Reading, evangelising, kissing and more...

It's been a manic few weeks - work seems to be collapsing at a frightening rate, just as other things are mounting up. Work experience is continuing to be interesting as well as being good fun; I was introduced to the chief exec this week and, apparently, next Monday there is to be drinks and nibbles and general merriment. I've also put in a job application for a teaching job in an independent secondary school. It was all fairly fast: I saw the advert on Thursday and had put the application in on Sunday. The closing date is on the 23rd and interviews are being held on the 2nd March. I'm using every spare second I have preparing just in case!

Anyway, I thought I'd better catch up on a few of the links that have caught my eye in the last week:

I read this posting about Michael Rosen's Just Read (BBC4) on Bookwitch and immediately switched over to the BBC iPlayer to see for myself. This programme was really interesting. I have a long-standing interest in reading and libraries, and it was fascinating to see the way in which an entire school's reading ethos changed in just three months. This was, of course, in large part due to the immediate presence of Michael Rosen (the current Children's Laureate). As ever, I found myself distracted by his marvellous boggle-eyes and wonderful poems, but it was clear from the outset that the children responded to his apparently boundless enthusiasm for words. From my own experience of tutoring several primary-age children, I know that kids love stories, as long as someone is prepared to sit and read with them. Bearing in mind that some of the children I have come across in the past live in houses that don't contain a single book, this can be something of a challenge, but, as Mr. Rosen demonstrated, if you can get over the fact that reading books out loud 'isn't cool', then all of a sudden new horizons open up. Having said that, not every school is lucky enough to have a personal reading mentor of Mr. Rosen's calibre - not necessarily in terms of output or fame, but certainly in terms of energy! I think the only way any school is going to be able to promote - and sustain - a love of reading is if it is supported by the child's home life and that brings with it a whole new set of challenges.

Two other fascinating BBC programmes recently: Moses Jones, a BBC2 drama series which managed to clash with every other TV programme I enjoy and was subsequently relegated to iPlayer status, and Trouble in Amish Paradise, a documentary also shown on BBC2. The former was an extraordinarily well-scripted drama with edgy direction and a cast which gave honest performances. It showed the immigrant subculture of London without any of the usual assumptions and was a truly exciting insight into the breadth of experience in the city. As a Londoner, I felt as though the London I actually live in was at last being shown in its true brilliance and nastiness. That's something you find in Dickens - although this didn't feel as caricatured as some of his novels. Neither was it particularly cliched, and, although it did deal with some issues which have begun to feel a bit hackneyed, it came across as a genuinely truthful presentation of a collection of lives in London.

Trouble in Amish Paradise is another programme which might have fallen into cliche, but didn't. There were the usual shots of horse-drawn carriages and men and women in period costume, but at its heart, this was a story about two families teetering on the edge of the Amish culture and the wilderness beyond. Both families had been excommunicated by the community for disobeying the rules of the Elders, but both passionately believed in the justness of their beliefs. The central problem seemed to be the fact that they insisted on reading the Bible in English, not the original antiquated German, and they felt called to evangelise and discuss their views on Christianity with others, both inside and outside the immediate community. This may not seem such a sin to we outsiders looking in, but I imagine it had the potential to blow a huge hole in the structures of this protective and protected society. Despite their alienation from their friends and family, support was immediately provided when difficulties arose. A programme which might have made me knowingly mock a 'less-developed' attitude to Christianity instead made me long for that security of community through good times and bad - and who ever said living with others was meant to be easy?

Last week the General Synod of the Church of England voted to ban clergy from being members of the BNP; it simultaneously debated the role of its mission of conversion in the twenty-first century. The two things seem to me to be somehow linked. At the core of the issue is the importance of free speech in our society. People advocate the right to freedom of speech as one of the most enshrined of all human rights, and yet not everyone is happy to allow all matters to be expressed freely. The argument for conversion is not only that it is biblically grounded, but also that the opportunity to express freely (as enshrined in the right to freedom of speech) the evangelical aspects of Christian life should be more eagerly taken. The Church of England is often derided for not being proactive in its approach to evangelism and this would seem to be a welcome invitation (or a kick up the backside - whichever you prefer!) to become more active in the wider community. However, to simultaneously ban members of the clergy from expressing a particular political opinion seems to be taking the opposite track entirely. Please understand, I am not in *any* way condoning the 'policies' of the BNP; rather, I am noting the rather worrying precedent it may set for future debate. Freedom of speech is not always nice speech, or comforting speech, or safe speech, but it is free speech.

On a tangentially religious note, I've noticed various humorous responses to the agnostic bus signs ("There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life"), the best of which was a competition run on the Faith-Theology blogspot. My favourite proposed caption was "Relax! God loves a smiling atheist!".

Aside from that, other general links of interest:

Useful computer paraphernalia from the London Review Bookshop - one of those things you don't think you need until you find you can't live without it...

A very funny short film - This Way Up, directed by Alan Smith & Adam Foulkes of Nexus, nominated for best animated short at this year's Oscars - the only British nomination, as Nick Park of Wallace and Gromit fame missed deadline. I really enjoyed it and have passed the link on to as many friends and family as possible.

Bookmooch: a site for passing on books you don't need anymore (although I can't imagine ever actually being brave enough to let my books go).

And finally, a thought-provoking article from the BBC about the negative space of kissing: a series of sculptures being created by artist Chris Murphy at the Science Museum in London. The very idea of being able to visualise (and materialize) the space of a kiss is strange and yet somehow intriguing...

Keep an eye on the Russell Hoban blog - will be updating it in the next day or two as I come to the end of rereading all his novels!!! I'm existing in a world of Hoban oddness at the moment, where everything seems to be a little less real, but I'm sure it will pass eventually - or as soon as the work panic sets in again.