Eep! I was able to check a number of items off the todo list today - got through three chapters of Geometry notes and a chapter of history notes. If I can finish chapter 28 by Monday, I will be on schedule . . . not like I was ever really behind schedule, but being on schedule for the second set of notes is good. That exam is approaching sooner than I'd like it to, and I'm becoming more concerned about the teacher's pacing. We do, for the most part, get a good understanding of things - but taking it this slow can only go for so long. Then again, I did hear from someone that the cold war etc. (so chapters 27 - 32) were covered in a week, on average. Which will be annoying. After Monday - depending on when the unit 5 test will be - I'll try to put together a review plan for the rest of the year. March, April - then it's time for the exam.
It feels like Sunday - I suppose I'm just ready for vacation to be over. And I am. I'm looking forward to having a schedule that can't be avoided, and interacting with people who aren't directly related to me. Getting back into 'the swing of things' - only to be disrupted by course selections and standardized testing and whatever else they want to throw at us. And then voila! School's over.
I didn't practice as much as I'd like to have practiced today. But I practiced; I even used the metronome (and fixed one of the tempo markings . . . dotted quarter = 180 was way too fast). Really not happy with the prelude. I suppose I just have to listen a lot more and try to adapt that recording into my interpretation. I'll be glad to get more information about the audition, just so I can figure out exactly what I'll end up playing. Who knows; maybe I won't have to play the prelude for the audition. Then again, it'd make more sense to play a part of each piece. That'd be a sample.
The chapter on the Cold War left a really bad taste in my mouth; it never really touched on why people thought communism was bad. Or the author just sympathized with communists :). Yes, some of the reasons for hysteria were kind of valid, but it's still just . . . yeah. Communism was kind of the opposite of their democracy most dear, but that's not a reason to fight against it. Mucho ugh. Then again, what was the point of all the communist expansion? Was it just the Soviets trying to gain more territory (under the veil of communism), or was there something else at play? Might need to spend more time researching this; if the textbook was a work of fiction, as a reader, I'd be wondering what the author was doing. But I suppose that's my opinion on a lot of U S history. Take the Civil War. What was the point of it? No, I'm not being racist and saying that slavery should have continued to exist. It shouldn't. But at the same time, there were all of these pressures building up and they weren't even bothering with trying to resolve anything. They just placed bandages on everything - like with the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. Maybe even the Dred Scott decision. It declared some stuff unconstitutional and all, but it's still not a 'satisfying' conclusion on slavery.
But the North was never going to take no for an answer. But maybe they would have. Many still thought black people were inferior to white people; and even once they started the war, they had to draft people to fight in it. Sure, some were abolitionists, but they weren't about to fight for the black man. Fighting to preserve the Union? But drafts literally show that they didn't really support the war until it looked like they were going to win. So then why did the North declare war? I guess there was something to be said for Confeds firing at Fort Sumter (I think???), but at the same time, the North was just pushing the South until they got a response that satisfied them. Bullies.
I'm still curious as to if the issue of slavery could have been resolved without the Civil War. Or would it have just become more entrenched in the South? After all, the South regularly defended their honor and values. Even after the war - the war that they lost - they romanticize the "Lost Cause" and wanted to return to their antebellum ways. An elaborate code of chivalry and honor and all. Oh, and the profitability of cotton and cash crops. But mainly cotton. They didn't see the need to change their economy.
There's more to be said. A lot more. Perhaps tomorrow.
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