The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - B1 TERRACE STANDARD _ INSIDE. SECTION B { } COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 JUST A THOUGHT EV BISHOP Discipline? S A PARENT, trying to do the best I can at the job of raising It’s a good thing kids who I desire to be respons- fble, purposeful and filled with hope for the future, I often turn to books on child rearing, Most have to do with parenting directly but every once in awhile I read one that’s more general about child psychology or my children’s most important teachers. - that makes me want to scream in disbelief. One especially irritating book had a blurb task, you need to ask yourself, what really. is the task?” Just two short paragraphs later, “When forcing a child to memorize the right to ask yourself what you are teaching their creative intellectualism.” Gee I don’t know... Maybe not to mix am- ’ monia and bleach? Or maybe the “personal _ choice” of not running into traffic? Sometimes someone else's right answer IS the right an- swer. a The book’s pages swarmed with cozy sounding comfort phrases dealing with the idea that if we just ereate the ideal environment, __ kids will learn by osmosis... They'd be turned just right and there was no pressure. It talked 4 about how damaging it was to coerce children, either with rewards ar by consequences, into acting in certain ways or doing things in a specific manner. The concepts of right and wrong answers, competition on any level, the role of an adult being an authority... even the concept of teaching children to be polite were condemned as oppressive. After I slammed the book shut in disagree- ment, I mulled over his ideas and was blown away that someone could honestly believe that children (or adults for that matter) would “thrive in an environment where there were no boundaries, no guidelines, and no “expectations. That he could speak of discipline as something negative and to be avoided at all costs astonished me. Then I realized that his notions are commoaly held views in our socie- ty today, We do belicve that teaching people truth and facts or a moral right and wrong is some- how stifling and abusive. Everybody wants truth to be subjective, something that can bé manipulated, embraced or rejected at whim. We are obsessed with the notion of personal happiness and in that regard, the author might or learning could perhaps make kids unhappy for a time... their butts and iearn something that they think is boring or hard? Absolutely not. But I think that the ability to persevere, to accomplish, to hard, is critical to having a happy, productive life in the long run, Self-contral, patience, and the ability to be kind to others are necessary life skills that don’t come naturally to peaple. They need to be taught, learned, They aren’t easy. They ‘don’t always feel good. Nonetheless, they are necessary. ; Olympic medal winning athletes don’t _ enjoy every aspect of the rigorous training and strict diets that they endure but they know that ‘it's a necessary part of achieving their goal. to put long hours into practicing and learning techniques; the amount of labor often deter- mines how wonderful their creation is. Anyone who raises a family and puts food on the,table ‘bring the most satisfaction are often what de- . mand the most work and sacrifice. Like itor hate it, life is about. discipline. tell them the rules to & game because without lines.4a0, do boil down to personal choice but there are and while. There are hard and fast rules of pro- ~ per conduct and we do need to teach them, try ‘ta-learn them and try to live them. is geared to educators, After all, 1 am one of. Most books are very helpful or, at least, | somewhal helpful but occasionally I read one’ on the back cover that sounded sa impossibly - ridiculous; I thought the author had to be, joking. “If the children in your class seem off answers according to someone else, you have. ‘onto learning if the Olof in thé rodm Were ~ be correct, enforcing a set system for behavior . Is it fun for kids or adulls to have to plant * learn even when it’s hard, especially when it’s * Musicians, artists, writers and craftsmen have - has to exercise discipline and the difficult task _of putting others first.The things.in life that ° We would be cheating our kids if we didn’t’ them they couldn’t really play. Life has guide-_ Some things are subjective and some things | also some things that are simply right, some, that are wrong, Amidst the gray exists black - Command performances The Pacific Northwest Music Festival kicks off Monday. For two full weeks, competitors from across the region strive for excellence in their discipline. By JENNIFER LANG HUNDREDS of young musicians, dancers, performers and singers converge on Terrace for the next two weeks, The Pacific Northwest Music Festival, now in its 36th year, is one of the largest multidiscipli- nary festivals in the March 26 to April 7, offers two solid weeks of performances at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre, the Evan- gelical Free Church, and the Ter- race Pentecostal Assembly. Com- petitions begin at 9 a.m. and con- tinue as late as 9 p.m. “A lot of people come cut to province, says presi- dent Kim Beaupre, Each year, the number of competi- iors seems to grow, Beaupre — esti- mates the scape of the festival has doubled over the past decade. “It just seems to | be huge these days.” There are more than 1,200 entrants this year, a number & that includes solo- { ists and group per- a formers of all ages, from age five to 25, and adult bands and. choirs. Last year, the festival hired 10 adjudicators to handle all the en- tries. “The goal.of the festival is to _ provide the students with an op- portunity to perform,” she says. They perform for their peers and the public, all while being judged by an adjudicator who de- termines how well they meet es- tablished performance criteria ‘for each discipline. “The standard in Terrace is very high,” Beaupre notes. ““We've got some yery excellent teachers.” _ She says it’s also a chance for the community to see the wealth of talent here. The event, running ii events. m gala is more show- the evening perfor- mances,” Beaupre says. Sitting in is free, but you must pur- chase tickets for the scholarship night competition and the Gala event that wraps up the festival. Adjudicators choose which performers will take the stage at both concluding While the biz, the scholarship competition empha- sizes excellence Kim Beaupre line, “If you're looking for top qual- ity, top calibre performances, go to scholarship night," advises Beaupre. within each discip- Scholarship performers have achieved top marks during the festival and have competed in at least three solo events. They compete in three categor- ies: junior (12 years of age and under), intermediate (13 to 145) and senior (16 to 25). That same night, the adjudica- tars choose three scholarship win- ners.. The junior scholarship is $250, the intermediate is ‘$500 and the senior is $1,000. Eleven competitors go on to the B.C. Festival of the Arts in Fort St. John May 29 to June I, VIOLIN COMPETITOR Dylan Powell,10, pitches his bow. A CLOSE-UP of 13-year-old pianist Nadia Quellet’s hands. Volunteer bureau readies for upcoming web launch By JENNIFER LANG ‘IT’S ONLY fitting that the Terrace Volunteer Bureau has a volunteer to thank for its upcoming debut on the digital stage. For the past few weeks, a 20-year-old Duncan, B.C., singer-songwriter named Julian Ruszel has been hard at work at a computer terminal located on the bureau's front desk. There, he’s been build- ing an ambitious web site that will put people in touch with the bureau's programs and services - as well as dozens of local and national agencies — at the click of a mouse. The site’s not ready to launch just yet, but the fledgiing web designer es- timates he’s completed about 60 per cent of the work, Still, he can see where the ‘possibilities of having a web presence, complete with links to the sites of other agencies in town and across Canada, could lead. “Hopefully, this will encourage some of the other agencies to get a web site and then we'd be linked,” he says. “That would be awesome,” User-friendly software Means you ‘don’t have to be an expert to design a basic Internet site any- more. But you still need someone to do slog away on the’ computer to do the work, The volunteer bureau approached the youth ser- vice corps, Katimavik,. to -see if any of the partici- pants currently. based in |. Terrace would be able to. JULIAN RUSZEL says he’s no computer whiz. But he does like computers. He has helped design and compile the volunteer bureau’s imminent web site. design a web site. “It’s the thing you have to do now,” bureau direc- tor Sonja Slana says. “To get information out to the community, you have to have a web site.” To Slana and the bur- eau’s referral coordinalor to be pretty easy,” he says. “Pm not a genius or anything.” His main challenge has been contacting other community agencies in Terrace in order to track down: the information , he needs for the bureau's web Ida Ne- site. delle, Once complete, their “{ don’t see how the volunteer young any town can do bureau's web site Katima- without a volun- will contain a vik work feer bureau.” wealth of infor- place- . mation about do- ment is a zens of other godsend, community enabling the non-profit agency to develop a web presence at little cost. “Julian’s been a great help," Slana smiles. Ruszel, a musician and singer-songwriter who plans to enrol in a college jazz program in Nanaimo next fall, admits he’s not a _ - computer eXpert.. - “T.have a.computer at home and. find computets - agencies in Terrace. “Tt will be information based,” Slana says. _ It’s a big job, and one Ruszel is handing over to someone else. . That’s because he and the other Katimavik patti- cipants who've spent: the past 11 weeks in Terrace “head: to their next’ host: community,” Steinbach, Manitoba, ~ where. ~ as they've done here — they'll work on community ser- vice projects before going to their final community, Mirabelle, Quebec. Here in Terrace, they’ ll be replaced by the next Katimavik group. Ruszel will be leaving with fond memories of Terrace, particularly its snowboarding opportuni- ties, “lve been to Whistler and I've been to Mount Washington (a ski hill. near Courtenay, B.C,),” the Vancouver Island pow- der hound says. “Shames was the most fun i've ever had snow- boarding.” He also gives his work placement with the bureau a four-star ratings “The atmosphere here - is reaily great,” he says, "L think it-is a very va- luable resoutce, [don’t see how any town can do with- outa ‘volunteer bureau,” Actors bound for play festival MARIANNE Brorup Weston and Alan Weston will be tak- ing a shart break from their duties with Skeena River Play- ers to participate in Theatre BC’s New Play Festival. The Westons have been selected ta play roles in two different new Canadian plays that get an intensive reworking over three days at the festival, taking place in Kam- loops this April. That means the pair will have to take a few days off from rehearsals of The Rez Sisters, presented by Skeena River Play- ess in Terrace and other northwest com- munities in May. Stage manager Tara Lewis will tem- porarily take over directing duties. Actor Alan West- on has been chosen to play artist Lawren Harris in a This Above All, Marlanne Brorup Weston, who's dir- ecting The Rez Sis- ters,.will have a role in She'll ta the Wars, set in 1943 during an air raid, Both plays won the Canadian Natio- nal Playwriting Competition, Those national winners are reworked at the festival by professional directors and playwrights,