A day of contrasts

Today we visited the final exhibition of work done by young offenders in an art project that I evaluated. The art was stunning - marvellous graphics and animation made during long months of art workshops. But there were some really sad statements in the words that accompanied the images. One young person wished only to see his baby daughter grow up with a better life than he'd had. This is a 17-year-old! It seems so tragic that he's already written off his own contribution to society. Hopefully he will have a wonderful relationship with his girlfriend and child and he'll see things differently in a few years' time. One heartening thing is that this art programme is part of allowing creativity back into the young people's lives, but it'll probably be a long uphill struggle towards any meaningful sense of self-worth.

So we left the gallery and as we were walking back to the car, dd took a call to tell her that she got a distinction in her latest music exam - grade 6 recorder. She was absolutely thrilled, of course, and I'm so pleased she got the result she wanted and worked for. Of course, exams are only markers (heaven help us when they become the actual purpose!), but this was a big step up in technique for her and she knows how much her playing has developed recently.

A day of contrasts, then. Firstly, seeing a bunch of kids who've been in the school system all their lives and who're only just beginning to value their own creativity now that they're doing something where "learning outcomes" matter less than self-expression. Sadly, it takes the kind of emergency situation where they're in danger of becoming long-term criminals before they've had access to this kind of programme. Then the very different situation of seeing my lovely daughter, outside of the school system (which a certain G Badman sees as the best - almost only - route to achievement), sure of her own ability but still thrilled to have played well. You certainly couldn't draw any general theory from these two isolated moments: it was just a weird and slightly ironic juxtaposition.