Richard Ingrams wrote a column in the Catholic Herald (Sept 22, 2017), deeply regretting the tendency for music to be one of the first victims of financial pressure in schools today. In its defence, he quoted none other than Franz Schubert as follows:
"..writing about his reaction to hearing some music of Mozart's (unspecified): "So do these lovely impressions, which neither time nor circumstance can efface, remain in the mind and influence for good our whole exisitence. In the dark places of life they point to that clear shining and distant future in which our whole hope lies." "
How true that is, today as then. It should be as important an aspect of children's education for life as any other subject. It stands every chance of being something that will stay with them all their lives, long after they forgotten much of the rest.
Saturday 21 October 2017
Sunday 8 October 2017
About what people do - and why
How easy it is to see what other people do -
and how hard to know why they do it
(for them as much as for us, I imagine).
and how hard to know why they do it
(for them as much as for us, I imagine).
Monday 2 October 2017
Having just watched a programme about the history of Jerusalem
My abiding reaction, "Haven't we all a lot to answer for as members of the human race!!"
The magical 'silent e' - updates +
Added above:
envelop/envelope
quit/quite twin/twine fin/fine
hug/huge sat/sate Tim/time wad/wade hop/hope
scrap/scrape
ban/bane van/vane rod/rode
bed/Bede (Saint and historian)
war/ware(?)!!
Some more:
cloth/clothe cod/code met/mete dot/dote cot/cote
pin/pine but/Bute (Isle of) bud/ Bude (Cornwall) dud/dude(?)
(even pet/Pete)
The first post
spin/spine shin/shine breath/breathe lath/lathe
cut/cute thin/thine fad/fade bad/bade
Oh how I love this 'rule', unknown to me in childhood but learnt whilst on a supply teaching post.
The 'silent e' makes the letter SOUND its NAME, ie. 'a' as in fat becomes 'a' as in fate. There are loads of examples out there. If, like me, you love words and hadn't known this rule, you may enjoy spotting your own.
Ever since then, I've been on the look out for unusual specimens, of which 'lath', an answer in a crossword was my most recent discovery. I was really chuffed with that one. (Also, I hadn't realised before that a lath is a thin piece of wood (the clue!!). The things you can learn from a crossword, eh, that is if you can remember them the next time you see the clue, which I usually can't.)
Is 'car/care' an example, do you think?
envelop/envelope
quit/quite twin/twine fin/fine
hug/huge sat/sate Tim/time wad/wade hop/hope
scrap/scrape
ban/bane van/vane rod/rode
bed/Bede (Saint and historian)
war/ware(?)!!
Some more:
cloth/clothe cod/code met/mete dot/dote cot/cote
pin/pine but/Bute (Isle of) bud/ Bude (Cornwall) dud/dude(?)
(even pet/Pete)
The first post
spin/spine shin/shine breath/breathe lath/lathe
cut/cute thin/thine fad/fade bad/bade
Oh how I love this 'rule', unknown to me in childhood but learnt whilst on a supply teaching post.
The 'silent e' makes the letter SOUND its NAME, ie. 'a' as in fat becomes 'a' as in fate. There are loads of examples out there. If, like me, you love words and hadn't known this rule, you may enjoy spotting your own.
Ever since then, I've been on the look out for unusual specimens, of which 'lath', an answer in a crossword was my most recent discovery. I was really chuffed with that one. (Also, I hadn't realised before that a lath is a thin piece of wood (the clue!!). The things you can learn from a crossword, eh, that is if you can remember them the next time you see the clue, which I usually can't.)
Is 'car/care' an example, do you think?
About the depths and the heights to which the human heart can sink or rise
Let us not try to fathom the depths to which the human heart can sink
but not forget to rejoice in the heights to which it can rise.
but not forget to rejoice in the heights to which it can rise.
To parents about children and gratitude
Dear Parents,
I believe that bringing children up to feel and to show gratitude
for all the good things in their lives
is one of the most important gifts they can be given.
I believe that bringing children up to feel and to show gratitude
for all the good things in their lives
is one of the most important gifts they can be given.
Sunday 1 October 2017
About loving Lowry
This thought came to me this morning
Do we who love Lowry's work,
do so because the man is in the paintings?
Art critics may be disdainful but, for me, in those of his pictures which I love, I find the man;
his feelings, his humanity, his woundedness even, his vision.
This is enough - and more.
He is like all of us,
ordinary and extraordinary,
both at the same time,
all of us in our own unique and individual ways.
Do we who love Lowry's work,
do so because the man is in the paintings?
Art critics may be disdainful but, for me, in those of his pictures which I love, I find the man;
his feelings, his humanity, his woundedness even, his vision.
This is enough - and more.
He is like all of us,
ordinary and extraordinary,
both at the same time,
all of us in our own unique and individual ways.
A wish for those we love
May the sun shine on them,
internally and externally.
Not quite sure what I meant by this but it's written in my notebook so it must have meant something at the time.
internally and externally.
Not quite sure what I meant by this but it's written in my notebook so it must have meant something at the time.
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