Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay!

The Matthews family had the extreme pleasure again last night of attending the 38th annual Sherwood High School Rock and Roll Revival. We saw the show for the first time last year, and were blown away then by the quality of the production. This year's show proved to be every bit as good, with a cast of hundreds (literally) working their hearts out to give the best performance they could.

If you're skeptical - wondering how good a bunch of high school kids can be... just check this out - one of the highlights of the show! ( I HAD posted a song from this year's show, but it has since been removed from youtube. Here's a song from the revival of two years ago...)



I've learned in recent days that a lot of high schools in the region are now doing these revivals, but Sherwood was the first... and I would dare say, still the best! Because of the tough economy, the school had a bit of trouble selling out the show, but believe me - three hours of rock and roll and dancing was worth far more than the price of admission!

My 15-year-old is still grumbling about this, but I am DETERMINED to get him into this show next year! He can stand in the back and sing "ooo" for all I care. But being on stage was a big part of his Dad's high school life, and the boy needs to know there's more to his teenage years than being moody and obnoxious!

I'm Having Facebook Issues!

It's been seven months now since I joined Facebook, and it's amazing how quickly people of my generation have caught on. Back in April, there were about a dozen people from my high school class signed up, for example... Now, nearly 50 people have signed on, and that number is climbing every day. While this is largely a positive phenomenon, there are some drawbacks. First of all, this sudden contact with people I have not seen in nearly 30 years has brought me face to face with my own age. Here's an actual recent exchange I had with a girl I last saw in 1979. She had requested friendship with me:

Me: Hi there! Life is good... it's the economy that sucks! Happy and honored to be on your friends list!

Woman : LOL back at ya, John! Good to "see" you again. 30 years is right around the corner! Can you believe it?!

Me: What I can't believe is that I have a sophomore at Sherwood, so I'm living high school all over again!

Woman: I know what you mean! Mine are 24 and 20 .. and.. I have a grandson! whew..

Me: Kill me now.

There are still things about this Facebook networking that I don't get. For some reason, there seems to be a pressing need for some people to sign up as many "friends" as they can get - whether they are friends or not. For example, I signed up to become one of my son, Brad's friends, just so I can keep an eye on what he's doing online. But now, a couple of Brad's female friends have asked to become MY friends, so now, I receive a steady stream of updates from adolescent teenage girls... filled mostly with misspelled words and dopey fake gangsta speak. Just brilliant.

I'm also receiving friend requests from people who I've either A - never heard of... or B - who I've heard of but have no desire to ever hear from again. In the case of people I've never heard of - it's akin to someone dialing a wrong number, except it's also possible that I once knew these people back in some dark past, and I'm just not remembering them... (I'm getting old, remember? Some of my contemporaries have grandkids!)

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling with the etiquette of how to deal with friend requests, and I've even faced the phenomenon of people not taking a hint! I have ignored their requests, only to have them come back not once, but two or three times, demanding to be my friend!

A lot of people have taken on Facebook as the new way to be non-productive at work. At this point, I'd prefer some more work to keep me away from Facebook!

Public Education's Not What It Used To Be!

Just a warning - I'm about to turn into my father...

Back when I was a kid, school ended a week or so after Father's Day, and we managed to actually be taught something almost to the last day. The final week or so might have more film strips or 16mm films to watch in class than usual, but there was at least a modicum of education being taught. That is NOT the case with school in 2008.

Today marks the beginning of the last week of school for my two sons, although pragmatically speaking, the school year has been over for some time for both of them. For high school freshman Brad, the education ended pretty much after Memorial Day, when his High School assessment tests were given. During that week of exams, Brad only had to be in class to take his tests, and otherwise had the rest of the time off. He was literally at school for a day and a half total that week. Last week, he missed school on Thursday because of a power failure, and there were no classes on Friday because of graduation. Back in my day (you young whippersnappers), we didn't get graduation day off unless we were actually graduating!

This week, Brad has his final exams. The way they are scheduled, he will have half a day of school today and tomorrow, no school at all on Wednesday and two hours of school on Thursday, the official last day of classes.

For younger son Spencer, who is ending fourth grade, elementary school is not much tougher. His assessment tests are also finished, and his homework effectively ended more than a week ago. He has already had one or two end-of-year class parties, and he will wrap up the week with more classroom celebrations. Graded work is now a quickly fading memory for him as well.

Maryland State law mandates that our children receive at least 180 days of instruction a year, and frankly, my kids are getting ripped off in that regard. Spencer has had a steady flow of homework through the year, but Montgomery County is not demanding nearly enough of its high school students. Brad coasted through 9th grade, and received straight A's for the second straight quarter. I am, of course, quite proud of him, but I am concerned as well. High school is not supposed to be such a breeze. Out kids need to be challenged more, and they need to develop study habits now so they will not be crushed by the sudden weight of college work. My son could really stand to face the burden of an hour of work a night, but more often than not this year, he literally had no homework... and what little he DID have, he managed to finish at school, because his teachers rarely filled all of his classtime with actual education.

You can choose whoever you want to blame for all this, and the school system will deny it loudly, but the fact of the matter is, the only thing school officials care about is having students do well on their assessment tests. Once those are out of the way, the teaching is done for the year.

That is - done for the teachers and the school system, of course. They are so paranoid about the kids they've just poorly taught being prepared for the fall that they will send home a mountain of work for our kids to review over the summer so they'll be prepared to resume the cycle again at the end of August. This is another phenomenon we did not have to worry about back in the day. Fall, Winter and Spring were for learning. Summer was for fun. Now, Fall and Winter are for learning to take tests, Spring is for taking the tests (and nothing else) and Summer is for reviewing the material you really didn't learn so well the previous 10 months.

We spend so much time being obsessed with how much better educated school children in other countries are, and studies are constantly claiming the need for longer school years for our kids. Maybe we should first worry about filling up our existing school days with actual education!

By gum!

Turning On The Wayback Machine...

This afternoon, I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying my first visit to a local tradition - the 37th Annual Sherwood High School Rock N' Roll Revival. This 3-hour extravaganza featured 48 songs performed live by a cast of nearly 200 singers, dancers and musicians, all playing with far more polish than you would ever expect from a high school production. The songs ranged from early-50's doowop to 60's Motown to 70's Southern Rock and Disco and the 80's era Michael Jackson. The most exciting part of the show for me was seeing high school kids having a blast while taking part in a show that requires complete teamwork and a commitment to excellence. Here's a clip from the show:

Of course, this was also a major dose of nostalgia for your blogger, himself a noted high school thespian! Here's a photo of yours truly with high school best bud Brad Krupsaw in the 1979 Springbrook High School production of "The Wizard Of Oz"... He's the Wizard - I'm the other guy...