Whilst on a business trip last year I took the opportunity to stay with some friends of ours who live in London. Their child was 4yrs old at the time and I was quite shocked at breakfast-time to see him all dressed up in full school uniform being taken for a day of “proper” education. It was such a contrast to where Zosia was at the same age, still at playschool, no uniform, quite informal.

Seeing things like this gets you wondering who’s got it right? Is Zosia missing out on a few years of well structured education that will prove to be an essential difference between her and her British counterparts, or is my friend’s child missing out on a few important years of just ‘being a kid’ without the formality of uniforms and geometry?

I can’t say we’ve been exercising any scientific process to determine how Zosia’s education is progressing in these early years but we do keep an eye on it. There have been the regular meetings at school with the teachers, which have given a good foundation of understanding that she’s doing well. More important has been to see her attitude at home evolving, her interest in reading, writing, maths, knowledge generally growing as time goes by and we try to help her to explore those things as and when she appears to be ready to do so. It does seem that the schooling she is getting here is matching her own development quite well. Zosia is therefore getting an education that is almost in tune, perhaps slightly behind, her own natural development, whereas my friend’s child in London appears to be getting a very much state (or parent) led education. (not unexpected for the world’s biggest nanny state!) What I don’t know is how the child is responding to that, nor what the longer term benefits or drawbacks of that will be. I’m sure he’s doing well, but is it natural and does this going against nature give any real benefits in the long run?

I then noticed this UK article in mid October, which really struck a chord with me:

Formal schooling should be delayed until children reach 6, according to the biggest review of primary education for more than 40 years. The Cambridge Primary Review, published today, says that five-year-olds should continue with the play-based curriculum used in nursery schools. Trying to teach literacy and numeracy at such an early age is “counterproductive” and can put children off school, according to the committee that produced the report. Successive governments’ insistence on the earliest possible start to formal schooling went against the grain of international evidence, he said. Children who started school at the age of 6 or 7 often overtook English pupils in tests of reading before the start of secondary education.

The UK government, from what I can tell, has been promoting a policy of pushing kids into formal education two years earlier than in Poland. In Poland the general rule was playschool ages 3-5, age 6 was ‘zerówka’ (zero class or what the Brits call ‘Primary reception class’) and then formal education starts at age 7. This year there has been a slight change with a suggestion that zerówka should be held in formal schools rather than playschools, as Zosia is doing, and I’d agree with that by way of ‘acclimatisation’. The UK however, is promoting the equivalent of zerówka in formal schools for 4yr old kids, which in my opinion is ridiculous.

Dame Gillian Pugh, who chaired the review’s advisory committee, said: “If you introduce a child to too formal a curriculum before they are ready, you are not taking into account where children are in terms of their learning and their capacity to develop.”

A separate review, by Sir Jim Rose, that was commissioned and accepted by the Government, called for four-year-olds to go straight into primary reception classes. But Sir Jim recommended that parents be able to defer their child’s entry to school by up to a year if they felt they were not ready.

There’s no way Zosia was ready to begin her formal schooling at age four and we need to remember that although zerówka is only a preparatory stage it is still a big change from playschool. Far more emphasis on preparing the children for the rigours of formal education (timing, discipline, structure) and therefore far less on socialising with her friends and just having fun. I fail to see how anyone can get a 4yr old kid to grasp the importance of most of the things they wish to educate them about, let alone get them to concentrate long enough for it sink in. Even if they were concentrating, are they really able understand what they are being taught? For sure at that age I would say they don’t really want to be educated nor do they care about how important any adult might think the subject is.

I therefore think the Polish system is just about right for the majority of kids. Let them be kids and socialise until age five. Let them transition age six, preferably in a formal school environment because the transition will not be complete without that – a sort of “school-light” – and then let battle commence at age seven. From our own experience anything more rapid than that would be unnatural, bring no benefits and possibly a few drawbacks in terms of social skills and general “happiness factor”.

Of course, your kid may well be a child genius who needs special treatment and I’m sure there are many of those around, at least in the parent’s eyes!?

It was 21C and sunny. Kaka, Ronaldo, etc, were stuffed 4-0 by “Farmhands United” in their last match (in the Kings cup).

The taxis are New York style with a bullet proof plastic barrier between passengers and driver. Within 3 minutes of leaving the hotel on the walk to the office I was stopped and asked for a cigarette (made me feel at home)!

Had some ‘jamon’ from special hairy black pigs that are fed nuts, this was accompanied by some nice cheese, bread with a tomato paste on it and a bottle of Rioja. The tapas lunch yesterday was equally tasty, if only you could get such a lunch here in Warsaw. Lunch hour seems to start at 14:00 over there.

The city gives every impression of being hit hard by the munch-crunch, largely because of their excesses in boom times. Nevertheless, I saw my first ever Porsche Panamera, so not everyone is suffering.

There have been many comments, mostly on Polandian I think, about the way Warsaw is being ruined by grossly inappropriate advertising.

It was therefore no surprise to find this mobile eye-sore contraption turn up and park itself outside the Palace of Culture. Advertising Levis “unbuttoned” (whatever they are) it is able to hoist a billboard that must be all of 8m wide by 12m tall.

I can understand their use at outdoor events like a concert but parked in front of the PKiN, or wherever else? I mean, the palace looks ugly enough as it is with all those Zepter signs around the roofline without making matters even worse.

This kind of guerilla advertising should be illegal, Levis should be fined along with the company who own and operate the machine.

It’s about 08:40 and as I sit on the terrace with my habitual crank-handle of coffee and a cigarette the view in the photo below is what welcomes me to this morning in a Polish country village.

Rather a contrast to the frantic rushing around one gets in Warsaw at this time during the working week although by now I would already be at my desk wondering which email to answer first!

It’s just me and the locals so far. The rest of the tourists still working out how to digest the too large quantity of delicious but potent honey liquor that was consumed in a fit of hospitality last evening.

Time slows down in the village to the point where it becomes almost meaningless. You get up when it’s light, do stuff and then go to bed when you’re tired. I’m sure for the locals it can seem as rushed as Warsaw, they have plenty to do after all, but as a visitor it makes a welcome break from the rat race. Earlier this week I had a moment when I felt really in touch with time as I sat at my desk communicating simultaneously with people in Hong Kong at the end of their day and others in Toronto at the beginning of theirs. No such moments here. Here I don’t even bother wearing a watch.

I see a guy in overalls walking down the lane carrying a metal bucket. Buckets are an important part village life. Never use one in the city.

Well, the tourists, including my own, are waking now, I should go get a proper breakfast and be ready for the horse riding and dog walking we will no doubt occupy ourselves with.

Later.

With a crumble-crisis upon us and with so many eateries in Zlote T the competition for the lunch dollar is quite fierce.

Here’s my lunch from a few days ago. Starter is a bowl of cauliflower & bean soup. That mess on the right is chicken breast with a spinach sauce, spuds and the yummy Polish idea of cold salad stuff on a hot plate! To drink, a glass of kompot.

Gordon Ramsey might have something to say about the presentation but it all tasted reasonably good.

What do you think is a fair price?

It was on exactly this day and at exactly this hour that I first dipped my toes into the whirlpool of blogging and, well, I’m still here two years later. A little older, a little wiser and not perhaps as prolific as I’d like but I’m still enjoying it and hope you are too.

Some stats (rounded), just by way of quantifying two years of blogging:

• 510 posts
• 2,400 comments
• 115,500 views
• busiest day – 567 views, March 30th 2009
• busiest month – 8,384 views, also March 2009
• Average views per day in 2007 = 62, 2008 = 141, 2009 = 205 (corporate-speak – year on year growth!!)
• all time top 5 search terms (descending order) – che guevara, universe, upiór w operze, red bull logo, 20 east (it’s all here folks!)
• all time top 5 clicks (descending order) – my Poland photo gallery, pinolona, yellerbelly, polandian, jeziorki (my invoice is in the post!)
• all time top 5 referrers (descending order) – polandian, jeziorki, pinolona, WordPress dashboard, netvibes (the cheque’s in the post)
• all time top 5 posts (descending order) – All our yesterdays (part 1), dummies guide to life, the universe & everything, phantom of the opera, energy drinks, The “You have two cows” joke (must get round to doing “All our yesterdays (part 3)”)
• all time top 5 posts on Poland (descending order) – Polish Independence Day (part 2), Euro 2012 Death or Glory, Złota 44, Polish words & phrases #1, Polish housing market (a voice in the wilderness) (must do more interesting Polish posts – although most are on Polandian)

Thank you all for your contributions!

Drinks all round!!

I only started this post back in February this year so I don’t want any accusations of being slow! The problem was that part 1 – political and social – turned into a bigger episode than I thought and I ran out of steam for this one, even though I’d already found most of the images.

So, to remind you of the point. As I am now into the second half of my allotted ’sto lat’ (100 years) I thought I’d take a look at how things were when I was born in 1959. That’s shortly after the dinosaurs were wiped out by the asteroid although the dust was still settling.

Music & the arts

I was prodded into doing this second part by reflecting today on what was a number one hit when I was the same age as Zosia is now, well here it is – The Rolling Stones, 1965, “Get Off Of My Cloud” (ignore the YouTube title & year, both wrong):

Holds up pretty well I think against the 2009 equivalent, which seems to be about a 12yr old kid called Chipmunk having an affair with his mother?!

Fair to say though that the Stones were a bit of a glorious exception to the rule. When I was born most pop stars had a very wholesome look about them (and quite large spectacles in some cases):

Not wishing to leave the wrong impression, by the time I was choosing my own music things had moved on a bit, although Elton John did take the large spectacle tradition to unforeseen heights:

……..

Many things have changed out of all recognition since I was born but music is perhaps the thing to stand up the best to the ravages of time. As a baby, I lay in my pram and listened to The Beatles and as a small kid I listened to The Rolling Stones. The latter are still giving concerts and the former are still the best band ever to walk the earth. Even the “run of the mill” bands I listened to when in my teens are still going strong, played on the radio, many are still influential and those that aren’t are at least selling-out comeback concerts. I wonder if Chipmunk will still be remembered when he reaches the age of 50+, in about 2049?

Perhaps it is unfair to single out music as other arts will have held up well also. Painting and sculpture are relatively timeless. Jackson Pollock was dead by the time I arrived but the likes of Picasso and Magritte were still going strong, as were Edward Hopper, Escher and Lucien Freud (the next great artist to die?), with Warhol, Hockney and Lichtenstein just getting warmed up. Nobody can say that their works look terribly dated today.

…………

With writing it is harder to maintain a modern feel as language changes so much, as do attitudes and behaviour but despite being obviously written in a different age they none the less retain their value. One of my favourite writers is Graham Greene who coincidentally was writing around the time of my birth. One favourite of mine is “Our Man in Havana”, written in 1958 and filmed in 1959:

Sports

I won’t get too much into sports for fear of it becoming an almighty rant about the state of sportsmanship these days and how money is ruining everything. Just a few examples:

Football. In 1959, Geoff Hurst joined West Ham United, the greatest football team in England! In 1966, at the age of 24, he scored a perfect hat-trick (one goal with each of head, left foot & right foot) to help England beat West Germany 4-2 in the World Cup final. The last time England came anywhere near winning the cup and the last time anyone scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final. I imagine Geoff was paid 3 shillings and sixpence a fortnight and drove a Mini Cooper. If there’s an equivalent today, would it be David Beckham? Paid a zillion quid a second and has a stable of Ferraris, Astons & Hummers. Even a nobody, crap player in a nothing team gets more money than Geoff could have ever dreamed of. So much money these days, so little delivery, so bad an attitude. I dare not go further. My favourite football period was from the early 70’s to the mid 80’s.

………

In tennis in 1959 we had the delightful Rod Laver making his breakthrough on the world stage, by reaching all three finals at Wimbledon, winning the mixed doubles title with Darlene Hard. Laver is the only tennis player to have twice won all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year — first as an amateur in 1962 and second as a professional in 1969. In 1962, the Grand Slam events were open only to amateur players, who were given (under the table) little more than cost-of-living money for their appearances in tournaments. Laver has been rated as the greatest male player of all time by several experts and polls. Those that didn’t vote for Laver must have voted for Roger Federer. In 2007, Federer became the tennis player to win the most prize money in a single year, over $10 million. Not to mention the cash from endorsing – Wilson, Rolex, Nike, Mercedes, Gillette and others. Today’s tennis players don’t seem to be quite as removed from their predecessors as the footballers do, except for the finances of course. For myself, I enjoyed the days of Connors, McEnroe & Borg the best.

…….

A favourite sport of mine, until it got too boring, is motor racing. In 1959, Jack Brabham drove the new Cooper Type 51 to claim the Formula One World Championship. He did so with victories at Monaco, the Dutch Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix, and the British Grand Prix. This was the first ever World Championship for a rear-engined car. Every World Champion since has done so with the engine mounted behind the driver. The Cooper had an engine made by Coventry Climax, better known for fork lift trucks and fire pumps. The engine Brabham used was in fact derived from a fire pump and had almost exactly the same power as my Passat does today, 179KW. Modern day F1 uses engines that regularly produce over 500KW and in the high-power days of 1995-2005, in excess of 700KW!

In 1959 the British Grand Prix was held at Aintree, a course 4.82 km long. The fastest lap was driven by Stirling Moss in 1 minute 57 seconds. The winner drove a total of 2 hrs 30 mins and 11 sec to cover 362 km (75 laps).

In 2009, the British Grand Prix was held at Silverstone, which is longer at 5.14 km. Sebastian Vettel had the fastest lap of 1 minute 20 seconds. The winner drove a total of 1 hrs 22 mins and 49 sec to cover 308 km (60 laps).

My best F1 days were between about 1985 and 1995 watching Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet and an emerging Schumacher.

The sport has changed completely.

….

All Our Yesterdays – part 1

Coming soon in part 3 – technology & mechanical things

Today’s nature moment comes courtesy of Zosia who noticed this wren (troglodytes troglodytes) outside the study window. It is looking a bit nervous because we’re getting close to December 26th.

In the European folklore the Wren is the King of the Birds. According a fable of Aesop, long ago the birds held a contest to see who could fly the highest; this one should become the King of the Birds. At first it looked as though the Eagle would win easily. But just as the Eagle began to tire, the Wren, which had hidden under the Eagle’s tail feathers, crept out, soared far above and shouted: “I’m the King!” Thus the Wren proved that cleverness is better than strength. The Wren’s majesty is recognized in such stories as the Grimm Brothers’ The Willow-Wren and the Bear. Aristoteles and Plutarch called the Wren basileus (king) and basiliskos (little king). In Japan the Wren is also calling King of the Winds.

It was a sacred bird to the Druids, who considered it “supreme among all the birds”, and used its musical notes for divination. The shape-shifting Fairy Queen took the form of a Wren, known as “Jenny Wren” in nursery rhymes. A Wren’s feather was thought to be a charm against disaster or drowning.

The Wren also features in the legend of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who supposedly was betrayed by the noisy bird as he attempted to hide from his enemies. Traditionally, St. Stephen’s Day (26 December) has been commemorated by Hunting the Wren, wherein young Wrenboys would catch the bird and then ritually parade it around town, as described in the traditional Wren Song. “The Wren, the Wren, the king of all birds, St. Stephen’s day was caught in the furze. Although he is little, his family’s great, I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.” The tradition, and the significance of the Wren as a symbol and sacrifice of the old year, is discussed in Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

This mythological association with treachery is a probable reason why in past times the bird was hunted by Wrenboys on St. Stephen’s Day. A captured wren was killed and tied to the Wrenboy leader’s staff pole. Wrenboys no longer practice this aspect of the Wren, although the event is still referred to as Hunting The Wren. Devoted Wrenboys, with their colourful straw costumes and masks, and with the accompanying céilí bands, continue to ensure that the Gaelic tradition of celebrating the Wren continues to this day.

Every now and then I am harassed at work to provide explanations of the difference between certain English words. As my team are all better educated that what I am, guv, it gives me a headache.

Imagine yourself in a work environment, you have things to do but you need to go tell the boss something first. While in the boss’s office a discussion ensues about something important and you end up losing half an hour. You return to your desk and apologise for not being back 30 minutes ago by saying “I’m sorry but I was hijacked by the boss!”.

You are then asked to define the word ‘hijack’ and subsequently to explain the difference between ‘hijack’ and ‘kidnap’. The inference being that I was kidnapped by the boss and not hijacked because I am not a means of transport.

I’m comfortable with hijack because for the me the key point is that I was diverted from my intended route by powers beyond my control. As there was no ransom demand or intention to lock me in the stationery cupboard until my boss got what he wanted, kidnapped seems all wrong.

Am I right?

A follow up teaser the same day was to explain the difference between “compulsory” and “mandatory”. The best I could do with this one was to suggest that they both mean you have to do something but mandatory has legal implications and compulsory doesn’t. One assumes a similar root as the Polish “mandat”?

How am I doing? I’d hate to be leading people astray, even if I do reserve the right to use and abuse my language the way I see fit.

The other weekend we tried to keep the kids occupied by going to the cinema with friends who’s son, Frankie, is Zosia’s “significant other”, much to the annoyance of the other boys.

We went to kino “Luna” on Marszalkowska, just down from Plac Zbawiciela, to see an animated Polish film about Copernicus. It was okay but didn’t hold the attention as much as Hanna Montana or Ben 10 would have done. This was the downfall of the “keeping the kids quiet” idea, as attention slipped so did behaviour.

This wouldn’t normally be an issue as we could easily demonstrate how they were annoying others in the kino. Except we were the only people in the kino!

Saturday afternoon “flicks” (English slang for films) were very fashionable when I was a lad and we’d rush out to catch the latest Chaplin movie and when the “talkies” and full colour movies arrived it was even more popular!

In my day there was no such thing as a multikino. They were single screen, huge places, sweeping staircases, giant foyers, 20,000 seats and the place where the guy used to play the organ still visible but unused. There would be a break half-way through the film (intermission / interval) when people would walk around with kiosks hung around their necks selling ice lollies and the staple diet of cinema-goers, Kia-Ora orange drink. Kia-Ora is Maori for “be well/healthy”, by the way.

Anyway, kino Luna is such a place. Their only nod in the direction of the accountants is to split the place into two screens instead of one but the rest is genuine old-school.

It’s a real shame these places are dying out. Warsaw undoubtedly has more left than your average UK town but for how long? I hope they are able to keep going but the money from six tickets for a prime time Saturday afternoon show is not going to be enough.

What then? Redeveloped into yet another handbag & shoe emporium no doubt. How sad is that!

(Crap thumbnails again, sorry Adam!)