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Post by queenzod on Oct 20, 2022 6:41:57 GMT
Not only can they not write in cursive, they can’t read it either! I find it incredible. Some of them can’t read a watch or wall clock, either, with hands going around. I’m not sure what to make of that. 😳
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Post by mllemass on Oct 20, 2022 11:19:10 GMT
They apparently stopped teaching cursive writing years ago here! I remember that it made the news when an angry parent found out and complained about it. His teenage son was applying for a passport to go on a school trip out of the country, and was told that his application was rejected because he hadn’t “signed” it properly. The boy had no idea what a signature was, and had simply printed his name. That’s when everyone found out that they no longer teach cursive writing, and it’s one of those things kids are expected to pick up and learn at home. I think they explained that if they keep adding things to the curriculum, other things have to go. I also remember some teachers saying that they were going to keep teaching it anyway.
Somewhere among my parents’ papers, there’s a little card that was filled out when we got our vaccinations before the first time we went to Italy. And on that card is my cute little shaky signature! It was the first time that I was asked to sign for myself instead of my parents signing for me. I was 7 at the time.
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Post by roverpup on Oct 20, 2022 15:12:06 GMT
Cursive writing in Ontario is "optional". Meaning it's up to the classroom teacher if they want to teach it. It stopped being "mandatory" in 2006 apparently. Even printing lessons were optional when I was still a teacher (up to 2009) but I always taught primary printing in my classes. Penmanship teaches children much more than just forming letters to a standard format... neatness, hand eye coordination, fine motor skills, following instructions, focusing on details, completing an assigned task. Many of those things are basic for success further down the line - in school and in life.
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Post by Hannah Lee on Oct 21, 2022 2:03:58 GMT
I had to sit in on a meeting my family member had about getting some in home assistance due to some disabilities she has. The OT (occupational therapist) who came was talking about her work as an OT with school aged children. She said she always advocated for schools to continue to teach cursive - there is something about the visual, manual and processing skills involved in making cursive writing that helps develop the ability to reach across from one side to the other, to work “across the midline” ie to use your left side to touch, work with, process what’s to the right of you and vice versa that is important for brain development - I’d never heard that before, very interesting. Who knew?
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Post by queenzod on Oct 21, 2022 2:58:28 GMT
I think that’s similar to the theory that you should learn to read and write simultaneously. Something about making the letters on the page with your hand activates an associated part of the brain that aids in reading comprehension. The two actions are inextricably linked. Learning theory is fascinating, isn’t it?
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Post by sgev1977 on Oct 23, 2022 1:44:17 GMT
I watched Argentina, 1985 on Prime and it’s a very good film and pretty important because its theme but it’s not necessarily a great filmmaking achievement (I really liked the photography, tho!). It won the FIPRESCI award at Venice but I guess that shows consensus is always about conventionality.
I think it could easily be nominated for the Oscar and maybe win depending of the competition because it’s very American in the way it describes the trial. Courtroom movies are a whole genre in Hollywood cinema.
Anyway, it’s pretty entertaining and despite the seriousness of the theme and some very dramatic moments with the witnesses narrating their awful experiences, it also has a few funny moments. Ricardo Darin is, as always, great.
EDITED By the way, I recently rewatched La Historia Oficial which was the first Argentine film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and it’s much more dark and disturbing. It was made around the time the trial portrayed in Argentina, 1985 was in process so I guess it was also a very daring production.
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Post by roverpup on Oct 31, 2022 15:54:48 GMT
Dan and I watched All Quiet on the Western Front last night and WOW! It was a tour de force! Bravo Edward Berger!
While deviating from the book, it still manages to capture the essance of what Erich Maria Remarque was trying to convey in his 1929 bestseller. The main character Paul Baumer is still at the centre of the story, as a young soldier, who marches off to war with gusto and enthusiasm and has his humanity pounded out of him by the grinding machine of trench warfare. Felis Kammerer is excellent in the role - he has the skill and talent to communicate all the necessary emotional impact needed to add depth to his character even when the dialogue is sparce. My favourite scene of his is in a very pivotal scene where Paul spends an extended amount of time with an enemy soldier (first in mortal combat with him, and then hours watching him die from the wound Paul inflicted upon him). There was so much demanded of the actor in this sequence and Kammerer came through with flying colours!
And Berger knows how to visually show the themes of the material on both in grand porportions (for the sweeping battle scenes and vistas) and on a much more intimate scale (with private conversations between to soldiers taking a dump at a latrine). This movie has a very "European" feel to it for me. It lingers on picturesque scenes that almost look like a painting (one that comes to mind is a scene of a solitary soldier waiting outside a farmhouse wall in the cold). It isn't afraid to stay silent and let the visuals do the "talking".
There is an overiding sense of pressure on all of this. The soundtrack isn't particularly melodic - it has almost a grindling, tautness to it. Sometimes it's almost mechanical sounding, like you can feel and hear the gears of war crushing those who are caught up in it.
Daniel Bruhl was also excellent in a supporting role of the envoy who is tasked with negotiating the Armisitice. There was no character in the book who correlates to this part so this film uses his part to portray wider themes that relate to the struggles between warring factions.
This film is a powerful statement against the brutal inhumanity of war and what it does to the individuals who are caught up in it right from the beginning with propaganda, to the brutalising damage it inflicts on the human psyche. It doesn't offer easy palatable answers. It isn't comforting and soft in its presentation. But it needs to be said in this day and age of misinformation and reactionary "offences" that lead to overblown political responses.
War is a nasty, brutal business whereby the damage (both seen and unseen) is wide and deep.
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Post by roverpup on Nov 3, 2022 18:18:30 GMT
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Post by roverpup on Nov 25, 2022 12:19:44 GMT
Dan and I have taken to watching old movies lately (while waiting for episodes of Season2 of the White Lotus to build up).
We started with Room at the Top, a 1959 film with Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret, which one several Oscars (one for SS and one for Adapted Screenplay). Interestingly enough though the wonderful Canadian writer Mordecai Richler was a co-writer on that screenplay but was uncredited, so never got the recognition he deserved for his efforts! Later he did receive 2 Oscar noms for 2 other screenplays - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and a NFB short The Street. SS was particularly excellent in her role and her Oscar win, although absolutely well deserved, was considered a bit of a surprise considering the heavy hitters she was up against that year.
Inspired by her performance we then watched Ship of Fools (1965). SS got a Oscar nomination for her part ans so did Oskar Werner and Michael Dunn but none of them won the statue. Still, the picture picked up several technical awards. Directed by Stanley Kramer I think it really holds up well as an allegory.
We also watched Darling (1965) also staring Laurence Harvey (and Julie Christie) but found it didn't hold up very well. It was trendy and hip but rather tiresome and frayed around the edges for our liking.
Next we watched Hud (1963) with Paul Newman and Melvyn Douglas and Patricia Neal. Great flick! Douglas and Neal won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and Actress and the film won for Best Cinematography (B/W) and was nominated for 4 more awards as well. Cynical and searing and a shocking rape scene for the time it was a sensation. Paul Newman was on fire! I remember my parents buzzing about his performance in 1965! He was all everyone could talk about! Newman was directly involved with the production of this movie along with Martin Ritt the director (they formed Salem Productions together to produce this film and two others for Paramount).
The book on which this is based on (Larry McMurtry's Horseman, Pass By) is very different from what ended up on the screen. For one thing Hud is a minor character in the book but the main character in the movie of course! Neal's character in the book was black but was changed to white in the film.
I also have to mention that the character of Lonnie is excellently played by Brandon deWilde who was nominated for an Oscar for his earlier performance in Shane. Unfortunately he had become disillusioned with acting in his later years and his roles had petered off when his life was ended by a car accident at age 30.
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Post by wallaby on Nov 27, 2022 0:18:22 GMT
I‘ve just watched the movie „Corsage“ by director Marie Kreutzer about empress Elizabeth (Sisi) of Austria which was released this year. I read a lot about this unique woman. She didn‘t fit in the age she was living in and this film is portraying her the way she really was (unlike the very famous and „kitschige“ Romy Schneider-trilogy of the 1950s). Vicky Krieps gave a wonderful performance. She won the acting award in Cannes this year. Having visited Vienna on a trip for my 30th birthday and going to the „Sisi-museum“ there, this was really showing me what I had seen there. Do you know Sisi?
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