Cars In My Neighborhood - Rules and Regulations

Hey! So it's been a LONG time since I wrote a new entry - so much to write about, but so little time! As I prepare to write and reflect more, I thought I could entertain you all with pictures of cars from my neighborhood.

What I find so interesting about car usage here in Hangzhou is that there is so little regard for others; for example, cars have the right of way, they find ANY place to park, and drivers honk crazily even when it's clear that the next person needs to wait for traffic to move on ahead. Ok, others may tell me to chill out and proceed to bring up issues in India - I need to witness it for myself someday, but at the very least, here are some pictures of (parked) cars I've seen around Hangzhou along with sardonic/exasperated captions:

Yes, it's parked!

Nice parking job.

You kinda just have to scoot around these two.

Look closely - this is a one way street...

That's pretty smart, actually. (This guy's fine)

The roads are already narrow in this neighborhood - thanks for making it even narrower!

Thanks for parking in the middle of the sidewalk - how did you even get here in the first place?

This can't be good for either car (*cringe)...but I guess they're trying to be polite.

According to my aunt from Hangzhou, these people are usually ticketed (when police officers are actually doing their job) but the fines are so low that people usually don't care about it and end up "facing the consequences." It's like paying for parking, I guess.

Now, I'm thinking about how justice/security/fines are dealt with in the United States: I know some people easily and readily despise police officers, but, when fines are so high and when officers are so strict, does it not communicate to people that they ought to stay in line and regulate themselves in order to create a safe environment for others? Does it not feel...safer, in most parts of the US, or at least less chaotic?

Could this be carried into the classroom? Absolutely: clear structures and rules are necessary, while not letting anything slide by; when the teacher (leader/officer) is strict and CONSISTENTLY addresses issues as they come up, it allows students (community members) to know what the expectations are. It changes their ATTITUDE, thus affecting how they function in the classroom (neighborhood).

Essentially, teachers design and dictate the functionality/flow of the classroom environment. It could be one that's chaotic: a "world" filled with empty threats and inconsistent standards leading to what I've witnessed here in Hangzhou with these cars. Or it could be secure: even if people own guns and could be nasty to each other, the general laws/rules (and how they're carried out) in many cities in the US allow community members to stay safe while going about their everyday lives. I imagine there are many other kinds of "communities" out there, led by all sorts of different leaders with different motivations. Ok, I'm not saying that the US is perfect - it's far from it. But for the sake of this conversation, I think you get what I mean.

So let's create safe spaces for our students (or kids, or followers, or whatever)! Be stricter, hold higher expectations, and don't be a tyrant, all while holding positive intentions :)

What Does It Mean to "Create" Music? (The Creative Process)

A few months ago, I got into a conversation with a colleague: s/he loves dancing to and playing music, but claims that when it comes to understanding music theory, s/he's clueless. My colleague also says that the creative process of music comes when one plays music. But, if one simply reads sheet music (follows the rules to the dot), is one really CREATING music?

Yet, from a composer's point of view, I came in thinking that creativity comes in the process of putting something together from the ground up (in which case, some knowledge of music theory is necessary). But a piece of sheet music is simply not music - someone has to play it to have it heard. Is there validity in piece of sheet music if it just sits there?

So what exactly does it mean to create music?

This makes me think of cooking as an analogy: a cook could follow a recipe and create a dish (the product) to be shared and enjoyed with others. With enough experience, one could eventually create recipes from scratch (there could DEFINITELY be young recipe writers!). This person is also like a music composer, with the recipe acting like the musical score for another cook/musician to follow (Composers aren't necessarily old/dead European males).

The recipe writer could also be a cook (the composer could also be a musician) - he learns more from DOING the cooking and playing in the kitchen (a composer learns more from actively playing and DOING music) - future compositional choices in cooking and music are based on things learned in the play process.

I would imagine, at some point, the recipe writer could delve into the chemical compositions, reactions, and processes that happen to the food while it is cooking and could create recipes based on theory, just like how a music composer could use musical theory as a basis for musical composition.

What does this imply?

Picture this: when young kids are told to just "cook" without any instructions and guidance, we will probably be left with a mess with all sorts of mistakes here and there leading to an inedible product (half-cooked, filled with egg-shells, etc.). In other words, a beginner initially learns certain techniques from a guide (maybe a parent in the "child cook" scenario. How about a music teacher?) in order to figure out the process of putting something together (a dish, a musical piece, a sentence, a science report, etc.).

Personally speaking: I'm beginning to realize that learning music is not just about learning theory. Kids (especially elementary students) NEED instructions and structures in the context of tangible experiences in order to be successful. They learn music by initially DOING music: singing folksongs, playing musical games, playing known songs on instruments, etc. They eventually ABSORB enough musical experiences and become comfortable enough to play more on their own, riffing and adding variations onto their prior experiences (similar to how a cook who originally follows a recipe eventually adds his own variations to a recipe).

It's a hand-in-hand process: as the music teacher, I ought to provide my elementary students with tangible musical experiences that also play into developing one's ownership of musical decisions. And they should have fun while doing so!