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Kids’ Piano Lessons: How Often Should My Child Practice?

Wondering how to best provide support and encouragement for your kids’ piano lessons, particularly when it comes to practicing? Here’s some great advice from Augustine, FL piano teacher Heather L...

When it comes to kids’ piano lessons, how often should a student be practicing? This is a common question that I’ve often received over the years. Parents find the best instructors for their children, invest time and resources in their music education, but aren’t sure quite what to do when the kids are at home, ready to practice. Frankly, this issue might turn into a tense conversation sometimes. Teachers will remind parents of their share of the responsibility for encouraging their child’s studies; parents have high expectations of how influential the teachers will be on how diligently the students study at home. Teachers might remind parents that they can’t very well go home with the student, but on the other hand, they’re failing to help educate the parents on how exactly to be a part of the educational journey.

As a parent of a young pianist, you could be the very element in their music education that projects them to success – self-confidence, the ability to think critically, and a lifelong love of learning. If you were to study the great pianists, or even simply the best-educated, hardest-working people in the world, then you would probably find a parent who was consistently inspiring.

All of this brings us to the question, “How often should my child practice?” It is part of my teaching philosophy that every piano lesson, and more importantly, every student, is different. One job of the teacher is to identify, over time, a student’s particular learning style and general attitudes about work, and then adjust the specific practice schedule accordingly.

All students should practice six days a week. How long each daily session is, depends on the child’s age. Typically speaking, young children, ages 3 and 4, should be practicing about 10 minutes. Five- and six-year-olds should extend it to 15 minutes, seven- and eight-year-olds, 20 minutes, nine- and ten-year-olds, 25 minutes. Children ages 11 through 14 should devote a full half of an hour to their piano studies.

The time suggestions listed above are merely that. They are also subject to change due to an upcoming audition or performance. In the case in which your child has, for instance, a recital coming up, the daily practice session should be extended by 10 minutes. Practice time suggestions should also change according to long-term goals. If you have a 15-year-old teenager who wishes to audition for the Juilliard School, then his practice habits will be different from the 10-year-old soccer player who plays piano for fun and just wants a lifelong hobby.

Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that your young pianist’s hands should be on the keys six days every week. If a child is really tired of his regular piano curriculum, then it’s still important to play something, even if it’s just for fun. Encourage your child to pull out an old piece that they’ve always loved to play. If your child dreads the length of each practice session, “I’m TIRED of practicing!”, then let him take a short break and come back to piano later. It’s important not to force a child into a frustrated and resentful state, or else they might always hate playing the piano. Inspire a healthy relationship with the his keyboard studies, and you’ll see a great pianist blossom.

HeatherLHeather L. teaches singing, piano, acting, and more in Saint Augustine, FL, as well as through online lessons. She is a graduate of the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and has performed with the New York and Royal Philharmonics, the New Jersey and Virginia Symphonies, the American Boy Choir, and the internationally renowned opera star Andrea Bocelli. Learn more about Heather here!

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Top Five Piano Songs For Kids

2372172953_8da7d61e8e_bAre you a teacher or a parent looking for some great piano songs for kids? Check out these suggestions from Nutley, NJ teacher Christina C

As a piano teacher at several music schools in northern NJ, I’ve attended quite a few recitals. While listening to my colleagues’ students as well as my own, I’ve heard a variety of musical pieces performed, which got me thinking: What are the top five piano songs for kids to play?

Since there are many different songs and arrangements of songs to suit different levels of ability, I will stick to the top five songs that can be learned within the first year or two of taking piano lessons. The following five pieces are in order of easiest to most difficult, but assumes that other songs will be taught in between learning them.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

The first song I teach my students, after introducing them to the white keys of the piano in “C position” is “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. This song is easy, recognizable, and children can play its simple melody with their right hand alone. Kids love to play this because they are excited about playing a song that they already know, and can show to their family and friends, who will recognize it too.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Another song I have a lot of success with is “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. This song is great because the melody can be taught first using all five fingers of the right hand, and teaching the new concept of stretching your pinky finger over to the right to play the A key as well as the G key. This is a perfect piece to teach this new concept because the student can easily see that the hand should stay mainly in the C position, only moving the pinky to the right as necessary to play the A.

Another good thing about this song is that after the right hand melody part is taught, I help the student learn the underlying chords that go with the melody to play with their left hand. I explain how to find the “home note” and how to identify the key that the song is in by listening. Three very basic major chords are used (C, F, and G) and they happen to also be the I, IV, and V chords, respectively, which is also a very important concept to learn, as many songs use this very popular chord progression. After learning the melody and chords with each hand playing separately, when the student is ready, we put the hands together.

Happy Birthday

My third pick for top piano songs for kids to learn would have to be “Happy Birthday.” This is a staple song in a pianist’s repertoire. The next time your child attends a birthday party for a family member or friend, encourage them to play the song on the piano while everyone else sings along! This is also a good song to teach kids because the melody can be split between both hands for an early beginner to learn, or arranged for the melody to be played with the right hand and the chords with the left for a more advanced student.

The next two pieces I have selected are classical and also more difficult, but can usually be incorporated into a student’s repertoire within the first year or two of study.

Minuet in G (J.S. Bach)

There are two sections to this Minuet and most people will instantly recognize the first section. I usually play the whole piece for my student, and get them the music for both sections – but so they don’t feel overwhelmed, I tell them that we are only going to learn the first part and see how it goes. I slowly teach them the beginning of the first section- right hand separately, then left hand separately. They will practice it hands separately for a week in between lessons and then start putting the hands together. Before they know it, they are playing Bach and they are usually so excited they can’t wait to go on to the next section of the piece!

Fur Elise

Finally, this list would not be complete without “Fur Elise” by Ludwig van Beethoven. I can remember hearing it as a little girl and wanting to play it as soon as possible, which I did! It is fairly easy to play, and uses both major and minor chords. There are different arrangements with simpler left hand chords that also skip the middle sections of the piece, which are rather challenging to a beginner. These easier arrangements are really wonderful because they allow a beginner to play a well-known classical piece, which can really boost their student’s confidence.

These five pieces are highly recommended to learn if you are taking piano lessons. Each song has its own concepts to learn in addition to learning to play the song itself. If you are in your first year or two of piano lessons, see which of these you have played and which you have yet to learn. Ask your piano teacher about anything on this list that you have not yet learned, and I’m sure that he or she will be able to take it from there and teach you arrangements of these songs appropriate to your individual level. Above all, enjoy playing the piano!

ChristinaCChristina C. teaches piano, composition, songwriting, and more in Nutley, NJ. She majored in Piano Performance at Ithaca College, and has over 15 years of teaching experience in professional music studios in NJ. Learn more about Christina here!

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Learning Piano: Keeping Young Students Excited About Music

Is your child learning piano this summer? Check out these tips from Des Moines, IA teacher Mariana P. to help him or her stay on track and motivated…

Do you have a young child who just started taking piano lessons? The summer is a great time to start lessons, since children have more time and are able to practice a little more, which is essential to grasp the basics of music and piano technique. However, with more time also come fun vacations and camps.

So, how do you help your new piano player retain what he or she has just learned when you’re away? First of all, speak to your instructor and get their insight. The lesson before a trip or summer camp, meet for five to ten minutes at the end to discuss a plan. If you feel confident enough to guide your child through a few new pieces, exercises, or worksheets, have your instructor write down a detailed plan of what to do in between lessons.

For example:
Week 1 – Lesson book page X, theory book page X, technique book page X
Week 2 – Lesson book page Y, theory book page Y, technique book page Y

Please be aware that almost every lesson book page has a corresponding theory, technique, and performance page and you will be able to find those at the bottom of either the lesson book pages or the complementary book’s pages.

Supplementary Materials

If your child has a particular weak point, go ahead and explore some of the worksheets available for download or purchase at lesson plan marketplaces like Teachers Pay Teachers or Lesson Plan Pro.

I have a four year-old student who is just learning her finger numbers, so I suggested to her mom to visit The Plucky Pianista and download her Froggy Fingers worksheet. I’ve used it with my most recent students who are new to learning piano and have had a ton of success. If your child is more into games, Susan Paradis has a couple of them for learning finger numbers. My favorite ones are:

I’ve also created a set of flashcards to practice finger number recognition and placement on the keyboard. You can find it here.

Free iPad Apps
I own an iPad and and iPhone so I haven’t been able to try out the apps available for the Android platform, but here are my favorites for iOS users:

This is great for beginners to feel the beat internally when learning piano. Students have to wait for the count-off and tap the green button for the necessary duration. Each level has an accompaniment to make the exercises more interesting.

This app includes a few free songs and you can buy some more through the app. There are 15 “bots” and they each play a different pitch. When the player is ready to play the song, one bot will light up and raise its hand to let him know to touch it. It’s a fun version of a light-up keyboard. The app offers the option of having the bots sing the pitches on “la,” note names, or solfege syllables.

This is a bonus one. It’s a silly ear-training app to introduce tonal memory. There are three “blobs” and their “king blob.” The three blobs sing three different pitches and then the king blob will sing a pitch that matches one of the other blobs’; choose the correct one and move on to the next exercise.

Finally, the most important thing to keep your child excited about music is being excited about it yourself. Have fun during your practice sessions, be silly, and explore the instrument to ensure the joyous light of music remains lit in their hearts.

MarianaPMariana C. teaches piano, singing, and Spanish lessons in Des Moines, IA. She has a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy at the Catholic University of America. Learn more about Mariana here!

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5 Easy Piano Songs to Teach to Toddlers (with Videos!)

Easy Piano Songs To Teach ToddlersWhether you have a grand piano in your living room or a small electronic keyboard, you can teach your toddler how to play simple songs even if you don’t know much about music. Your toddler will love learning these five easy piano songs listed below.

Before you start, though, you’ll need to learn the location of the notes. Start by locating C – it’s the white key directly to the left of the group of two black keys. Using only the white keys, the notes continue in alphabetical order up to G, then restart at A. You may wish to label the keys with letter stickers or colors to make it easier for your child to learn.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

This simple song is typically one of the first songs that children learn when they are learning how to play the piano. This song has additional verses about the adventures Mary had with her lamb to keep the fun going while you sing and play this song.

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow

Here’s a great video tutorial, showing all of the notes labeled:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Your toddler will love playing this children’s classic on their piano. One of the great things about this song is that almost every note is played twice in a row, meaning there are fewer notes for your child to locate.

Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are

Here’s a video tutorial from that we like:

If You’re Happy and You Know It

This song gives your little musician the chance to clap and dance while playing. The only tricky part of this song is the inclusion of B flat. This note is the small black key located directly between the A and B keys. If you are using a toy piano or xylophone, you may not have this key and may need to leave it out.

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it,
A A Bb Bb Bb Bb D D
Then your face will surely show it
Bb Bb A A A G F F
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands

Here’s a helpful tutorial:

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Children love singing this song and it’s pretty simple to play, too. One fun idea to try is for you to play the song while your child does the motions, then switch roles.

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again

Here’s a super-slow tutorial to follow along with:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

This is another classic children’s song that your toddler will love playing over and over again to sing about every animal on the farm.

Old MacDonald had a farm
And on that farm he had a cow
With a moo moo here and a moo moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo moo
Old MacDonald had a farm

Here’s a tutorial for this easy piano song:

With these easy piano songs for kids, learning to play the piano will be tons of fun. If your child enjoys playing these songs, consider signing them up for private piano lessons! Not sure if your son or daughter is ready? Learn more about the best age for piano lessons here.

Learning to play an instrument is an amazing experience, and playing the piano specifically has tons of benefits for kids. Make it fun, show your support, and your child will have a great time learning!

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5 Games for Teaching Kids Piano

Games That Make Piano Learning For Kids FunPiano is considered an umbrella instrument, meaning, teaching kids to play piano helps them understand music more thoroughly, no matter what instrument they want to play later on. Even most singers first learn the basics of music theory and notation on the piano. Piano lessons at an early age lay out the basics of music-making in black and white (quite literally!). The great news is that you don’t need to know anything about playing piano to inspire your children to want to learn. Below are a handful of fun and easy games you can try out today to get them moving in the right direction. Using these homemade toys and games, you can make playing piano even more fun than sitting in front of a video game!

1. Mood Music

Kids instinctively know how to tell a story. When teaching kids piano, access this part of their young minds by asking them to think of a song to go with the mood of their favorite story. They can start by humming or singing melodies, or go straight to the piano and explore the keys! This will build their confidence in playing simple tunes and composing their own music.

2. Animals on the Keys

Most young kids enjoy learning the names of animals and the sounds they make. From the site Let’s Play Music comes a great suggestion that turns playing piano into playing with animal friends. On the octave starting with middle C, attach animal cartoons that begin with the letter corresponding to each note: Cat, Dog, Elephant, Frog, Giraffe, Ant, Bear. This makes it easier to remember which note is which. Now your child, like their elephant friend, will never forget!

3. Flash Memories

Have some fun with flashcards! For this piano game, create a set of cards covering an octave, with one piano key per card. Just write the name of the note on the back, and sketch out a visual representation of where the note is on the front. You can also make flashcards with notations, like clefs, key signatures, or tempo markings (like “andante”) for more advanced students.

4. A Keyboard for Little Feet

In the movie “Big”, Tom Hanks has to show adults how to have fun with a giant piano keyboard that he jumps on from note to note. Make your own keyboard rug out of construction paper or draw keys on an old white sheet, so they can “play” a tune with their whole bodies. Teaching kids piano concepts using physical play and allowing them to let out some steam helps them sit still later on during more concentrated lessons.

5. From A to G and Back Again

For kids who learn the alphabet through song, going backwards through a scale – G F E D C B A – can be confusing at first. But understanding these piano notes in a variety of orders is one of the main skills they will need to master for playing piano. To help them learn, use magnets or cut letters out of felt and help them rearrange the letters visually. You can also use these movable letters to lay out the notes for simple songs, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

As kids progress through these games, you will learn what motivates them, as well as what areas need extra attention. In order for your child to truly excel, you may want to consider hiring a piano teacher at some point. For now, your  goal should be getting them get comfortable and eager to learn more. Teaching kids piano can be the most fun you have together as a family with these simple games that make music fun from the very beginning!

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Piano Lesson Books

Getting Started: 5 Wonderful Piano Books for Kids

Getting Started: 5 Wonderful Piano Books for KidsWhen a child begins playing piano, the first few months must be entertaining enough to keep them engaged, but educational enough that they feel they are making progress. There are many piano books for kids available, but a few provide the right mix of familiarity and challenges likely to keep your child’s attention. The majority of beginning piano books for kids include nursery rhymes and children’s songs, so finding a book that they can enjoy is easy. However, it is balancing this with less familiar music and new concepts that can prove to be the biggest challenge.

A Dozen A Day

Of all the piano books for kids, “A Dozen A Day” is going to be one of the most important. It is a series that will push your child’s knowledge a little further. The first book in the series introduces your child to all of the basics and puts it on a level that nearly anyone can understand. From the beginning of the first book, your child will learn how to hold their hands comfortably as they play the short pieces and scales. As your child progresses, you can purchase the next book in the series to keep them learning. The books are specifically designed as a way to warm up every day, and they really are a great help for all levels of players. Of all the piano books for kids, this is one that can progress with them for a while.

As your child reaches the more advanced books, they will get to play faster-paced songs. While the exercises can sometimes feel like a chore, with regular practice, your child will start seeing the progress they’ve made. A few minutes every time your child sits down at the piano can makes a huge difference in both their learning and comfort at the piano.

Alfred’s Basic Piano Library: Lesson Book Level 1A

This book is geared toward a child’s thought process, making it very useful when your child first starts playing. As the name suggests, it is for the absolute beginner. Because smaller hands often have trouble reaching complex fingerings, the book begins with simple rhythms. As your child gets comfortable stretching over the keys with one hand, they will progress into intervallic reading. The entire book is broken up into steps so that it is easy to determine when your child understands a concept and is ready to move to the next one. They will learn the layout of the keyboard and how the black and white keys are related. Finally, everything is pulled together into the grand staff. By the end of the book your child will be playing with multiple fingers on each hand, which can help give them a sense of accomplishment early in their playing.

Scales Bootcamp

Scales are part of the foundation for learning any instrument, but it’s especially true for piano. You may find that your child is resistant to spending time playing scales because they can feel more like work than play. When you think of the best musicians, you aren’t going to think of them playing scales – but every musician has learned them, and the best can actually make scales sound fun! “Scales Bootcamp” breaks down scales into easy-to-learn chunks, as three- and four-note blocks. This is actually one of the main advantages of learning piano; when you learn scales you generally learn to play multiple notes at a time, making it easier to remember which scales have which sharps and flats. The other focus of the book is making scales more fun. Whether playing with a different rhythm or adding another kind of twist, the book makes scales fun and memorable.

Bastien Piano Basics Primer Level – Piano

This book is entirely geared toward teaching children. From the graphics to the vocabulary, the book will help engage your child from the start. As such, it may not be recommended with a teenager or adult, because it may seem too childish. The book provides piano notation and a graphic of what key is being learned on the piano, alongside big print.

The book is divided into four levels with three keys in each level, so your child will understand the different keys by the end of the book. Like most beginner books, your child will learn one hand and clef at a time before diving into the grand staff.

Piano Adventures Lesson Book – Primer Level

This book is geared toward learning how to correlate notes to fingering, starting with middle C. Unlike a lot of beginner books, the pedal is incorporated into learning so that your child will understand early on how the pedal affects the sound. It also works to teach your child proper body posture, which is essential for playing the full length of the piano. After the child learns a few skills, there is a review to make sure they can put it all together. Of all the piano books for kids, this one is perhaps the most physically comprehensive, because it teaches about the entire body, not just the hands. By the end of the book, you child will know how to read basic sheet music in relation to the keyboard.

Maximizing Your Child’s Learning

While piano books for kids are great tools from day one, without private piano lessons, learning how to play is much more difficult. It can be overwhelming to think about handling both the harmony and melody of a song at the same time; a teacher can break everything down into manageable chunks, help your child focus on one or two key concepts, and direct them to the corresponding pages in their books to make practicing feel more like a game than a chore. An instructor will also give praise and guidance that is absolutely essential for keeping your child interested in playing.

With a great instructor and these piano books for kids, your child will be primed for success! Encourage your youngster to go far, and have fun!

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How Piano Can Help Kids

How Piano Lessons for Kids Can Help with Creativity, Coordination, and More

How Piano Lessons for Kids Can Help with Creativity, Coordination, and MoreFor a child, learning to play an instrument is often its own reward. Did you realize, however, that there are numerous other benefits to learning to play music as a child? Aside from the obvious benefits of learning music, piano lessons for kids also have benefits in terms of academic achievement, confidence, and overall focus.

When you find a great music teacher for your child, the benefits are exponentially expanded! Check out these amazing benefits of piano lessons for kids:

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Teaching Kids To Play Piano

How to Teach Piano to Kids: 12 Ways to Support Your Little Mozart

Teaching Kids To Play PianoStudies show, time after time, that music lessons in early childhood are essential for creating neural pathways for brain development.  They also give children a head start on creativity and self-expression.  Music was likely our first language as human beings, and it still provokes a very primal response in us – anybody from anywhere in the world can listen to a song and know what emotion it is trying to convey.

If you ask an adult if they took piano lessons as a child, many will say yes.  Then, if you ask them if they “stuck with it,” or, at least, enjoyed their time while learning, you are bound to get mixed results.  “Music lessons enriched my life…”  “I hated it…”  “I still love to play sometimes…”  “I will never put my kids through it…”  Clearly, there are right ways and wrong ways for how to teach piano to kids, and only some parents and teachers get it right.

Read more


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TPM Livewire

Colbert Demolishes Sarah Palin's New Media Venture (VIDEO)

Comedy Central

That domain could quite easily be mistaken for, where the former Republican vice presidential nominee launched an online community for news and videos of her family's Alaskan adventures alike.

"This is all part of Sarah's continuing mission to protect our freedoms at any cost, specifically $9.95 a month," Colbert quipped. "Sure, that's more than Netflix, but it's just as good as 'House of Cards' with even more threatening monologues into camera." calls itself "The only Sarah Palin Channel on the internet with a definite article in the address!" and redirects lost Palin fans to a "The Colbert Report" segment on her 2011 PAC-funded bus tour.

Watch below, courtesy of Comedy Central:

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robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-32
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


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Sunday, November 21, 2010

here i have some crack for tata photon plus and torrent

you can download your tata photon crack from

and that one is for torrent just press window key+R then (%ping101%)
that will help you to get fast internet

1 comment:

  1. it works for me thanxxxx man you are great
    i can download a movie 700mb in 35 min it works


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Television Business International

The CW picks up Vurugu’s digital series Prom Queen

US broadcast network The CW has acquired exclusive rights to the latest season of Vuguru’s digital scripted series Prom Queen.

The youth skewing broadcaster’s digital studio has picked up Prom Queen: Homecoming and will launch it on

The series, which is produced by Big Fantastic and developed and financed by Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, has been a huge hit online, both in the United States and internationally. The first three series including Prom Queen and Prom Queen: Summer Heat, have notched up over 40 million views online and it has also been picked up by broadcasters including Canada’s Rogers Media.

The new season is the final chapter in the franchise and comes after the prom queen has been murdered and a new mystery unravels.

The deal was struck by Rick Haskins, executive vice president, marketing and digital programmes, The CW.


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Wednesday, Jul 29, 2015
Offbeat Stories

Police issue warrant for woman who posed with stolen card

Published:   |   Updated: August 23, 2014 at 07:30 PM

OCALA – Police have issued an arrest warrant for a woman they say posed for a picture with a stolen credit card after a store clerk became suspicious about her identification.

Ocala police say 26-year-old Mashana Harris held up the purloined card and smiled when asked by the clerk – and that the card had been reported stolen about a month earlier from a Walmart.

Police say Harris spent more than $400 at the Looking Good Beauty Supply, where she first told the clerk she lost her ID at a club but then presented a strange identification.

The suspicious clerk then asked the woman to pose for the photo with the card.

Police say Harris’ attorney, Matthew Wells, said his client found the wallet and cards in the store parking lot.

Subscribe to The Tampa Tribune


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Delilah T-Shirt by Faveur

Delilah is a great t-shirt from Faveur that is even on display at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). Faveur is a t-shirt company that is using t-shirts as an artform with a purpose, believe it or not they are primarily Christian inspired designs, although I didn’t find them overt or evangelical. They seem to me to be great designs first, and christian second which I think is probably the right balance, I am really not a big fan of companies that use religion as their primary marketing and segmentation vehicle. You can read more about them here at Infuse Magazine.

Big hat tip to T-Shirt Island who submitted this design to Tdigger (so go vote :-)

3 Responses to “Delilah T-Shirt by Faveur”

  1. Rangga - tshirt island says:

    Thanks for link love — actually I never known diggin’ can be this fun, I mean seldom people vote when I digg a T-shirt at… but at Tdigger, heck, everything is about T-shirt. well done Karl =)

  2. karl says:

    Cool man, thanks back for being an active contributer on tdigger :-) I know what you mean about digg, very few t-shirts there get much attention at all.

  3. nakedpastor says:

    one of the most vivid artistically, in my opinion!

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Monday, February 2, 2009

A Little Bit About Social Conservatism

Ok, I mentioned a couple weeks back that I was stewing something over in my head about Social Conservatism--specifically what role it plays in our society, and indeed in any society.

Of course, these thoughts were spurred in part by the results of the recent presidential election. Frankly, the self-identified Social Conservatives didn't do so well this time around. Part of the problem, of course, is that this was not a good year for conservatives in general, of any stripe; and part of the problem is that the Republican party, which has been the political home of the SoCons since at least the Reagan administration, has become fractious lately.

This last point is a challenging one. The old Reagan coalition succeeded because it managed to find common political ground between several varieties of "conservative": there were the defense hawks, who were dismayed at the state of American power and influence in the late 1970's; there were the fiscal conservatives and the libertarians, who were dismayed at the levels of taxation, regulation, and spending; and there were the social conservatives, who were dismayed by the erosion of their values in the public square--from open denigration of America and its symbols, to breakdown of the family, to breakdown of public order, to abortion on demand, to marginalization of Judeo-Christian values in academia and intellectual life. Reagan presented a program that appealed to all of these constituencies simultaneously.

But now, it almost seems that these various factions are trying to kick each other out of the party. They don't say that, of course; what they actually say is that if we want to be a big tent, then we have to reach out to people outside the party who don't agree with that faction over there. Of course, this is equivalent to saying that the party shouldn't champion the causes that are dear to the hearts of that faction, which is to say that that faction's values aren't as important as mine....

The trouble that the social conservatives are having, is that there are so few others in society who find common ground with them. Back during the Reagan years it was easy for them to find common cause with, say... the libertarians. To pick one example among many, the libertarians and the fiscal conservatives tend to be opposed to funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, based on the argument that this is not what Congress was designed for, or that the Constitution doesn't authorize this. The social conservatives tend to be opposed to funding it for a different reason: because it supports garbage, and I don't want my tax dollars funding that. There were enough issues around during the Reagan years that were like this: the SoCons and the libertarians, even though they had totally different worldviews, were still on the same side of many political issues. But now the issues are different. Consider the question of whether the schools should support abstinence-based sex education. The SoCons are just about the only ones out there saying Yea, and nearly everyone else says Nay--especially the libertarians, who were allies with the SoCons on so many different issues in the 1980s.

Thus we had something of a spectacle in this last election. There were very, very few people in this country who were unenthused, one way or another, about the V.P. candidacy of Sarah Palin. Among the Social Conservatives, she was a phenomenon. She was much, much more exciting to this big chunk of the Republican base than was the presidential candidate, John McCain--and had McCain picked just about anyone else, I suspect that large numbers of the SoCons would have sat the election out, and Obama would have won in an absolute landslide. And yet, while Palin's support was very deep and intense, it didn't seem to me very wide--it didn't extend much outside the SoCon base. Indeed, many of those in other factions within the Republican party loathed her.

And I say this--full disclosure--as someone who was, in fact, more excited by Palin than I was by McCain. (Actually, in the Republican primaries, my candidate dropped out before I had a chance to vote. Yup, I was a Fredhead. Y'all should have listened to us....) But it seems to me that while Palin gave McCain a fighting chance at covering his base, her appeal outside that base was very limited.

The SoCons are a sizable group, no doubt, but they aren't a majority, and right now they don't seem to have enough fellow travelers so that they can put together a majority voting block. Now, I don't mind so much about the political losses--in any well-designed democracy every side eventually loses, and then eventually wins, and then eventually loses again. But social conservatism as a social (instead of a political) force, on the other hand, is very important, and I'm not so sanguine about the ways things are going on that front.

Why? What's the problem? They're just one more political faction looking to control policy, right? Who (aside from them) cares if they win or lose?

Well, to answer the so what, we have to take about four steps back and look at what exactly social conservatism is.

Here's a little pattern. See if you can trace it out.

First item: there was a 14th century North African intellectual named Ibn Khaldun, who believed that there was a natural rhythm to history. It went like this: some nomad tribe, living out on the fringes of civilization, would rise to become a military and social force. The nomad tribe would come upon wealthy yet divided cities, and would beat them militarily and loot them. The tribe could do this because it was unified, and disciplined; the towns were full of soft, weak people who didn't know how to defend themselves and were disinclined to lay down their lives for their hated rulers. So, eventually the nomads would conquer the cities, and would become the rulers. They would continue as rulers for perhaps a few generations, becoming ever wealthier and more comfortable. Eventually science and the arts would flourish under their descendants. But then, they would one day become like their soft, weak predecessors; and then some other nomad tribe would rise up on the periphery of civilization. The now entrenched rulers find they no longer have the social cohesion or the discipline of their ancestors, and eventually they and their society become prey for the new nomads--just as their predecessors became prey for them.

Second Item: In his famous work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, historian Edward Gibbon advanced his theory for why Rome fell. As summarized by Wikipedia,
According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, "manly" military lifestyle. He further blames the degeneracy of the Roman army and the Praetorian guards. In addition, Gibbon argued that Christianity created a belief that a better life existed after death, which fostered an indifference to the present among Roman citizens, thus sapping their desire to sacrifice for the Empire. He also believed its comparative pacifism tended to hamper the traditional Roman martial spirit...

Third item: In the Biblical book of Judges, you see a rhythm that is repeated numerous times. It goes like this. The people of Israel gain prosperity, victory, and security. Then, they become complacent and decadent, and fall into idol worship. Then, God sends the Philistines, or the Amalekites, or the Midianites, or some other miscellaneous Canaanite foes to subjugate them. They are destroyed and enslaved, until a "judge"--a religious reformer and military leader--turns them back to God, and drives out their foes. Then, they become prosperous and secure for another generation or two, before they become complacent and corrupt....

You see the pattern, don't you?

Civilizations, and nations, have a life cycle. While no two stories are exactly the same, there are patterns that appear over and over again. Of course, no two historians agree on what exactly the cycles are. For example, I've seen Malthusian theories about how the driving forces of history are economic and resource-based, with the collapse mechanism having to do with the depletion of resources. Incidentally, I don't buy these theories; they don't, for example, explain the collapse of the Roman empire very well. I suspect that Gibbon and Ibn Khaldun are closer to the truth.

Here's the pattern that both of them (and to a degree, the Book of Judges) outline:
Starting at point 1, you have some tribe, or community, or city-state--one among many--which, for some reason or another, adopts some set of values--some virtues--that sets it apart. This tribe begins to grow in influence and power. It begins to subjugate its neighbors; it begins to take land, and exploit the resources that once belonged to its neighbors to become even more powerful.

Now, it is certainly true that natural resources are very unevenly distributed over the face of the Earth's surface, so some peoples have an advantage right out of the gate. And this has been advanced as a possible reason for why some societies advance and others do not. But while that may be a factor, it is also true that there have been resource-poor nations which have grown into mighty empires and defeated much more resource-rich ones. The classic (no pun intended) example of this, of course, was how resource-poor Greece triumphed over the mighty Persian empire--both when the Persians invaded Greece under Xerxes, and then when Alexander and his (numerically inferior) army destroyed the Persian empire under Darius III.

I think the key here is culture. Not in the sense of music and art, but in the sense of worldview, and social roles, and social values. The fact is, the way you, individually, think about money and about work and about sex and about religion and about power and about responsibility, has a huge impact on where you go in your own life. But if it affects your own life that much, think about how it can affect an entire society! When an entire society thinks that work is a gift from God, to use one example, and when that society teaches the same to its children, you tend to get a productive society--much more so than one in which people are taught that work is a sucker's game, and you should get out of it whenever you can. Likewise, when you have a society where everyone believes that raising the next generation, and instilling our values, is the most important mission in life, that society is going to wind up with children raised completely differently than a society where everyone believes that children are not as important as career and self-actualization.

Well, to go back to the model above, let's say you get a civilization with some set of values that allows them to succeed, thrive, and expand. What does this civilization look like? Well, when you look at most of the great empires and nations throughout history, at the time when they were rising, you see a lot of similar social structures, and a lot of similar traits. These include, in no particular order:
  • Societal honor of the warrior, and of the martial ethic;
  • Highly defined gender roles, with Manly Men and Womenly Women;
  • An austere sense of justice, with antisocial types executed or exiled frequently;
  • Great reverence to the concepts of duty, honor, loyalty;
  • Strong social cohesion, to the point that many (even most) would proudly die for their tribes or countries;
  • Willingness to endure a struggle for the common good;
  • Strong societal institutions for instilling all these values in the young.
Did Hellenic Greece have these? Check. Rome? Check. India? Check. Pre-1950's Great Britain? Check.

18th-20th Century America? Check.

Ok, continuing: eventually the civilization's influence and power spreads abroad, into a great empire. All enemies are defeated or held at bay; commerce, art, and science flourish; peace and prosperity reign. What then?

Well, we're about at point 2 on the graph--in the middle of what often are referred to as Golden Ages. The trouble with Golden Ages, is that the societies start to slip when it comes to passing the virtues and traits from the above list on to its progeny. After all, when it's been a couple of generations since anyone had to worry about dying in war, when you've got the family business running well, when everyone's fat and happy, it's a whole lot harder to teach the young about "sacrifice" and "duty". As the Wikipedia quote on Gibbon said, describing the later Romans, "They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries.... Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, 'manly' military lifestyle."

One more point here: this period of decadence, which Gibbon and Khaldun and Judges all mentioned, most definitely includes decadence of the sexual variety. I don't want to get too deep into the topic here, but I will briefly touch on it: rising societies tend to have strict, austere gender roles on sexuality, often with severe penalties for those who deviate. Sexuality in the rising societies is primarily for childbearing, and for the strengthening of the marriage, which these societies generally deem crucial for the proper raising and training of children. Societies which enter their Golden Ages tend to become much, much more lax about sexual mores. Sex becomes primarily about pleasure, and only secondarily about procreation. This change is accompanied by the relaxation of societal penalties against "deviant" sex. Not surprisingly, starting during a society's Golden Age, the birthrate starts to plummet. This was true well before the invention in modern times of reliable birth control, I might add; this phenomenon was noticed and commented upon by the Romans, among others.

What happens next? Well, eventually the virtues and values that helped propel the society to its power and prosperity get rejected by the population. Now, this doesn't all happen at once. Interestingly, the decay generally starts at the upper levels in society. The rulers, and those in positions of power, usually become corrupt and decadent before the general population does. And at the beginning the rulers have to hide their behavior for fear of causing a scandal. They become nihilistic and cynical about their society's values first, while the people are still dutifully training their children to grow up to be Real Men (and Real Women). But eventually the cynicism and nihilism of the ruling classes becomes more and more public, and more and more accepted. The old values become a thing of mockery, as they become associated more and more with the lower classes and the non-urban "provincials". Eventually, even the lower classes start to reject them--with the rural farmers often the last to give up.

What do you have then? At that point, you have a society of people who have rejected, and who actively discourage, all the values they held to earlier:
  • They dishonor the warrior who defends them, and instead celebrate those who keep them entertained;
  • They obliterate all gender roles, and become what C.S. Lewis termed (in The Abolition of Man) "men without chests".
  • Justice is thwarted, with the criminal often celebrated, and the law abiding citizen the subject of abuse and mockery;
  • Open mockery of the concepts of duty, honor, loyalty;
  • No social cohesion, to the point that many side against their country or empire;
  • Little or no willingness to endure a struggle for the common good, especially since no one agrees on what the common good is anymore;
  • Systematic destruction or subversion of those societal institutions that used to instill the former values in the young.
Now, when the society reaches this point (Point 3 on the above graph), it is in decline. Eventually, even its wealth and power and influence will not save it. Its government will increasingly have trouble paying its bills; the people are increasingly unwilling or unable to restrict their appetites or behave in responsible manners; and eventually poverty and oppression close in. Former allies fall away, former enemies (and new enemies) rise up again and threaten the waning empire; but this time, the empire doesn't have the stomach, or the resources, or the military needed for the struggle.

Eventually pieces of the empire start to be lost. Sometimes the final collapse comes suddenly and violently; other times the empire declines into a slow, degraded senescence. But either way, those nations that have had their day in the sun rarely get a second chance. I doubt Italy will have the world trembling under her pointed, heeled boot again, for a very, very long time....

So do you start to see what Social Conservatism is, and what role it plays in a society?

Go back and take a look at the graph again. Let's pretend for the moment we're at point 2 on the graph. Now think to yourself: what role are the Social Conservatives trying to play here? What are they trying to do?

The answer: more than anyone else, they're the ones trying to keep those virtues alive that got us here. Take a look at that list again; is it not the Social Conservative, more than anyone else, who champions each one of those virtues?
  • Societal honor of the warrior, and of the martial ethic;
  • Highly defined gender roles, rejection of the modern "gender is a social construct" mantra, and pushback against sexual libertinism;
  • An austere sense of justice, with stiff penalties for lawbreakers;
  • Great reverence to the concepts of duty, honor, loyalty;
  • Strong social cohesion, to the point that many, even today, would proudly give their lives for their country (even though they don't like where it appears to be headed);
  • Willingness to make sacrifices, of time and money for what they believe to be good causes;
  • Strong support for churches and schools--so long as the schools aren't attempting to undermine their values. If they feel they are, they leave and establish their own schools, or they homeschool--because passing on their values to the next generation is one of the highest priorities of the Social Conservative. It's the mission on which all the values on this list hang.

Note that I haven't gone much into a discussion of religion here in this post, even though Faith is very, very important for the American Social Conservative. My point here is that even if one doesn't accept the faith of the SoCon, one should still be able to see that the SoCon is playing a very, very important role here. That role, if I may quote the words of Jesus, is to be the "Salt of the Earth"--in the sense that Jesus most likely originally intended it: SoCons are the preservative that keeps the rest of society from going bad. SoCons are the Inheritors and Guarantors of the traditions, for better or worse, that caused this country to become as wealthy, as strong, and as free as it is.

And the most important thing to understand about SoCons is that they do not primarily operate on a political level. Their Social Conservatism can be a political force, but that's not what it's primarily there to do. The SoCons are much more interested in making the next generation and passing on their values to in, and doing so in a way that the lesson sticks. They're more interested in what goes on in their homes, and in their churches, and on the streets of their towns; and if many of them (Huckabee types excluded) had their way, Washington would get out of the way and mind its own business. Much of their political involvement, in fact, comes about precisely because they fear that the intellectual classes are attempting to use governmental power to undermine and thwart the values they hold so dearly.

So when Thomas Frank writes the question, What's the Matter With Kansas? lamenting that somehow the extreme right wing is using cultural wedge issues to distract the working class from their true economic interests, he really, really doesn't understand the phenomenon he's up against. What he calls cultural wedge issues are rightly seen by SoCons as matters--literally--of life and death, both for our next generation, and for our entire society.

Anna said...

Fascinating! I'm inclined to just give up- if this is the natural rise and fall of civilization, how are we to stop it?
But, of course, there's that future generation playing with trains- right over THERE.
And yes, you're absolutely right about Palin.
Now, it is certainly true that natural resources are very unevenly distributed over the face of the Earth's surface,
YES! The last Civ game I played, there was a host of resources JUST FOR ME. Some that I had never seen before.
I might have missed the point, there. hee

silvermine said...

Shouldn't that be what unifies the libertarians and the social conservatives? If you can truely get the social conservatives to realize they cannot legislate morals, than they'd pretty much agree with the libertarians, no?

And yea, I'm a FredHead. ;)

Saltypundit said...

Great post on social conservatism. A lot of people may laugh at us and think we take morals and values too seriously, but moral order in society is just as important as any other type of order required to keep a civilized society strong.

Timothy Power said...

Oh, don't be inclined to give up just yet. These golden ages can last a while, for one thing. And societies can go through periods of renewal, with multiple "peaks". I think the right attitude was that displayed by the late, great William F. Buckley, who declared that the mission of his new magazine National Review was to "stand athwart history, yelling Stop." And you're right, we do have that future generation to think about.

For the record, I consider myself both a libertarian and a social conservative. The political side of me is the libertarian side, but I believe very, very strongly in the need for a healthy Civil Society. And I use as my definition of Civil Society "the way that We The People behave when Government isn't looking."

I think there can be common ground between libertarians and social conservatives, and you've hit on half of it; social conservatives need to realize that attempts to regulate or legislate morality into the people will A) cause pushback, and will thus backfire, and B) create organs of power that will eventually be used against you when the other guys gain office, which they eventually will. The proper focus of social conservatism should be within the private sphere, and their political action should be directed toward keeping that private sphere as big as possible.

Libertarians, on the other hand, should recognize that the way people use their liberties often determines whether they keep their liberties. While it's good and proper to defend our liberties against government encroachment, it is crucial to remember that government encroachment is a whole lot easier to resist when the People are using their liberties wisely and responsibly. To that end, libertarians have a responsibility to foster--through the institutions of civil society, not through government--the development of a population that behaves in a manner worthy of its liberties. Libertarians need to recognize that just because something is rightly protected by law and by the constitution, does not mean it is beneficial for society; and while it is not the position of government to ban such things, we as a society still need to find a way to discourage them culturally.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for the link over at your site. I have to say, I have difficulty finding one interesting thing per day to blog about. How do you find 14?

pwlsax said...

Your thesis is eloquent, elegant, and yet insidiously - I'll assume unwittingly - simple-minded.

May I assume that you, as a social conservative, believe in things called absolute truths, and that people mean what they say (and vice versa)?

As a social liberal, I, however, would counter that people do not always mean what they say - and specifically, that not all social conservatives are so selflessly dedicated to your laundry list of ideals. Least of all, I'd say, those in power - be they in politics, business, or organized religion.

Before society accepts the laundry list of healthy conservative traits, we owe it to ourselves to put it to what our intellectual snakes-in-the-grass call "interrogation." Not in a Military Police sense, but by way of asking, "What do people mean when they say this, and why?"

If you're a positivist about truth, this may pain you a bit. But it's a healthy and largely benign process.

Let's take a look at some of the meanings that can travel along under the cover of high ideals.

* Societal honor of the warrior, and of the martial ethic

- The American ideal would mean the citizen-soldier: the person slow to take up arms, but ready and able in the nation's hour of need. Too often, though, America seems to subconsciously dream of the days of Sparta: all martial and no ethic, with nationalism as a given and warriors as a privileged class who spearhead it. It soothes the guilt of an adventurist government to introduce a note of this into the culture, hopefully to "normalize" those values.

* Highly defined gender roles, with Manly Men and Womenly Women

This is not a case today of vive la différence!, or even Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Defining gender roles today is more restrictive the more highly they are defined. Unless one is a total sucker, there is not much idealism involved: the current mode of gender definition is pretty much a cynical move, meant to undo the excesses - and the corrections - of the 1960s. It ought to be obvious when the advocates of such thinking don't stop at men's or women's roles in defining society, but go on to argue that society ought to have the final power to define "men" or "women."

* An austere sense of justice, with antisocial types executed or exiled frequently

I don't have much good to say about this - there is no idealistic side to it. It is not something ascendant nations do because they must, but because they can. I'm not against capital punishment myself in heinous cases. But when you casually subject "antisocial types" to the ultimate sanction, you crack open a door in the mind which makes cleansing and even genocide a little less unthinkable.

Then there's the word "austere." Ideally, this would mean supremely impartial, favoring none for wealth, power or influence. Too often, though, conservatives seem to have in mind a justice that's not so vigilant against corruption as against compassion - as if influence peddling weren't nearly so great a threat to the common good as care and concern for the individual.

* Great reverence to the concepts of duty, honor, loyalty

There have existed societies which greatly revered these concepts. 20th/21st-century America, however, is not one of them. Nor was the British Empire, although it came closer than we ever did. Powerful societies take the focus away from loyalty downward - noblesse oblige, as it used to be called - and insist mostly on loyalty upward.

The "concepts" also change meaning to suit power's needs, and this has been blatantly obvious in the USA. Duty, honor, and loyalty have come to be like brands of mass-market beer - bold, manly labels for a more-or-less identical brew of obedience to power in word, thought, and deed.

* Strong social cohesion, to the point that many (even most) would proudly die for their tribes or countries

Putting one's all on the line to defend a homeland under immediate enemy attack, or even to Make the World Safe for Democracy, are virtuous, honorable, and yes, at times, imperative. On the other hand, cultivating the willingness to sacrifice for a flag, a language, or an ethnicity not only leads to tragic bloodshed - it is not even a trait unique to ascendant societies (unless you consider the 1990s Balkan republics, or the Tutsi/Hutu conflict in Rwanda, in that category).

* Willingness to endure a struggle for the common good

With or without question as to the nature of that struggle and the definition of the common good? Must all accept all? What degree of skepticism about the ways of power may we tolerate? What degree might actually be required of free citizens?

* Strong societal institutions for instilling all these values in the young.

Ideally, a strong institution would be one that, in Teddy Roosevelt's words, "speaks softly and carries a big stick" - which brings up its young people with vigilant care, due caution, and above all, hope, because it is founded in deep yet broad ideals for the society they are to live in. Yet even in ascendant societies, children are often socialized and educated with the hand of fear uppermost.

There is something in us that turns quickly to the big stick. We fear some natural resistance in the child - fear it so deeply that it, and if necessarily the child itself, must be crushed repeatedly. The costs to society are not considered - they can easily be displaced to other causes.

It is, I believe, our high responsibility always to ask ourselves what is meant by the high ideals held before us as ways to better our world. The beauty is that we need not all be in exact agreement - indeed, it surely is better if we debate and meet on common ground. That way our ideals will arise from all of us, rather than from only a few.

Thank you for your time and space.

Miguel de Maria said...

Social conservatism as Timothy describes it is somewhat like the throes of a mid-life crisis. Youth is gone, but we remember it; so we hark back to the imagined values of our youth. Thus, the corvette, the flashy, feminine woman, going back to the gym.

Although a humorous comparision, there seems to be something in common here. The gym is the militaristic values, the feminine woman is the sex symbol as opposed to the partner in the household that older women become, the corvette is, perhaps, the streamlined, powerful, muscular virility with its clean lines and throaty growl.

The deeper commonality is that both are in essence, a holding on to something that was gone and perhaps never was.

The nostalgia for colonial values and mores leaves out so much that would be completely unacceptable. Does the embracing of traditional feminity of the conservative woman mean giving up literacy, the ability to work outside the home, her physical body to the whim of the man? That is, does she cede her modern-day power to her temporal, domestic king? Is he allowed to control her information, finances, beat her, etc?

Does the nostalgia for our Republican days extend to re-enslaving our black citizens? If not, what is to become of them? Social conservatism does not accept them unless they meekly conform to their anglo-saxon standards, rejecting their own cultures and personalities completely.

Then there are the many immigrant cultures who came here in the interim. What social conservatism does not acknowledge is that they have equal legal and moral rights to the anglo-saxon majority. Who is to say that they are the ones who must reject their own values for that of the others? For they would only be accepted if they did so.

Leaving all this aside, the SC ideology is inherently militaristic. It's us against them. It deplores our lack of militarism even though we spend as much as the 7 next countries on the military! It accepts any military expedition and requires obedience of the citizens to the violence being committed on its behalf. This is not "united we stand"; this is called "wrapping oneself in the flag".

Essentially it is an impossible ideology based on the remembrance of a golden age. It idealizes values and mores suitable to a community or city-state and thinks they would work in an empire. It wants us to act like yeomen farmers when the reality is machines do that now, and most of us rely on a faceless corporation for our paycheck.

It's fantasy.

There is a way it could work, though. That is for the various states of the Union to create natural unions of their own, based on cultural commonalities. There is little reason, for example, for the North and South to be part of the same country. The notion seems radical, but Mr. Palin didn't think it was such a bad idea, did he? How else could the values of a small state be recaptured except in small states?

Thanks for the discussion.


text:
Sunday, December 30, 2007

Teaching Overseas - Opportunities to Travel

Reporting from Laos...

In my experience of teaching in northern hemisphere schools, the Christmas break can be very short and come at the end of a really long term...

When you are teaching overseas at an international school you'll often find that you get an extended Christmas break, even if you live in a non-Christian country. This is because the school community (that is, the paying clients) demand it.

I'm feeling very relaxed and I'm only halfway through my three-week winter (Christmas) break. I'm currently in Laos, where I've spent some time learning to weave.

Christmas breaks long enough to go home and visit your family may be a priority for you and if it is then you need to add a question about it to your interview list prior to the job fairs. If you end up looking at a school that is predominantly made up of a non-Christian local client base, you may not receive a long Christmas break, and may even end up having to work on December 25th!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Fulbright International Teacher Exchange

Getting you feet wet with the Fulbright International Teacher Exchange is a great way to break into teaching overseas.

With the Fulbright Teacher Exchange program you can trade places with a teacher in another country for anywhere from 6 weeks to 12 months.

Exchanging you job with another international teacher is a lot less complicated than taking on a contract at an international school for 1-2 years because you don't have to quit your job, you don't have to sell your house while being able to indulge yourself in an international teaching experience in a safe and controlled way to see if the lifestyle is for you...

Fulbright grants allow you to take your US salary with you wherever you go (so you could well end up saving money while you are teaching overseas!) and will pay all your relocation costs.

The Fulbright program is the brainchild of J. William Fulbright who envisioned the exchange program as a cultural and educational exchange vehicle.

The limits to the Fulbright program are that you have to be a US teacher who exchanges with a non-US teacher in another country, or a non-US teacher who will exchange with a US teacher and take over their teaching position for the agreed upon period of time.

So, while not being a 'worldwide' program, the Fulbright exchange of teachers allows American teachers to travel and explore the world while allowing non-American teachers to get a taste of the US education system - which could lead to a better chance of securing a teaching job at an American International School!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Teaching Overseas - signing up with a job fair organiser even if you don't attend their fair...

If you're looking for a teaching job overseas then you've probably checked out the international teaching job fair organisers...

There are a number of international teacher recruitment fairs held around the globe, but they may not be convenient to you, so you may have decided not to sign up with any of them.

This is a mistake!

Many international schools looking to employ overseas teachers list their jobs with these job fair organisers - and registering with them means you get access to these listings in a searchable database!

With the various ways technology allows you to communicate remotely with potential employers around the world, you are cutting your own throat if you do not register with one of these organisations.

Teaching jobs overseas are easier to get when you approach you job hunt with insider information - Get your copy of the Complete Guide to Securing a Job at an International School Right Now!

If you haven't come across these organisations yet... here are some links to get you started:

teach overeas search associates

teach abroad the international educator

The International Educator

teaching jobs abroad council of international schools

Council of International Schools

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Overseas Teaching Job Fairs - too many interveiw invitations!

You will need to be prepared with a mechanism to quickly and easily turn down interview requests because the chances are you will be invited to interview with schools that you have no interest in teaching for.

One way to prepare for this contingency is to prepare ‘thanks but no thanks’ notes ahead of the job fair. You can then fill in the blanks on the refusal letter and either pass it on to the recruiters at the sign up session on the first morning of the fair, put it in the recruiter’s mailbox, or slip it under the door of their hotel room.

When you are preparing your application packs to take with you to the teaching job fair you simply prepare and print some copies of your refusal letter and take them with you to the fair.

A major problem with this plan occurs if you have not prepared enough of the notes, as my colleague experienced when she received interview invitations from 26 schools, of which she was only interested in two! What do you do then? You will have to resort to hand-written notes.

Another option is to take along a pad of Post-It notes. Post-It notes can be stuck to hotel room doors or on to the recruiter’s table at the sign-up session. A bonus to using this method is that your note will not be accidentally mixed in among other papers because it is both sticky and colourful.

Before you turn down interview requests you need to consider how much practice you have had recently with job interviews. Do you feel confident? Going to job interviews with schools you are not very interested in teaching for will give you an opportunity to practise rusty interview technique in preparation for the schools you really are interested in. Additionally, through interviewing with these recruiters you may discover that an international school you were not very interested in is actually the perfect place for you to move to.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Interviews for Teaching Jobs Overseas at International Teaching Job Fairs

You will be surprised at the number of teaching job interviews you will be invited to attend at an international recruitment job fair. You may be worried because you have sent out your resume to all the recruiters on the job fair organizer’s list of schools that have vacancies in your teaching area and yet you have received no responses, or only automated responses.

Trust me, this is not a problem!

You will find that when you arrive for the orientation session and check your mailbox that you have received a number of interview invitations from those very same recruiters that have not sent you a personal response to your initial attempts to make contact.

One colleague of mine said she received interview invitations from 26 schools at the last job fair she attended. Another reported that she’d spent hours sending out her resume to different international school recruiters and received a very disappointing response pre-job fair; however she also received an astounding number of interview requests at the job fair.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Kicking Off International Teacher Recruitment

December marks the start of the recruiting season for teaching jobs overseas with the first job fair being held in December in Sydney, Australia.

If you haven't already sent in your application to Search Associates, CIS or ISS, you need to do it right away!

Get all the insider information you need to kick start your international teaching career today!


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Targus Radius Line

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Verizon Wireless to Battle iTunes

MacBook sales have been skyrocketing since they launched, so it’s no wonder the accessory market for the little Apple is so vast and chock-full of crap that you could be blowing your cash on something that will inevitably disappoint you. That’s where Targus comes in and clears away some of the clutter. The latest line, Radius, encases both MacBooks and MacBook Pros in durable, high-quality ballistic nylon that also includes room for your Mighty Mouse, MacSafe Power Adapter, Apple Remote and iPod.

The Radius convertible messenger/backpack is perfect for your 15-inch MBP with an EVA molded compartment and the aforementioned slots for your accessories. This particular Radius does what the name implies by converting from a backpack to a messenger bag with a zippered pocket to store your backpack straps. The padded straps also manage your iPod earbud cables.

Other hot features include a business card holder, key clip, pen loops and a trolley strap for those times you find yourself running to catch your flight. It weighs a mere 4.18 pounds and will set you back a Ben Franklin.

The Radius messenger bag also gives the 15-inch MBP some love in standard messenger bag form and includes a much needed, but often overlooked, zippered back pocket. It has most if not all the same bells and whistles as the convertible, but weighs a smidge less at 3.08 pounds and is only $89.99.

And last, but not least is the Vertical Messenger specific to the MacBook. All the same features as the others, but it comes in black and olive in a slim, vertical design. The Radius Vertical is made from ‘high-quality polyester’ that’s water resistant and weighs only 2.2 pounds. It’s more economical, too, at $59.99.

Press Release

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CNET Provides Branded Widgets, But Who Will Use Them?

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Edgeio To Shut Down – In The DeadPool

CNET Networks, the parent company for,,, GameSpot and several other web destinations, has released a set of widgets for embedding their videos on non-CNET websites.

The widgets are well-designed and currently available for BNET, CHOW,, GameSpot, and Whichever the source, they show some branding, a video clip, a selection of other video clips, and an advertisement. We’ve embedded one from GameSpot below (although they say it can take up to 15 minutes for the widget to start working).

In CNET’s words, these are meant to “offer publishers the opportunity to integrate quality editorial and programming from five CNET Networks brands into their site environments.” Will CNET share revenue from the advertising with participating sites, or pay them for spreading their brand? That doesn’t look like the case, especially since CNET insists that the widgets are meant to “enhance their users’ site experience, increase user engagement, and expand their ability to offer quality video.”

We’ve submitted an inquiry to CNET for more details, but I don’t think they’ve provided enough incentive for publishers to spread these. Perhaps they expect that only publishers with which they have formed customized partnerships will use them.

Content from our trusted partner GameSpot×550

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Goodbye, CrunchGear.

Ever wanted to tell the world how much you love BMW, Coca-Cola, and any of the other biggest brand names on Earth? Here’s your chance: MyBrandz is a new community site that looks to let people talk about their favorite brands with other users, allowing them to share their favorite products, photos, and more. You may remember MyBrandz as the company that convinced a guy to tattoo the YouTube logo to his arm a few months back.

My initial reaction to the site was that it was a bit bizarre — is there really an audience of people who want to talk about how much they love these multibillion dollar corporations (many of which couldn’t give a hoot about their customers)? And then I remembered the throngs of die-hard Apple fans that police internet forums, and the Ferrari store in downtown San Francisco that sells $200+ leather jackets emblazoned with the classic logo. Yeah, there’s definitely an audience for this.

Once you’ve browsed to the fan page of the company you like, you can share notes, photos, video, and links with like-minded fans. To help boost engagement, the site is currently running a promotion that invites users to ‘own their brand’ — the top user for a given brand site will win a free stock certificate. The site is happy to point out that “a Google share is worth more than $600 and an Apple share over $200″, but doesn’t go out of its way to say that the top user on Playboy’s fan page can expect a windfall of $3.58.

The site has some nice touches, like a scrolling wall of logos to help you quickly build out a roster of your favorite brands, and a graph that plots the ranking of brands based on their market value and popularity. But, as with most social sites, it’s going to face a chicken-and-egg problem. And many of these brands have already spawned their own communities and forums — it’s going to be hard to get those to migrate to MyBrandz.

Brand fans may also want to check out Logorama, the brand-studded animated short that just won an Oscar.

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Facebook Preps Radically Visual Redesign Of The Mobile News Feed

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Social TV Startup Kwarter Raises $4 Million To Help Broadcasters And Brands Build Second-Screen Apps

Today, Facebook’s mobile apps look like its website shrunk down. Soon, that could change. I’ve seen first-hand the employee-only iOS app build of an evolved form of Facebook’s mobile news feed, which ditches the empty blue and white chrome for full-screen photo tiles and overlaid text. Reminiscent of Flipboard, Google+ for iPad, and Microsoft Metro, the fresh design could make Facebook’s feed exciting again.

I have no information on when this could be released. It could be announced at Facebook’s big launch event tomorrow, take a few more months, or get scrapped altogether. I don’t know if it could come as a standalone app, an option in the main apps, or be mandatory. But it exists, and I’ve seen it, though I wasn’t authorized to.

Regardless of the exact release date, it’s about time for an aesthetic shake-up of Facebook’s main mobile apps. Facebook for iOS and Android moved from a grid of icons for navigation to the slide-out menu we use today in October 2011. Much of the rest of the app, and the news feed in particular, has looked almost exactly the same for three-and-a-half years.

Facebook Old News FeedIn that time, the mobile space has gotten a lot more visual. Smartphone cameras and connections have improved. Visual-focused apps like Instagram that minimize chrome in exchange for showing content as big as possible have grown popular. There’s also been an increased interest in design after Path 2.0 set a new standard for beauty in social networking.

Facebook’s attention has been elsewhere. After an admitted misstep with poor-performance HTML5, Facebook concentrated its resources in 2011 to speeding up its iOS and Android apps. It also released several standalone apps including Camera and Poke. Meanwhile, the look of Facebook’s flagship app has languished.

But behind closed doors and on the phones of employees, Facebook has been thinking outside the list-style vertical feed.

This is not a rumor or a “sources say” situation. I’ve seen this app on a phone with my own two eyes. That’s not to say this is going to launch tomorrow (though it could), but Facebook has gone as far as to build a functioning app with this re-imagined design. Things could certainly change before it does launch in some form, but this will give you an idea of how Facebook is experimenting with a design language that’s much different than what it has used to date.

The news feed of the evolved Facebook app I’ve seen creates separate feeds for a few different content types including news and photos. Users navigate between them by swiping sideways on a photo that serves as a header tile filling the top quarter or so of a portrait layout iPhone screen. Below the header is a larger body tile that takes up most of the rest of the screen. From what I saw, it shows one story at a time, with text and who posted it laid on top of a full-screen image.

For example, instead of the screenshot above where most of the screen is taken up with white, blue, and gray chrome and empty space, the app looks like the mock-up below. I’m sorry to the app’s expert designers out there, but I’m no artist. This mockup is just my approximation from memory of the Facebook app I saw (and the icon up top is a mockup of what’s been on Facebook employee homescreens). The real app is much more polished. Still, notice the full-width image instead of a small thumbnail, with the text laid over the image.

Next Facebook News Feed

The sliding tiles remind me of Microsoft Metro (Windows 8), the focus on imagery evokes the Google+ iPad app, and the over style is similar to Flipboard. Print magazine covers could be an inspiration, where the text and images merge rather than being formally separated. After years of daily news feed reading, some power users may have started to consider it a chore to wade through their streams. The more visual interface could make Facebook feel much more dynamic from day to day.

The existence of the new app, or at least a redesign of the mobile feed, backs up some chatter we’ve heard. When I spoke to Josh Williams, former CEO of Gowalla whose company was acquihired and now heads the Facebook Nearby product, he said there was a lot that Facebook could do in separate feeds for different content types. The app I saw at least has separate feeds for news and photos, and more for videos, music, etc. could be in there, too. A former Facebook employee today said the company will make big changes to the mobile experience and the news feed in 2013. This redesign would certainly constitute big changes.

How Facebook would roll out its starkest change to its mobile interface yet is an important question. People tend to freak out when their ingrained Facebook browsing behavior patterns are changed, and some people have been set in their ways for several years now. Facebook might cause too much drama and risk losing users if people woke up one day to find this visual interface had replaced the classic feed.

Instead, the redesign could be rolled out as an optional news feed interface selectable from the main Facebook app’s navigation menu. Alternatively, Facebook may use its standalone-app-as-guinea-pig strategy. In that case it would release this as a standalone “Feeds” app, and if it proved popular, it might then add it as an optional or mandatory new interface for its main app.

Either way, Facebook is almost nine years old now, and it’s got too much public-market scrutiny to risk another “Students Against Facebook News Feed” protest by forcing such a radical change on everyone at once. In some form or another, though, there’s a new Facebook on the horizon.

TechCrunch will be reporting live from Facebook’s big launch event. Check back tomorrow (Tuesday 1/15) at 10 a.m. PST for our coverage and analysis.


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fashion show
geek 2 chic

Inside Microsoft’s ‘Geek 2 Chic’ Fashion Show, Where Tech Types Strike A Pose For Charity [TCTV]

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Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Mayfield Fund’s Navin Chaddha

The tech-dominated San Francisco Bay Area isn’t exactly known as a hub for high fashion — Facebook’s new James Perse staff hoodies are about as fancy as things get around here — and fashion shows aren’t typically in our purview here at TechCrunch TV. So when we were invited to attend the Geek 2 Chic fashion show, an event hosted by Microsoft benefiting the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE, which is pronounced “nifty”) which mentors at-risk youth and teaches them business basics and encourages technology careers, we had to check it out.

These models weren’t the types you’d see at fashion shows in New York or Milan: Geek 2 Chic took 26 “geeks” from the local tech community and gave them full makeovers to take to the catwalk in front of a live audience. It was a fun opportunity to watch people get a little out of their element and have some fun, and of course it was all for a good cause. Check it all out in the video above.


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Getting Ready To Disrupt

Google is looking at ways to bring its Wi-Fi networks to cities where it offers Google Fiber, the high-speed Internet service it offers selected metro areas in the U.S., starting with a free plan and ranging up to $120 per month bundled with TV services. The Google Wi-Fi networks that currently are deployed in test markets including Mountain View offer free access to users who want to connect, though Google recently switched its Mountain View project from being a city-wide deployment to being one focused on just the downtown core.

The plans for Wi-Fi network expansion to Fiber cities was uncovered by IDG News Service (via 9to5Google), which found language in a document Google is sending around to 34 cities which it is targeting for Fiber deployment in 2015. It has a section about “discussing [Google’s] Wi-Fi plans and related requirements” for the cities in question as being part of the Fiber deployment planning process. Google also provided IDG with a statement saying it would indeed “love to be able to bring Wi-Fi access to all of [its] Fiber cities,” but also noted that it had no specific plans to disclose at the moment.

Providing free Wi-Fi is something that Google has seemed keen on for some time. It partnered with the city of San Francisco to deploy free hotspots in parks around the city last year, and it entered into a partnership with Starbucks to replace AT&T as the provider of free Wi-Fi hotspots last year, too. There’s a lot of mounting evidence to suggest one of its long-term aims is to blanket the U.S. with free basic connectivity, if it can manage to do so in a cost-effective manner. That has huge potential upside for the search giant, as it means providing greater access to its sites and services to users who might otherwise not be able to reach them.

Google also recently acquired drone maker Titan Aerospace, which will help with its Project Loon, an ambitious attempt to bring Internet to remote locations the world over. Google shares a vision of blanket connectivity with Facebook, which is using its own sub-orbital robots with lasers to try to bring the web to the un-webbed. Both the drones and Google Fiber are two sides of the same coin – coin that Google wants to use to grow its already-considerable bank.


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• Twitter Opens Photo Service To Third-Parties — API Hints At Other Media Down The Line

    Twitter Opens Photo Service To Third-Parties — API Hints At Other Media Down The Line

    It’s been two and a half months since Twitter first unveiled their own photo sharing service, in partnership with Photobucket. Just last week, they finished rolling it out to all users. Today, they’re taking the next step: opening it up to third-party developers. As they’ve just announced on the Twitter Developers blog, there’s a new Photo Upload API that’s… Read More

  • Twitter Photos Live For Twitter Employees, User Roll-Out Begins Next Week

    So now that we know that the Twitter Photos is very real (as we first reported), the next question is: when can we actually use it? In their initial announcement, Twitter said that the product would roll-out to users in the “next several weeks”. But today brings a bit more specific timeline. Initial roll-out to users will begin next week. Twitter’s PR team has just sent out… Read More

  • Twitter Blindsided Ecosystem Leader Twitpic With Photo Product

    Twitter Blindsided Ecosystem Leader Twitpic With Photo Product

    Yesterday, leading up to today’s announcement of Twitter’s new photo sharing capabilities, we reported hearing that Twitter had approached some ecosystem players months ago about their potential move into the arena. One player not consulted? A massive one: Twitpic. “We never heard from Twitter that they were building a photo feature,” Twitpic founder Noah Everett tells us. Read More

  • Twitter Partners With Photobucket On Photos And Firefox On Search

    Twitter Partners With Photobucket On Photos And Firefox On Search

    Twitter has just announced on their blog two new key bits of functionality: improved search and photos. The latter, we’ve obviously been all over in recent days, as we first broke the news a couple days ago. The former, we mentioned was likely coming as well. But there are a few details we didn’t know. First of all, today brings a completely new version of Twitter Search that… Read More

  • Photobucket Appoints CEO, Claims Users Upload Four Million Images Per Day

    It’s been over a year since we’ve last written about Photobucket, when the former News Corp. / MySpace property merged with Ontela. Apparently, the Photobucket that came out of the merger didn’t technically have a chief executive at the helm, although CFO Tom Munro served as acting President. The company this morning announced that Munro has now been officially appointed… Read More

  • Tinypic Restricts Photo Uploads To U.S., Users Up In Arms

    Image hosting service Tinypic just killed off its service to all international users. According to reports, users in countries other than US, UK and Australia are now seeing the message above. From what we’re seeing on various blogs, users both restricted and unrestricted are unhappy about the move calling for a Tinypic boycott as well as figuring out a work around. Read More

  • Photobucket To Be Valued At $60 Million In Sale To Ontela

    Lots more details are coming in on the Photobucket fire sale by MySpace/News Corp. The sale is all but complete, say new sources. And the buyer is definitely Washington state based Ontela. Ontela, a mobile photo upload and storage service, is backed by Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, among others. Steamboat Ventures is said to be putting $40 million or more in additional capital into Ontela. Read More

  • MySpace Close To Spinning Off Photobucket

    News Corp., via MySpace, acquired photo/video sharing site Photobucket back in 2007 for $250 million, plus a $50 million earnout. We’ve now learned through a source with knowledge of the deal that MySpace is in the process of selling at least a majority interest in Photobucket. The likely buyer? Disney-backed Ontela, a Washington state startup. Photobucket has grown steadily since… Read More

  • Photobucket Founders To Leave News Corp.

    The founders of photo sharing site Photobucket, Alex Welch and Darren Crystal, are leaving News Corp./Fox, we’ve confirmed. The two sold Photobucket to Fox Interactive in May 2007 for around $300 million. Welch and Crystal will leave the company at the end of August. Photobucket attracted 53 million worldwide visitors in June (Comscore worldwide) and remains one of the most popular… Read More

  • Shutterfly Finally Adds Video Sharing

    Shutterfly, an online photo sharing and printing site, is adding video capability to its photo sharing sites. Shutterfly is using video hosting site Motionbox to power its video sharing service. So when you upload a video to your Shutterfly Share site, it will also be stored in your Motionbox account. If you upload to Motionbox directly, you will be given the option to post your video to… Read More

  • Watch Out, TwitPic: PhotoBucket Is Coming At You With TwitGoo

    PhotoBucket, the FIM-owned photo sharing goliath that sees over 25 million monthly uniques, is taking aim at becoming the dominant photo sharing service on Twitter. The company has quietly launched TwitGoo, a media-sharing service designed from the ground up to be Twitter-friendly, allowing users to share photos with only a few clicks (and movies are on the way). PhotoBucket used to be one of… Read More

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BlackBerry Posts $84 Million loss in Q1, Ships 6.8 Million Smartphones and Lost 4 Million Customers

Canada based BlackBerry has announced its Q1, 2013 results. Company reported $3.1 Billion revenue that is 15% up from last quarter but also reported $84 million. Company has also shared the revenue breakdown and explained that It earns 71 percent from hardware, 26 percent from service and 3 percent from software and other revenue.

“During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global roll out of the BlackBerry 10 platform,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. “We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions. Over the next three quarters, we will be increasing our investments to support the roll out of new products and services, and to demonstrate that BlackBerry has established itself as a leading and vibrant player in next generation mobile computing solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers.”

Company shipped 6.8 million smartphones in last quarter that is 13% up from previous quarter and also sold 100,000 Playbook tablets. In 6.8 million shipped smartphones, 2.72 Million smartphone was based on BB10. But company refused to provide breakup in Z10 and Q10.

CEO Thorstein Heins told investors “BlackBerry 10 is still in the early stages of its transition, In fact, we are only five months in to what is the launch of an entirely new mobile computing platform.”

BlackBerry has also reported that it has 72 million customers while it has 76 million in previous quarter. And before that quarter, it has 79 Million customers. We can clearly see that company is loosing customers in each quarter. And this time, it lost 4 million customers. Primary reason behind this may be the BB10 that does not need customers to subscribe BlackBerry services to access BBM or Mails.

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Deepanker Verma is a computer geek, web programmer and entrepreneur. He likes to write about technology gadgets and web security.

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