Getting my blog mojo back

I've had a bash at redesigning this blog in the hope it'll encourage me to blog more. Time will tell whether or not it's worked. For now, I'm enjoying the brighter colour scheme. Apologies to those of you who (unlike me) aren't colour blind ;-)

Johann, I'm Only Dancing

Yes, that IS the name of the latest CD by Red Priest . Yesterday we did a 100-mile round-trip to see them at Swaledale Festival . It was a really worthwhile journey despite lousy weather which dampened the Dales' bucolic charms, especially for poor gran who was struggling to negotiate the puddles with her bandaged leg.

This group is just spectacular. All brilliant musicians who specialize in historic performance, they take the spirit of the baroque at its most literal and, where necessary, happily reinvent and improvise. This was really evident in this tour, where a recorder-led quartet is taking on the work of Johann [geddit?] Sebastian Bach, despite the fact that Bach didn't compose for recorder. And it's absolutely marvellous stuff - familiar old warhorses like the Brandenburg Concertos, Toccata and Fugue in D min, and Badinerie take on a completely new life that's genuinely exciting while retaining a core of authenticity (the Swingle Singers it ain't!). DD is, of course, a very serious young recorder player and was lucky enough to be sitting directly in front of recorder genius, Piers Adams. She watched his technique like a hawk and every time he picked up a different instrument, I could see her mentally building her new shopping list.

But, above all, it's the spirit of fun and the interaction between the musicians that stays in your mind - sparkling talent demonstrated with the lightest of touches.
Playfulness is the word that springs to mind - the sheer pleasure of being really good at something, experimenting with and enjoying it for its own merits, rather than following tramlines towards a safe definition of standardized recognition. Pretty much an analogy for educating otherwise - no wonder we love this group!

Election day

Well, I voted. I didn't spoil my ballot paper with scribbles or "None of the above" (my default position since Iraq dispelled all my illusions). The party whose policies chime best with my own (increasingly anarchistic) views didn't field a candidate in my constituency, so I was left with a choice between the big 3 and the scary ultra-right. So I voted for the party/candidate on the ballot paper that looked likely to do least harm. Who knows, maybe millions of other disillusioned old party loyalists might have done the same?

Weirdly, I've come to the realization that I've become a single-issue voter: I really want a hung parliament because a government that has to heavily negotiate over the big things is less likely to try and mess with home education. Selfish? Probably. But ... look at the alternatives, none of them too pretty!

Dd observed the voting process and was shocked at how quickly a voter's duty is discharged. She's looking forward to staying up to watch the results - gonna be a looooooong night. All the older HE kids seem to have really discovered politics this time around. Who knows, we may have a future prime minister among them?

Meaning from movies

Today, dd and I watched the feature film "Gandhi". She was visibly shocked at the scene depicting the Amritsar massacre. Afterwards, she summed up passive resistance in one comment: "They didn't give the British Empire what it wanted - rioting and violence - so it was obvious to everybody that the rulers were unjust".

So good to see how children can grasp historical meaning without being presented with a textbook list of easily digestible bulletpoints.

All washed-up

Time for a huge sigh of relief - the draconian home education clauses of the CSF Bill have failed to make it through the "wash-up". My boundless thanks to those, like Graham Stuart and Lord Lucas, who've supported us in our fight to retain fundamental rights and to all those wonderful home educators up and down the country who've been the best mutual support system anyone could hope for.

Anyone who knows our family will understand that we tend to view everything through a musical lens, so what should be the soundtrack to these momentous events? I toyed with The Pogues' "Fiesta" but it's now obviously the property of Harry Hill. I looked for a decent YouTube vid of "Freedom Jazz Dance" to no avail. In the end, I decided that a bit of vengeful gloating would do. Here's something from His Bobness dedicated to His Ballsness:-

A Tyranny of Busybodies

Today I was leafing through dd's collection of Charlie Brooker essays, "The Hell of it All". One article really struck me. It dates from 2008 and is a rather eerie portent of what was about to happen to us home edders. I just love this bit where he borrows from C S Lewis. It sums up why it's so frustrating to be subjected to well-meaning but ill-judged scrutiny:-

"Once upon a time, in between scrawling allegorical fables about lions and wardrobes, CS Lewis said something prescient. "Of all tyrannies," he wrote, "a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." "

Better start queuing for my Freedom of Choice permit ...

Growing up, or an effect of home education?

Today, dd participated in a music competition where it was unlikely that she would win. One of only two 12-year-olds in the finals among a bunch of older teenagers, aged 15 and upwards, she was lucky to have made it this far. She played really well, though obviously with a few more rough edges than some of the more experienced (and stunningly talented) older performers. What made me glow was not that she was a finalist, nor that her performance was undoubtedly very good, but that she was very poised and comfortable while playing, fully aware that she wasn't one of the main contenders. And when the result came and the prize went, deservedly, to a really lovely older girl who dd knows a little, she was absolutely thrilled for her.

Just over a year ago, while she was still at school, I know I'd have been worried sick about her response to this kind of situation. That, faced with a competitive situation where she was at a disadvantage, she'd withdraw, feel inadequate and possibly resent the winner. Now, I don't know whether it's a sign of her growing maturity or of the freedom from the obsession with class-position, but I knew she'd be fine with a chance to play music she loves among people who would appreciate it and that she'd realize that it's not all about winning. Over the past few months, she's had a very easy ride - achieving awards in festivals and being told she's ever so clever. But above all of these, this is one of the moments when I've been most sure that home ed is working for us. DD suddenly seems so much more comfortable in herself and so much less brittle in her self-esteem. I couldn't be more proud of her.