Fifth Graders

[shostakovich]

This morning my wife an I had a 5th grade class at the museum. It reminded me of this story.

Bush was invited to get a 5th grade group to explain the word "tragedy". One girl suggested that if her classmate were run over by a tractor, that would be a tragedy.

"Not so, young lady. That would be an "accident".

A young boy suggested that if the school bus carrying 50 students went off a cliff, that would be a tragedy.

"Not so, young man. That would be a great loss."

The class was a bit intimidated, but Johnny came up with a new scenario.
"Suppose Air Force 1 was blown to smithereens with you, Mr. Bush, in it. That would surely be a tragedy."

"Exactly so, Johnny, but how did you come up with it?"

"Well, I just figured it probably wouldn't be an accident, and certainly not a great loss, so it would have to be a tragedy."

[piqaboo]

I found this funny.

But revived the thread to ask: How goeth the docenting?

[shostakovich]

Thanks, Piq. We've been doing mostly 5th grade. The kids are still open to new experiences. Most communicate. Most are bright. When they get to high school there's less communication, less openness. Most are much more into themselves. Hormones? Inadequate public schools? Burnout? Other? It's disappointing to see the great start followed by the decline. But 5th grade is a delight. So it's fun for us.

As an aside, I made a tape-slide program of American Landscape Artists of the 19th Century about 30 years ago. My photos, my script, my music selection, even my voice (the weak link) on the tape. Anyway, I'll be presenting it to the docents next month. That's kind of special. Take care.
Shos

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Hormones? Inadequate public schools? Burnout? Other? It's disappointing to see the great start followed by the decline.

Yes, notafactor, notsomuch, youbetcha. Not a decline, a development. It's called adolescence. And it's even worse from the inside than from the outside. Nevertheless, persevere! In every group there will be a few who are having a good day, not suffering too badly from the hormonally induced insanity, and will listen to you. (But they'll never let on. That would be uncool.) For most of us, adolescence is when we catch our lifelong passions.

There is fertile ground. Keep scattering those seeds!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Oh, and about those fifth-graders: you can have 'em. I consider 11 year old boys the most obnoxious subvariety of humankind. To each his own.

[barfle]

I consider 11 year old boys the most obnoxious subvariety of humankind.

Didn't like them even when I was one of them.

[piqaboo]

11 year olds tend more to 6th grade. 10 year olds are quite civil.
That presentation of your presentation - I hope it goes well, Shos.
Would be neat to see it sometime.

[shostakovich]

Hi Piq. Thanks fer yer support. On Tuesday night we had our last docent meeting. There was a well respected speaker talking about children and mischief in art. As a prologue I got to present my 11-minute program on American Landscape Artists of the 19th Century. It went over pretty well.
Shos

[piqaboo]

Hi Shos! Im glad you got to showcase your work again!

Im fascinated by the thought of children and mischief in any field.
Care to summarize any key points or interesting details from the other speaker's talk?

[shostakovich]

Regrettably, there wasn't any "point". It was an array of art involving children from ancient Egypt to the 20th C. The speaker explained what was going on in each work. I guess what we were supposed to conclude is that kids will be kids in any time and place (where an artist has the opportunity to document it). You should have ample photos of Altoid confirming that theory by now.
Shos