MOVING ON 3 : RARE PEARL OR BLACK SHEEP?

We usually call “black sheep” those who don’t conform, who distinguish themselves for their creating infinite troubles or finding themselves always in trouble. The story I want to tell about this evening is set in a home for “black sheep”, that is to say, difficult teens.
Sylvie lives for her job at this centre, she tries to be helpful and positive and is always the first in and the last to leave at night. When one of those boys arrives at the reception at night, she refuses to let him in, and he becomes aggressive and abusive. Liz freezes and her colleague Kellie steps in and takes over. Sylvie is left terrified and badly shaken and when everyone begins to doubt her side of the story, she starts doubting herself. She can’t cope with her panic fits when she is alone in her house and she can’t go on working. That boy has spoilt her peaceful routine and ruined her life. She’s terrified of being alone at home, of going out, of meeting young people in the street...
This is briefly the plot of the fifth episode in the BBC series MOVING ON I’ve recently seen on DVD and have been reviewing in previous postings. I just wanted to finish what I started and with this episode, titled THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, I can say I’ve completed my task. I loved all the 5 episodes, they are simply shooted and focused on the psychological insight of the characters, then they deal with contemporary issues and you can imagine those stories might be happening to your neighbour this moment. My favourite ones are THE RAIN HAS STOPPED, BULLY AND DROWNING NOT WAVING, that is to say, the first 3 episodes. But I didn’t mind the other 2.

For further information visit the official BBC site. HERE.

If you live in the UK you can watch this episode HERE.

Now, guess what? I am officially ON HOLIDAY from today till 24th August!
Incredible, this morning no alarm – clock at 6.30, a quiet looong breakfast –time, no hurrying to school to find parking space and to be on time ...... the never-ending sitting marathon has finished! This exam session has been the longest , most tiring, in my teaching career but it had also positive records: all my students passed (last year two failed and I was very sad); I learnt lots of new things (not joking, true!) ; I had more than one moving moment; I was proud of all my students and particularly appreciated the efforts of some them. I think among this year’s students, there are very motivated, willful, clever, sensitive young people who will do their best at university and in general in their lives. Most of these “rare pearls” are girls. Yes, girls more than boys, whom I felt lucky to have as my pupils, they are absolutely special and they are ... several... not a majority actually, yes, a minority... but they are in this world and this world is better thanks to them.

RELATED POSTS:

MOVING ON 1: LIFE NEVER STANDS STILL

MOVING ON 2: BULLIES AND VICTIMS

OVERCOMING LIMITS: DRESS TO IMPRESS

OVERCOMING LIMITS

The most interesting oral exam I've listened to in these days was this morning. A girl, one of my students, talked about "OVERCOMING LIMITS". It was a very interesting and original work presented with beautiful power point slides. It had links with all the Literatures she studies as well as History, Philosophy and Art. It just lasted 10 minutes but ... it was so involving. Maybe it was also because the girl was so anxious and completely concerned in what she was talking about. When she came to Art, she didn't talk about the Impressionists, Van Gogh, Munch, Picasso or any other of the painters she had studied. She introduced us in the world of Simona Atzori, a painter and a dancer who has to cope with life without her arms. It was touching and the paintings she showed to us were so beautiful! Simona is an effective example of how a person has to fight but can finally succeeds in overcoming his/her own limits, how a human being can turn "borders to bridges", can take strength from his/her own weaknesses.

HERE IS A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF SIMONA I'VE FOUND ON LINE

Simona Atzori is an Italian artist and dancer who was born in Milan. She was born without arms, and uses her feet to draw, write and perform all other daily activities.
Attempts were made to fit Simona with prosthetic arms at an early age, but she very quickly rejected them. She has said that she found the prosthetics extremely heavy and impractical, and it was much easier to use her own feet to perform tasks.
She started painting at the age of 4 and her talent was soon noticed by the artist, Mario Barzon, who encouraged and supported her. In 1983, she was awarded a scholarship from the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World. A defining moment in her early career was an audience with Pope John Paul II, at which she presented him with a portrait of the Holy Father.
Simona also started to dance at the age of 6. Despite some initial opposition from teachers who felt that it was not appropriate, her own determination and the strong support of her mother enabled her to succeed in a discipline normally associated with the fully able-bodied.
In 1996 she commenced her studies at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Her course in Visual Arts enabled her to combine the two passions of her life, and she graduated with honors in 2001.
In recent years, Simona has been associated with the Pescara Dance Festival, and has endowed this event with the Atzori Award, given to dancers and choreographers. She continues to perform and exhibit her work all over the world.
On March 10, 2006, Simona performed a dance routine during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Turin.

NOW ... ARE YOU READY TO SEE HER ... FLY WITHOUT HER WINGS? Incredible but true!

Listening to this touching real story, I remembered that I still have to complete posting my reviews of BBC Moving On episodes and that one of the two missing ones was DRESSED TO IMPRESS which deals just with a case of... diversity.

The touch paper is lit when a 17 year old boy's secret love of dressing in women's clothes is discovered and a turn of events ignites a ticking time bomb that threatens to destroy his parent's marriage and his family forever. He can't talk about his diversity to his parents, especially to his father. It is another very well written story, coping with a delicate serious problem but with a light comedy touch. HERE'S A CLIP WITH MY BEST WISHES FOR A VERY GOOD WEEKEND TO ALL OF YOU, MY FRIENDS!

P.S. THANKS TO ANASTASIA

MOVING ON 1 - LIFE NEVER STANDS STILL...

Not my case, though! Examination work at this time of the year and with this hot weather can be rather exhausting. It seems I’m always sitting there, uninterruptedly, and doing the same boring stuff , day after day, while the others are enjoying their summer holidays. I know it is not correct and I try to do my best for my students’ sake. They’re there trembling nervously in front of all of us – and I’m there feeeling imprisoned and dreaming to be on a sunny beach… It happens also that, once I am at home, I don’t feel like doing anything: housework, reading or simply concentrating on very easy tasks (just like my teenage students all the year round!). So , for example, I’m reading a very good book but it is going on so slowly and I need to hold on tightly to my desire to know … but … pointlessly, I often have to close it ‘cause my mind refuses to go on working… I NEED SOME PROPER REST.

Now, after the “lamentation premise,” – I know it was a bit boring but ,please, let me do it , my friends –let’s get to the real pointof my writing .
I’ve recently got (last Friday, 26th June and had been released only on the 22nd – Amazon can be amazingly rapid) a new acquisition for my DVD collection: BBC MOVING ON series. I was so glad, I really needed something new to watch. It took me an entire week to watch the whole series and , here I am, ready to write about it .The five 45 minute dramas were commissioned by the BBC for its daytime schedule, and were shown each day over the course of one week in May. Each drama stands alone, but they all concern characters moving on in their lives. They deal with contemporary issues that range from the property slump to transvestism. I had read very positive reviews on line and …ehm… of course … I’ve already told you … I’ll risk to be repetitive … but I can’t avoid it … I really appreciate Richard Armitage’s … acting skills and, yes, he is in one of the episodes (the third, Drowning not Waving) . Of course that was the first episode I watched (not only once) but it is not the one I’m writing about today. I’ll start from “The rain has stopped” , which I also greatly enjoyed .

First some reflections:

• Children can be tremendously selfish and unrewarding to their parents


• Prejudices, especially racial prejudices, are profoundly natural in a human being but definitely irrational in a civilized human being.

These ideas are at the basis of the plot of the first TV drama of the series: “THE RAIN HAS STOPPED” .

Liz is used to being at the beck and call of her family; she regularly babysits for her daughter, and her son seems to think she is his personal cash machine. She doesn't realise how unhappy she is until she meets Damar on holiday and falls in love. When he proposes she says yes, but isn't prepared for the reaction from her family when she returns with her new love: Damar, a retired Nepalese soldier. All they want is to hold on to the bit of sunshine that they've found . Unacceptable to her grown-up children : they do not accept the fact that another man, that other man, could live in their dead father’s house. They are not at all interested in their mother’s happiness, they suppose her duty is to die alone and live the rest of her days mourning their father.
Parallel to Liz’s tragic dilemma, Damar’s terrible disillusionment takes place: he was a soldier in Nepal, one of the British ex-colonies, and his father, too, had fought, being a soldier in the Imperial police. And now how does the great country he expected to be grateful to him and his father thank him? There’s no place, no job, no respect for the poor man.
I do not want to tell you too much because “The Rain Has Stopped” is actually worth watching . I hope you have the chance to do it. I think BBC was really brave to offer their audience such good, well written , contemporary drama. That’s usually soap time and you don’t certainly expect you have to think or reflect on anything.

At the end of this moving story, I needed to re-read one of my best-loved poems and now I’d like you to read it, too . It can be linked to Liz and Damar’s love story, but it can be also interpreted in many other ways (like any poem or literary text).

Its title is LOVE AFTER LOVE by DEREK WALCOTT :

The time will come when,

with elation you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

I couldn’t find any clip from this episode so, if you want, you can have a look at this beautiful trailer with the five stories. I know, I’ve already used it in another of my posts, but… it is really well made.

Shelia Hancock is incredibly touching in her playing Liz. She is one of Britain’s best known actresses. She has appeared in numerous roles in television, film and the theatre.
Television appearances include Bleak House. Her stage roles include The Cherry Orchard, The Duchess Of Malfi and The Critic, all at the National Theatre. She is also about to open in the new musical version of The Sister Act.

Till next episode then. Now I have to wish you a wonderful evening and go to bed. I have to be ready for a hard working examination Satur- day! Hugs. MG

EXAMS - DAY 3 & 4

I've briefly posted about days 3 and 4 of our exams on LEARN ON LINE

IF YOU WANT,

JUST CLICK HERE.

YOU'LL BE WELCOME.

TILL VERY SOON!

MG

EXAMS - DAY 2

I've posted about day 2 of our exams on

LEARNONLINE

If you want to know about my students' and mine

(mis)adventures

CLICK HERE

AMOR VINCIT OMNIA (Love wins All)

( Paolo and Francesca by Amos Casioli)

My students had their first written examination in Italian this morning. Their half sleepy - half terribly anxious pale faces were waiting outside our school building very early this morning. Once they were all sitting at their desks, at about 9, we handed out the tasks. Nothing special: nor difficult, nor original, nor very interesting: "triviality fair" . After an even too obvious text analysis of an excerpt from Italo Svevo's "La coscienza di Zeno", there were tasks about the Social networks and Internet (32% Italian students wrote about that: not a surprise, indeed) , the Berlin Wall, Creativity and Technology, The history of the Italian State, Youth Culture from 50s to Facebook days and , last but not least, Love in Art and Literature. Did we read anything original? Not much. But poor students, how could they have been original in front of such trivial, obvious proposals? Anyhow, though we tried to appreciate all their efforts and creative achievements , we were quite bored in the end.

By the way, our students didn't mirror the national trend. The most successful task among them was that about love. Most of our students are girls, of course. We reflected on the fact they still have a very romantic, lyrical, "totalitarian" vision of love. To them love is all or nothing, Heaven or Hell, inescapable and essential.

They had to write an article or an essay after reading some poems or excerpts ( all the texts were by Italian writers) but they also had visual suggestions:

1. Magritte LOVERS

2. Chagall, WALK

3. Canova, LOVE AND PSYCHE

Which is your favourite love image? Not only among the ones above...there are lots of beautiful ones. Which task would you have chosen? I would have been rather embarassed...but I think I 'd have written about love, too. Tomorrow Mathematics for some of my students and Latin for the others. I don't think I'll have much to write about tomorrow night... HAVE A VERY GOOD EVENING! SWEET DREAMS TO ALL OF YOU.

MG

If you want to read about EXAMS - DAY 2 CLICK HERE