Clandestine Reading

I have a confession to make: I am one of those people who peers over to read the books that the people next to me on the bus are reading.
I always try to be very discreet, but sometimes I know I've been found out when the owner of the book either angles it pointedly away from me to prevent my intrusion, or else spreads it open a little wider and turns it a little bit, to enable me to share the wealth of text even better. I know this habit might be terribly annoying or even creepy to some people, but, if I had a book and had the opportunity to share what I was enjoying with them, I'd be glad to do it!

You really can learn a lot of great things by sampling conveniently-located prose in this way, too. Sometimes, I catch segments of news articles on the back of people's newspapers, and am better equipped to discuss that particular current event or issue. Sometimes, it's a novel being read next to me, and I can grab a glimpse of a genre or writing style that I would never have otherwise been exposed to. Still other times, if I'm really lucky, it's a non-fiction book, and I can soak up new perspectives or knowledge on a topic I know comparatively little about.

Recently, I found myself sitting next to a woman who was reading from a collection of essays on education. As someone who is counting on teaching at some point in the future, I was especially eager to take in what I could.
This is also the point in this blog post at which I might lose a lot of you who don't particularly care about educational issues.
The particular essay I read most of was discussing the value of intrinsic motivation, as opposed to extrinsic motivation. The author explained a study that was conducted (I won't go into detail on it, because I'm sure I'd get a couple of facts wrong) that clearly showed that students who are invited, by a facilitating teacher, to learn because of their own natural curiousity, learn far more and far better than those who are told to learn the same material well for examination purposes. The point the author was trying to make is that our current emphasis and reliance on the testing system in schools is turning out rote learners, whose innate hunger for knowledge is killed.
I agreed with nearly everything the essay presented. In almost every learning situation, intrinsic motivation is of far more value than extrinsic motivation. But in my mind, that does not imply that we should scrap the test-based system we're accustomed to. Imagine for a minute that we did just that. Without the added motivation of grades and tests, one group of students - those who were actually motivated to learn on their own, and had interest in the subject - would likely learn more, and learn better. But the result on the other group of students - those with no motivation to learn, and no interest in the subject - would be disastrous; they'd have no reason to learn.
I don't have an answer. But I do feel that some fresh thinking would be beneficial for the educational system. I hope someone with more knowledge than I have of psychology and teaching methods can find some middle ground, and develop a great new system on it.

Next time you're reading on public transit, no matter what book it is, keep it open a little wider. You never know who might be reading, fascinated, over your arm!

What can I say about Ukraine?

Ukraine, Ukraine... What can I possibly say about the trip that would successfully walk the line between trite and uninformative, and intolerably long?

It was challenging, eye-opening, thrilling, and most of all, life-changing. We spent nearly a month together as a choir, travelling all over the country, from the largest cities to the most remote villages, singing and interacting with the Ukrainian people in schools, churches, seminaries, and music colleges. We stayed in their homes, dove into their culture, learned their music, and saw the hearts of these amazing people. We raised money to partially fund a combined choir and orchestra seminar, and had a fantastic time making music together with the Ukrainian musicians. We could usually communicate only minimally at best, but there was still an instant connection there, despite language barriers and cultural differences. I left their country having had my eyes opened, and with several new perspectives and values. This has made returning, and trying to slide back into 'normal' life's usual grind, very difficult at times. I'm sure my experiences and memories will work their way into my writing (and certainly my day-to-day and even hour-to-hour thoughts) many times this summer, because they are so much a part of who I am now. I wish I could somehow impart all I saw, felt, and learned, to each of you reading this, because of the impact it has had on me! That being impossible, I'll do my best to share some stories from the trip on this blog, mixed in with the summer's events. (Yes, I can blog more regularly now that summer has arrived!)

Well, that paragraph does a fairly miserable job of capturing a snapshot of the month. It was all I could do to keep it brief, though, knowing I could carry on for far too long if I let myself! Pictures are of a Kiev street, the gorgeous church in Kiev where we held the seminar, and me, accompanying the choir at a performance at a large music college in Kirovograd, where we were honoured to share a concert with the college's fantastic choir.