatred towards homosexuals. I could not do that. I couldn't pretend that it didn't exist just to make some people's parents happy. That is wrong. Those estimated 10% of my students that happen to be gay deserved to be seen and be equal.

I am extremely disturbed by this proposed legislation. I don't think it will pass and I will march in protest if it looks anywhere close to passing. What disturbs me is that our 'leaders' brought this forward. My stomach is upset. What kind of hateful morons do we have in charge? Because you have to be either hateful or stupid to believe that Bill 44 has any legitimacy in our society.

The end of my rope...

I have two children. Two wonderful boys. Two very different boys. When Ollie came along, I understood him from day one. I knew when he was hungry. I knew when he was poopy. I knew when he just wanted to snuggle. As he got older I had struggles with him, but most of the time I still knew what he was thinking. I couldn't necessarily make him behave, but I could read his emotion or rationale for his behaviour. Then Gibby came along. From the beginning he was a bit of a mystery. It took me longer to figure out what he needed. I didn't have that instant connection that I did with Oliver. It could be that he was just different and I was using all my tools from the Ollie toolbox and they weren't gonna work with Gib. So I learned. But I have yet to figure him out in the same way I feel I know Ollie. The past few days have been really tough with him. Friday he had 6 meltdowns - super irrational melt-downs. Monday he wailed for 45 minutes at gymnastics. Today, he has had three crying fits. All of them are sparked by 'stupid stuff'... things that can't be helped (the teacher at gymnastics was new, Ethan was playing with Marcus, he had to have dessert after lunch) and I was and continue to be frustrated with his reaction. This is relatively new. He has been a pretty easy kid for most of the year, but this last week is driving me nuts. Hopefully I'll figure him out a little bit soon.

Hopping Into the Director's Chair...

Ah. It seems as though I may have to direct my Fringe show myself this summer. I was hoping to just be producer and playwright, but things happen and I think I will have to direct as well. My first choice was keen to do it, but her life has become swamped with things and she doesn't think she can serve the project properly so she bowed out. I respect that. I know that I have had times in my life when life overwhelmed me and I was unable to do all the tasks I had to do as well as I would have liked. I wish I still had her on board though, because she is a rock star and I totally trust her with my script. I hope that I will have the ability to separate the two jobs in my head.

Better Get Focussed...

My final exam is coming up on Thursday of this week. I have done a bit of studying, but not all that I have planned. I am not really worried about it though. From the review I felt quite confident about what was expected of us. I need to review each of the 5 plays (I have reviewed 1.5 of them) and the terms for the course, but I only have the one final and I have all of Tuesday to study. I also will study on Wednesday because I can do some when Gibson is in Fun factory. I just hope I am not over-estimating my preparedness...

Charlie Brown auditions have come and gone. I did my best not to think too much about them and I am happy to hear that they cast it and it sounds well cast. I was happy to hear that Chris got in. Out of 15 guys, they cast 6 (4 leads, 2 ensemble) so that says something. I am being very cherry about it, because it was my decision not to audition, but man-o-man did I ever want to do that show! I am sure it will be a good show and I know there will always be other opportunities for me.

Happy Egg Day...

Tomorrow is Easter. We will be celebrating with family who I must admit are a bit more religious than we are. We have periodically talked to our children about Jesus and Christmas and Easter and what they are supposed to mean so that they might have an idea of why we have these celebrations, but we haven't done too much formal education with regards to religion. Now that they are getting older I am struggling with what to do about this. I feel like we live in a Christian culture (particularly with regards to our family culture), but although I feel spiritual, I am not religious. I wish there were ecumenical classes for kids so that I could put them in those, but I think even that would have more potential to be confusing. I just want to raise my kids to be good people without the shroud of religion to guide that. I also want them to respect that some people (like most of our family) are very religious and that it is okay that they are that way and that we are not. It's a challenge.

We shall eat chocolate eggs and have a nice ham dinner with lots of salads and it will all be fine. I was just thinking about this...