Creating A Likeness: January 2012

Monday, 30 January 2012

Kids

Why are schoolchildren given so much power nowadays? Why is their word taken against that of adults?

My partner is a supply teacher. He is so well appreciated that some schools ask for him by name when they have a space to fill. Recently though, some ten year olds at a local school decided that he was being too strict. Why? Because he dared object to them throwing missiles around the classroom, laughing whenever instructions were given, or wandering and dancing around the room just generally ignoring everyone. Having been told to do their work, they decided to complain to their headteacher that he was being too strict.

They also invented stories that he threw things at them. Result? Their word was taken and the rest of his contract was cancelled. He wasn't allowed to put his side of the story forward. This school will no longer offer him work through his agency.

Don't parents realise that their children's education is being put at risk by the bad behaviour of noisy, rude, uncooperative kids in their classroom?
Do they think this is some big joke?
Would they like to lose work because of the lies of a ten year old?

It may seem like a harmless game to lie and get your tutor in trouble, but we have bills to pay. I hope after they've all stopped laughing at our expense, they find one day that they don't have money for some essential thing, and all because someone lied about them at work.

Evil. Little. Shits.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

52/4

The Historian

by Elizabeth Kostova

The policeman put a steadying hand on my shoulder. "Not a big enough loss of blood to be a cause of death in itself, he said.

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As before, if you'd like to join in here's how-

* Pick any book,
* go to page 52
* give us the sentence that contains line 4. -Can be more than one sentence, as mine was this time!

Leave your results in the comments. Or, if you want to put it as a post on your own blog, just leave us a link to find it there!

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Wednesday, 18 January 2012

52/4

Finn Family Moomintroll

by Tove Jansson

Wild and tempting it rose from the sea, wreathed in white breakers and crowned with green trees as if dressed for a gala.

(-The Moomintrolls' first sight of Lonely Island.)

Hahaha..... I loved these when I was little! I was very pleased to spot this book in a charity shop the other day- brand new, for 59p! But why brand new? I can't help thinking that someone has handed it in unread, and wow, what a missed opportunity!

If you're not familiar with the Mommintrolls, they are small hippo-like creatures who live in the forests of Finland with their friends, more odd little creatures. If you like the style of the original AA Milne's Winnie The Pooh stories, then you'll like the Moomintrolls, who read like Pooh on acid.

I recommend their gentle humour and idyllic, friendly world of adventure, where even the baddies have good manners.

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Thursday, 12 January 2012

The REAL "WAR HORSE"

I won't be going off to see the film 'War Horse'. Too upsetting! I've read too many WW1 books to get a gist of what I might see!

But I subscribe to emails from the Blue Cross, Britain's oldest animal charity. They did a lot of work for the horses that were used in the First World War and have released some videos/slide shows on their work.

Here are a couple they forwarded me today. I hope you find them interesting.....

This one is from Pip Dodd, curator at the National Army Museum. He explains the role of the horses in the war, with some photo's from the time:

In this one a woman tells a story about her grandfather, a 'driver' in the war, which meant he looked after the horses. The tale includes how he would risk his own life for the sake of a horse, and was awarded a medal for his bravery.

If you ARE interested in the film, I urge you to find out more from the National Army Museum's exhibition pages: WAR HORSE, Fact & Fiction, click on 'exhibition themes, about half way down the page.
There are also links to scenes behind the stageplay, and how the puppets in the play were made.

I recently read an interview with Michael Morpurgo about his book. He said that about 1 million horses were sent to war. The National War Museum puts it at nearer 6 million. He says that 67000 came home. This was nearer 165,000, but they didn't simply all return. The best horses were brought back to Britain and sold, to make money to cover some of the army's debts. The less healthy ones were left behind in France and Belgium, and sold to farmers there, to work out their lives on the farms.

If we humans need to blow each other up periodically, I wish we would find a way of doing it without hurting animals, completely innocent in our stupid wars. That we've put them to use in our slaughter feels nothing less than obscene.

I like this memorial in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa:

This description of it comes from The Government Gazette of South Africa:

This memorial, designed by Joseph Whitehead and cast in bronze by Thames Dillon Works in Surrey, was unveiled on 11 February 1905 by the Mayor of Port Elizabeth, Mr Alexander Fettes. The monument commemorates the horses that suffered and died during the Anglo-boer War (1899-1902). ...consisting of life-sized bronze figures of a horse about to quench its thirst from a bucket held by a kneeling soldier, together with the inscribed granite plinth on which it stands and the base of which incorporates a drinking trough.

I like the way the man is kneeling down, making himself lower than the horse.

Maybe we need a few more memorials like this, to remind us that it isn't just ourselves that get hurt when all the flag waving starts.

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

52/4

Nathaniel's Nutmeg

by Giles Milton

"It was the last they would ever see of the Edward Bonadventure: at around midnight the ship's carpenter cut the moorings and, with a skeleton crew and a good measure of self-confidence, sailed off into the night leaving Lancaster and his men stranded."

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