Bachelor of Education Students Host Music Recital

I entered to drying coats, I left to drying eyes

After Danielle Richard and Jessica MacLean closed out the Bachelor of Education music recital with “Musical Theatre Boys,” I left and dug for a cigarette - whatever’d calm my nerves. I understand speed-walking out of St. James United Church a little after 8pm while fumbling with a lighter isn’t a good look. So, I decided against it. But after an hour straight with my hairs standing up, I needed a comedown.

The setting made sense. A cold and wet November 3, we huddled in the pews to keep us warm. Bunches of Education students mixed with family and friends. A few sniffles, mumbled chatter, jackets unzipping, awkward half-smiles to strangers.

“When’s it going to start? Isn’t it at 7?”

They appeared almost on cue, single file and well-dressed. Silence, a single sniff. Joseph Goodwin stood while the other three took their seats in the front row. Pianist sits, everyone’s silent. A stifled cough, “Oh jeez, I’m so sorry.” Silence again. Goodwin began.

Goodwin opened with Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga.” I’ve run out of adjectives for his baritone or the control he has over it. Jaw-dropping’s cliche, but accurate. And I sat full mouth mouth-breathing, everything about his work with the National Youth Choir of Canada and garnered acclaim made sense. As he hits notes beyond us, we just sit breathless.

Second, Lauren Siteman. Her frankness refreshes us. Siteman introduces her first piece simply, “It’s a love song.” Siteman’s talent too, is direct. Every note hit perfectly, every dynamic switched on a dime. I need to address something. Siteman, whether she knows it or not, sings honestly. I’m not sure how to describe it yet, but everything she sings I believe. It was a love song. Because for three minutes I somehow knew who and how she loved.

Third, Danielle Richard. In her second year of education, this was her first performance. Her voice control was absolutely terrifying. Goodwin and Siteman had each of us nodding, smiling, and gasping, but Richard had us looking around at one another with an awed, “Are you seeing this?” sort of face. 

Nothing surprises me about her background in musical theatre. The way she carries herself on a stage speaks for itself. I should note here as well that Danielle’s performance of “I’ll Be Here” brought a few people to tears. But not me though… absolutely not… not a chance. We’d always been told Danielle is incredible, then we heard her for ourselves and know it to be true.

Fourth, Jessica MacLean. Her stage presence is an extension of herself. Most of us cling onto some drab sense of self importance. Jess tosses all that trash out. She moves around the stage with intent one second, vulnerability the next. Whatever the piece calls for, she clicks into her performative nature and disappears. 

MacLean only returns after she’s sung the last lines of “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” once the applause begins, there she is. How she stays so expressive and fluid while hitting even the hardest notes perfectly, I’ll never understand.

A fifth member of the Education Recital, Stacia Findlay, was slated to perform but unfortunately pulled out due to an illness. Rumours are she’s an internationally renowned monster in her own right. I’m looking forward to her performance.

Another recital is in the works. Go see it. Whether it’s an email or poster, plan around the date you read. I entered to drying coats, I left to drying eyes.

Gender inequality in post-secondary and public education

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The 1970 Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada identified notable gender inequalities in post-secondary education systems. At that time, women made up just 38.6% of all university students. Today, however, the tides have changed – it is men that are the vast minority across undergraduate institutions nation-wide. Just as it was in 1970, this inequality is a serious issue, and one which deserves critical attention. But it just isn’t getting any.

There isn’t a fervent movement fighting for men’s rights as there was for women forty years ago, and because the education gap is an isolated issue of inequality, it tends to be lost amidst the sea of women’s rights issue which permeate the main-stream media. If do we not address the systemic issues in public education that are keeping men from universities, then the underclass of uneducated men that has formed in Canada and the United States will continue to grow.

In an age where the manufacturing sector has all but vanished, allowing such a demographic to develop is especially dangerous. I can only hope that this article will make you realize that gender equality is a two-sided coin and that it will finally begin to shed some light on the plight of young boys in the public education system.

A recent study by Statistics Canada researches, Marc Frenette and Klarka Zemen, set out to explain the gender gap in university participation. The authors noticed that, by age 15, males were lagging behind females in several observable performance metrics. Study habits and parental expectations were chief on the list. The study concluded that, if boys were to pull even with girls in these areas, the gender gap would close by almost 80%.

According to Leonard Sax, an education expert and published scholar, there are a few systemic issues in public education which, if removed, would quickly allow for improvement. Sax specifically mentions the overreliance on medication for attention deficit disorders and an unnecessarily strict emphasis on kindergarten math and reading requirements. Perhaps if, at a younger age, boys were being encouraged to learn through activity rather than being dosed with Ritalin pills, they would enjoy being at school a little more. Of course, as Sax points out, the soft sexism of low expectations is also an issue. The only way to raise parental expectations is to combat the misguided attitude that girls are naturally smarter than boys (an attitude that has grown over the last few decades).

Unfortunately, Sax’s message has been undermined by those who misrepresent the gender equality movement and assume that to be “pro-boy” is to be “anti-girl”. These people propagate the dangerous illusion that women are unequivocally oppressed and men are always the oppressors. I can only hope that, in the end, critical thought and objectivity will win out against these misguided individuals.