Fanny

Today, I asked the year 5 and 6 classes I teach to research a composer of 'classical' music.  I wrote lots of names on the board, asked them to pick one and find their first names, dates, a picture, three interesting facts and make a single page PowerPoint. In one class one of the girls asked me if they were all men.  I said they were, apart from the fact that there was a male and female Schumann. I completely forgot that there were two Mendelssohn's as well.  Realising that this must be another example of History forgetting about Her story I suggested that they look for some female composers and we would listen to their music.

One group of girls found Clara Weick Schumann immediately.  Their interesting facts were that Clara was a pianist who gave her first public concert when she was only 11; she married her husband Robert against the wishes of her father and she stopped composing at the age of 36 because, as she said, "I once believed I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose - there has never been one able to do it.  Should I expect to be the one?"  I have always thought Clara's compositions to be far superior to Robert's, so maybe she was the one.

Clara Schumann Nocturne in F major 1836

She wasn't the only one though.  While the children were all working quietly, there was a sudden excited shout, "I've found a Fanny!"  I was very professional, I didn't even smirk as the colour drained from the girl's face and she said, "I probably should have thought about that before, shouldn't I?"  

Fanny Mendelssohn:  I'd completely forgotten about her. She was Felix's sister.  She was no slouch.  She composed a sonata in Eb major when she was just 16 and is credited with over 400 works.  It is also known that several of her compositions were published under her brother's name (it was so much easier for a man to be published than a woman).  She had to wait until she was 32 years old before she was able to get anything published in her own name.

Fanny was only 14 years older than Clara Schumann but it seems unbelievable that she couldn't have known of her talent, as Fanny's brother, Felix was very fond of his sister and didn't deny her talent and Clara's first public concert was conducted by Mendelssohn.

I started to wonder if these women were the first composers.  I'm not surprised to find that they weren't.  Here are a few:

Hildegard of Bingen - 1098 -1179

Francesca Caccini - 1587 -1640

Barbra Strozzi 1619 -1677

Isabella Leonarda 1620 -1704

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre 1665 -1729

Marianne Von Martinez  1744 - 1812

Maria Theresa Von Paradis 1759- 1824

I have spent a rather pleasant evening searching out, and listening to works by these women.  There is nothing inferior about their work.  You might even have heard some of it and thought it was by a man.

You have probably heard this piece by Maria Paradis played by Jacqueline Du Pre and thought it was written by a man.

Politics is no Party

Yesterday I went to my first public meeting.  I confess, this was not because I felt strongly about the issue but because my daughter has a piece to write for her course on a public affairs issue and thought this subject would be interesting, although she wasn't able to attend herself; so I went and took notes.  I tried to write everything down as accurately as I could without bias (and I can tell you that is hard).

The meeting was about the proposed development of 1300 homes to the north of the village and had been organised by local residents who did not want this development to go ahead.  They had asked two members of the parish council to speak and there were also members of the district council present.  The parish council, it appears, are against the proposal and the district council are for it.

I don't enjoy meetings.  I find them overly long, boring and too ego fuelled for my liking and this one was no exception.  If I had any desire to get into politics then I would have been completely put off.  The meeting was a sea of grey hair and body odour (I will never understand what men over 50 have against washing their armpits and using deodorant) and there were only one or two young voices. I found this to be really sad.  If young people are happy to have 1300 new homes in their village then they should have been at the meeting to say so, after all, being able to buy a house near their parents may be something that is important to them.

A public meeting should leave the people attending, feeling confident that their questions had been answered and that they know what to do next.  I believe this meeting left people feeling angry and confused.  The political agendas stopped people agreeing to work together.  It had to be constantly adversarial.  The man from the parish council spent a long time talking about how much work they were being made to do to object to this development.  He said that they had to complete 3 pages for every little point of objection. He said that would be 50 pages of paperwork (all I could think was welcome to the paperless world). When a lone young voice asked if it was possible to make a website with the points and suggested answers on them, so that people could copy and paste and/or edit to make replying easier he was told, "No.  We're not allowed to tell people what to write, if the district council gets responses that are the same they will disregard them."  The young voice said he thought that was undemocratic and the district councillor shouted, "It's not true, shame on you, shame on you!"  I have a feeling that the young voice was told that it wasn't possible was because the parish councillor doesn't understand computers.

The second speaker from the parish council stood up and thanked the residents association for giving him the opportunity to speak. He said he wanted to convince everyone to stand against the current district councillors, "the conservative councillors are being elected because they're uncontested..."  He was interrupted by the the district councillor, who shouted, "You stood against me, you plank!" People started to get up and walk out.  They stopped listening because they couldn't bear the fighting and the second speaker was made to stand down.

This is the reality of politics.  PMQs are in the news for being too adversarial and it's the reason people don't get involved in issues that affect them and their public lives.  I thought the district council and parish council were concerned about the same issues: flooding, roads, schools, medical facilities etc. but they were unable to agree about anything because they had decided that they were on opposite sides.  The district council seemed to be more resigned to a development happening.  They said," what I can say is that unless we can demonstrate a 5 year plan the Governments will force things on us.  The reason there is an increase in the number of houses is because without that number we can't enforce flood defences.  We have in excess of 3500 homes by developers in this village alone.  If we do nothing Government will approve these." I also thought that they wanted people to fill in these 3 page documents because these were the only way they would get funding (from the developers - there is no money in the government budget) to make the improvements to the infrastructure that is so desperately needed.

My favourite quote of the meeting was the person who said, "It's been flooding down there since Noah was a boy." and I can't help thinking that politicians have been shouting at each other for just as long.

Winter Olympics

"Just imagine if you could record this, travel back in time and show it to the 1896 Olympic Committee," said the Long Suffering Husband, while we were watching the snowboarding.
I agreed that they would be astounded.
"And then you told them that they were women. Do you think it would blow the space-time continuum?"

It's an interesting question.  Personally, I don't think they would have believed that they were women.  It's one of the things I have really liked about the Winter Olympics, that even though the men and women still compete separately, it is often difficult to tell which sex you are watching, as when they are spinning 100ft above a mountain in their full snow suits, men and women look pretty similar.  It turns out that we are the same species after all.

Can you tell which are women and which are men?

I know that there are still inequalities; there is better funding for men's sport, more television coverage outside the Olympic times and probably many others that I haven't even considered but at last sport is beginning to look a lot more equal.  There are also as many women presenters as there are men, who know their stuff rather than being eye-candy.

Then, in the midst of this, Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald and Sports Minister, spoilt it all by getting quoted in the Telegraph saying, “[Women] don’t have to feel unfeminine. There are some wonderful sports which you can do and perform to a very high level and I think those participating look absolutely radiant and very feminine such as ballet, gymnastics, cheerleading and even roller-skating.”

I could be wrong but I very much doubt that the women competing in the Olympics feel any less female than I do.  Women who participate in sports that are considered to be unfeminine are not less likely to have boobs and a womb.  The very idea might even put women off trying different sports.  On BBC breakfast there was a female rugby player/coach discussing this issue and she couldn't have looked and sounded more traditionally feminine if she tried.

Ms Grant was talking about the problem that teenage girls drop out of sport and was saying that they had to be given more choice about what they participate in.  I'm all for that.  But shouldn't all teenagers be given more choice about what they participate in?  There seems to be an unwritten suggestion that male teenagers are all loving the football they are forced to do at school and I know several who aren't.
There are teenagers who drop out of sport of both sexes, many of whom decide to spend more time studying, to pass those exams that everyone tells them are so important and why shouldn't they?   Not everyone can be an Olympic Athlete.  Some women may be less healthy for doing no exercise during puberty but so will some men.  Some women will go back to exercise, as will some men and others won't but can we please stop pretending that men and women are different species that need to have different rules placed upon them.

Grief

Grief.

Just the word brings tears to the eyes.

Everyone reacts in their own way to sad news.

 I write.

 I write letters of shock and disbelief; of anger and hurt; of love and remembrance and of acceptance. It helps me.  I write to the person I'm missing, the world, a higher power, authorities, you name it they get a letter. And when I get to the letter where I can write to the person I'm sad about losing, in which I remember the funny things and the things they taught me, I delete everything. I think that writing the shocked and angry helps to get it out of my system and I want it out. I want to remember the nice things.

I hope this is not too personal but I want to share some current rememberings.

You taught me that an after-school sit is important.

You taught me that life is fantastic when you love your job.

You taught me to laugh often.

You taught me that dignity is worth preserving.

You taught me that there is nothing more exciting than your girl coming home.

You taught me that song lyrics aren't always what people think.

You taught me that cupcakes made for husband's work colleagues should be decorated with copious amounts of edible glitter because there is nothing funnier than sparkly policemen.

Too Much Time

In half term the people who work in schools suddenly have time to do things they wouldn't normally do.  Teachers can be seen having morning coffee, lunch with friends,drinking  in the pub for the evening, reading books on park benches, going for extra-long walks, cleaning the house or seeing a film. For me, it's answering the telephone.  I don't normally answer the phone (unless I see my mum or my daughter's number come up on the screen) as I don't think I have time to talk to random strangers about my plans for home improvement or my financial arrangements but in the holidays it's one of my secret pleasures to talk to these people.  I even open the door to Jehovah Witnesses.

I was listening to the radio, where they were discussing Liz Truss' visit to China to find out Shanghai's secret to beating us in the PISA test for maths when the phone rang.  The screen flashed 'INTERNATNL' (spelling isn't a strength of my phone) and I thought, "why not?".  A woman with a very heavy Indian accent said, "Hello, my name is  Maude..."
I snorted my recently sipped water through my nose with laughter, "No it's not!" I argued.  Now, I realise that this was probably a bit rude but if her name was really Maude then my name is Rijul.  She tried to stick to her script for a while and then I asked her if they are given a book of English names to choose from.  She said that she'd like me to answer a few simple questions about home-ownership so I said that I would if she told me her real name.  She said that they were really simple questions and I said that I refused to talk to anyone who wouldn't give me their real name.  She continued without giving her name - or even acknowledging that I had asked her for something.  Then I realised that she probably only understood the answers to the questions that she was programmed to ask.  So I just said, "No thank you," and put the phone down.

It started me thinking, though, about differences between Countries and how I don't want them all to be the same.  I don't want people from India to pretend to have English names, they should be happy with the names they have.  I want the Norwegians to be the best in the Winter Olympics because they have lots of snow and are good at moving around in it.  I want the Swiss to top the PISA tables for maths because they all grow up to be bankers (as that and watch making are the only industries). And I know I am wildly stereotyping but I don't think the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) are helping their cause with the PISA tests.  We can't co-operate and develop economically if we are all trying to be the same - we have to work with the strengths and resources we've got.

The Trouble with Lichen

"Have you noticed that some houses are going green?" said the Long Suffering Husband.
"Well, that's the trouble with lichen," I said, "It loves the wet and so we now have the perfect conditions for it to multiply and take over the world. Before you know it it will be swapping itself for people's children and we won't even notice because they'll be so perfect."
"What are you talking about," he asked, whilst flipping through the telephone directory looking for 'men in white coats.'

The truth is, I wasn't really sure.  I had a vague recollection of reading a book called The Trouble with Lichen as a teenager and I thought it was about some kind of alien life form that then took over the world.  It was, in fact, a book by John Wyndham, which I have confused with another of his books, The Midwich Cuckoos. The main thing I remember about the book was the title and how smug I felt that I knew that Lichen wasn't pronounced phonetically but had a hard k sound in the middle.

There does seem to be an awful lot of lichen around at the moment though, so I started to wonder what it was all about if it wasn't an alien life form trying to take over our newly wet world.  I was stunned to find that there is a British Lichen Society and have spent a very interesting morning reading about this fascinating thing.

Lichen isn't just one organism but a combination of two or more, including a fungus.  They are a sensitive species and rather than taking over human life seem to indicate conditions in which we can thrive.  They need oxygen, just as we do and only grow in  clean air.  John Wyndham must have known all this because in his book, a female biochemist discovered a rare strain of lichen that stopped the ageing process, causing people to live to 200 - 300 years old.  Maybe it was when I read that book that I decided I didn't want to live forever. It is nice to know that I live in an area with clean air.

A Slippery Slope

I'm struggling to write my blog at the moment.  Since last Wednesday, I have been overcome with the idea that sometimes life is just a little bit shit. The weather has been awful to end-of-the-world proportions and despite many conversations with friends about siezing the day because the future might not be as certain as you thought it was going to be I've struggled to get past the initial idea.

This weekend, however, I had decided that things were going to be different.  I was going to eat well, exercise, play less candy crush and see the positive in all things.  Watching the snowboarding I was impressed by some people's fearless grasp of life.  I felt slightly guilty at moping around with my two feet firmly planted on the ground, when there were these brave (although possibly slightly stupid) people who throw themselves hundreds of feet in the air, tumbling and twisting before they land.  I can't even begin to comprehend how they can do that.

I can't even manage small slopes.  It was an eventful dog walk on Saturday.  There was the Vicar of Dibley puddle moment, when the water was suddenly over my wellies, the rain that felt like icicles, the rainbow and the sunshine so low and in my eyes that made me walk straight into a prickly bush and then there was the slippery slope of mud.  This particular slope of mud led straight to the edge of the river Blackwater, which was flowing fast enough to attract white water rafters and I slipped.  The instant, "Oh shit," feeling, as I felt the muscle just below my left knee tear was instantly replaced by a suddend desire to survive and not land in the torrent of water below. I slid down the slope on one twisted foot the opposite hand and hip, just managing to stop myself before splashdown.  Luckily, the rain managed to wash off all the mud, except the one spot under my glasses where I'd rubbed my eye.

Now that I'm consigned to the sofa with a bag of frozen peas strapped to my leg, watching people throw themselves off mountains, I am again struggling with being positive. Although, without the enforced rest I probably wouldn't have seen Jenny Jones win the bronze medal at the Olympics and join the Long Suffering Husband cheering when other people fell over.

Michael Gove Could be Right

Maybe Michael Gove is right. *ducks for cover and dons hard hat. Maybe schools should be open for longer, so that parents can work more hours without their bothersome offspring getting in their way and taking their hard earned wages in child are costs. After all, so many parents want longer free child care. This week I heard about a little boy who, despite hating football, was forced to go to football club because his mother worked late that day. There needs to be provision for these poor little souls who would rather have high tea and be snuggled up in the common room, while the Den Mother reads them a nice story.

Maybe he's right and you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a private and public school. Parents want their children to have an equal education to those whose parents pay for it. I agree.  Let's have the things they have in private schools.

Here are some of the things I think we should have that they had at a private school I visited recently.

1. Boarding.

2. Fantastic catering (including wine for teachers at lunch)

3. Large sports fields, tennis courts, shooting 

4. A drama studio with every sound and lighting gadget you could wish for.

5. A concert hall with a perfectly constructed ceiling to gain the best acoustic.

6. Several grand pianos that are in tune with no missing keys.

7. More professional percussion instruments than the LSO

8. At least 8 members of music staff for 545 pupils between the ages of 4 and 19.

9. Class sizes of 15-20 pupils.

10. Longer school holidays, so that families can go skiing before it gets too expensive or to Spain and get a place in a kids club.

The government could afford that, surely? I mean these schools only charge about £30,000 from pupils and attract large donations from ex-pupils and wealthy well wishers. There are 9.5million school age children in the UK, so that would only cost £285,000,000,000 a year (plus the donations). Obviously, there would be the costs to increase the school building sizes first but let's just forget those for now, I'm sure they're insignificant.  Last year's government education spend was £56,300,000,000 so we would only need to find an extra £228.7 billion, surely we'd all be happy to pay more tax to fund that? It would a a lot cheaper than paying a childminder or paying extra for out summer holiday wouldn't it?

(*figures are approximate)

Do we still need it?

Last week there was a big fuss in the press about longer school hours and shorter holidays.  It was the result of a few 'churnalists' (I can't claim the word - it's my daughter's), who had read a blog by a former government adviser, who really couldn't see the point in short school days and long school holidays. Instead of going and interviewing people and getting a real story they then recycled the story into a piece designed to worry and scare ordinary middle and working class parents.  Some people would argue that with the invention of social media and blogging, journalists don't need to get out and report any more.   But what about the people without this kind of public voice? Think of all the stories they are missing.

Whenever I read this type of blog by rich men I wonder why they had children in the first place.  They don't like children and see them as an obstacle to their favourite thing; making money. Reading Paul Kirby's blog http://paulkirby.net/2014/01/26/is-this-the-perfect-2015-election-promise/ I suddenly realised what is going on.  Rich men have children to pass their money onto.  They want them fully grown, and full of 'grit', so that they can take care of their money and make more of it.  He thinks that everyone wants to work 70 hour weeks and have their children make as little impact on their lives, until they are ready to inherit,  as possible.  He thinks that spending time with children is no longer needed.  Unfortunately, most people don't have children for the same reasons.  Most people don't want to work all the time and the truth of it is, even if they did, they wouldn't be making the kind of money that would make procreation about transfer of wealth. So, short school days and long school holidays are still needed by most people because it's all we have.  We had our children to spend time with interesting and funny growing humans - we have no wealth to transfer.

We so often hear people say that feminism isn't needed anymore.  They argue that women have equal rights in this country and so it's time to stop fighting and occasionally I agree until I read an article like this http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2014/01/29/the-de-piero-fantasy-cabinet/ or see a picture like this and think it's a joke.

Harriet Harman on the Andrew Marr show this morning, dared to make the suggestion that the sacking of Baroness Sally Morgan might have been more to do with the fact that she's a woman than her allegiance to the Labour party.  Michael Gove, said that it's good business practice to 'refresh' jobs and that it is a sensible thing to replace someone who is doing a good job.  Luckily for him, after a year longer in his job than Sally Morgan had in hers, he isn't doing quite such a good job, so there's no fear of him refreshing himself.  Twitter exploded and despite the fact that Harriet had properly mocked Michael with her, "Conservative Cabinet is raining men," comment, she came off the worse for it.  Her name was changed by several people to 'Harperson' and comments were made on her appearance.  They pointed out that the only female prime minister this country has had was a conservative (as if one woman thirty years ago is enough)  I thought that of the two politicians sat on the BBC sofa, Ms Harman was the more attractive to look at of the two but Twitter was full of remarks about her personal appearance.

Although people do make comments about Mr Gove's appearance I have never seen it suggested that because he looks like a Pob, all men should be excluded from public office.

This afternoon I went to the cinema and watched American Hustle. It was a good film, with some amazing acting by Jennifer Lawrence, in particular, that thankfully, didn't dumb down or leave out the importance of the women in this piece of history, or did it?  I grew up in the Seventies and I can confirm that men dressed like that, with ridiculous hair, and that wallpaper was just as hideous but I never saw quite so much female flesh, which the male costume designer justifies by saying that it represents the women's naked vulnerablity. 

 So, I would argue that we still need long school holidays, proper reporter journalists and feminism.