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Showing posts from July, 2010

Making Music with Our Kids

When I was about eight years old, I started taking piano lessons with Mrs. Van Den Bosch. I don't remember too much about how she looked. I do remember that she made me sit up very straight, curve my fingers like an egg was resting beneath them, and gave me gold stars if I did well. Mrs. V was psychic. She knew when I did not practice. Like other students, I sometimes thought that the piano playing I did at the lesson itself would suffice. She could tell, and my chart had shameful glaring empty spots where those cherished gold stars should have been. The funny thing about my piano lessons was that my dad was an excellent piano teacher. He just couldn't teach us kids. We would whine, refuse to cooperate, or get hurt feelings when he tried to correct us. The same thing has happened with my daughter. For the past four or five years I tried to teach her piano. I'd get out my beginner book and eagerly show her Middle C. She would be bored and frus

The Rite of Passage: Girls and Teen Magazines

There is a scene in the movie Aquamarine where two teen-age best friends are trying to teach a mermaid how to interact with boys. “Here is our Bible,” they proclaim, laying a stack of magazines on her lap. “Yes,” says the other girl, in a hushed reverent tone. “ Seventeen magazine.” The girls explain that this glossy packet of paper will tell the other-worldly creature everything she needs to know about how to dress, how to do her make-up and (most importantly) how to get a boy. The top teen magazines now are Cosmo Girl, Seventeen , and Teen Vogue . A recent online issue of Seventeen teases with the following provocative topics: • How Should You Do Your Makeup for School? • Is Your Summer Love Just a Fling? • How Should You Update Your Fashion Look for Fall? • What Will You Be Known for in High School? I have heard many critics of these magazines, myself included, say that the publications put too much of an emphasis on things like outward appearances and boys. I a