Hiya,

It’s Saturday morning and we are all recovering from a full week…. that’s means we didn’t have any holidays so the work/school week was actually 5 days. They love their “public holidays” here!

Today’s entry is text only. We will consider this entry as an homage to Bess’ journalistic accomplishments. Sorry, pictures will have to wait until next time. The weather is changing and I can feel more self absorbed blogging will be on the rise as we move our therapy indoors.

Summer seems to have ended. So sad too see it go. We now run the “heat pump” and don’t live with every available window/door continually open. I will try to romanticise the temperature reduction as best I can but admit I was really getting used to a high of 20 degrees…. Celsius. Oh, REI and Cancun Mexican food how we miss you.

Anyhoo, we are all moving slowly since we went to the local skating rink last night to experiment with in-line and traditional roller skates. If Bess had been there we would’ve formally categorised it as a hoot! Due to our incredible aptitudes for extreme sports… and mostly by luck, we escaped without fractures or head injury. The made for TV documentary will be released soon. Look for it.

And just for your personal enrichment, here’s Kai’s recent school assignment in persuasive writing. The subject to be argued was the relevance and utility of competition in education. Not sure how the topic was chosen but it apparently struck a chord with the teacher. In Kai’s first draft he mentioned things like class rank, GPA, college entrance scores, etc as a part of his contention that a competitive environment fostered the right atmosphere for optimised learning.

The teacher wrote on the draft, “that is SO American…”. Kai didn’t know what to make of this but found out later that in NZ schools there his no such thing as numerical grades, GPA, ranking, and the like. There is only: not achieved, achieved, achieved with merit, and achieved with excellence. As expected, we got a kick out of that discovery. Kai subsequently amended it to reflect the Commonwealth approach.

Much like the rest of our daily experiences, the continual unlearning of long held beliefs about education, health care, et al has required some mental flexibility that is sometimes hard to come by. So on that note, enjoy the following expansive treatise by Kai Kilo8 Kidd, literist extraordinaire!

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Competition In Schools.

Kai Kidd, Year 11 New Plymouth Boys High

“The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.” – Howard Cosell

As the above quote describes, competition can be a very rewarding investment of one’s time and energy. The natural world is rife with organisms vying for the ingredients needed to survive and replicate. Even though we have traits of complex beings, we are not above such challenges. The human competitive arena is much more contrived but is nonetheless a rivalry of sorts. In the academic realm, a competitive environment fosters an objective valuation of achievement. It also stimulates students to strive for superior grades and promotes an individual drive for success. We will explore these reasons and supporting evidence for each in this essay.

The cardinal value of competition is that it acts as a vehicle to stratify student progress and mastery. In the absence of scholastic competition, there is also no drive for excellence grades or merit grades. There is also little to no motivation to be accepted into high quality universities for a degree. Without a reason to study hard and score highly, students will not aim get into prestigious universities and might struggle to find a job later in life when competition is valued by the employer.

The next reason competition in schools is beneficial is that it creates a way to gauge student accomplishment; each student can compare themselves to class cohorts. In the absence of a method to measure academic progress, students frequently lose motivation and quit striving for greatness. In my own life, I know this is true. I was homeschooled for a few months and I learned it was not for me because I was missing motivation from my peers. After a few weeks, I stopped trying to impress my parents with new knowledge because I felt isolated and the work felt very tedious and pointless.

The last point is a more personal one. The point is how competition creates a very healthy and important motive for students to expect more of themselves and to always seek more for one’s being and potential. If no one around me is struggling or pushing themselves to their maximum standards, why should I? On the other hand, if my peers are striving for excellence, I will see them doing their best and it will push me to expect more of myself. In my experience, I always do better in academics and physical training if others are experiencing the same difficulties and obstacles as me. During my basketball training, I see my peers doing things I struggle to do, and I remind myself that we are all human and we are all capable of great things.

All of these reasons lead to the conclusion that competition in the academic environment is essential for student success and livelihood. A healthy rivalry shows a way for a student to examine his or her quality of work, and it creates a drive for high grades, it reinforces a strong relationship with one’s potential and one’s boundaries.

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…in a touch of irony, “achieved with excellence” awarded for a self proving hypothesis.

Greetings friends and family! Kai here…

Lately things have been going down in this country of the British commonwealth. It is after all, The Under Down Under.

Update from The New Plymouth Boys High School… Ive been training hard for basketball, because I really want to be on the team with my friends. I’m working on joining a mountain bike club on Thursdays. I’ve decided to switch out of woodwork and join “Art & Painting.” This is because I thought that it would be more creative. Maths and science is very doable and not stressful.

Last week a student at my school passed away from an aggressive bacterial infection called meningococcal disease. He went home on Friday and died on Saturday. We had an all school assembly on Monday and about 200 kids preformed the “Haka.” Here is a video of it in case you haven’t heard of it before: HERE

Although I did not know the student, I was still quite sad about a student my age passing away so suddenly.

The picture above was taken by me at my geography field trip when we hiked up the mountain and took samples for our project. It was an all day excursion and was incredibly fun and beautiful.

This above is a picture of me and a kid named Dominic, who I met at a tae kwon do tournament. He informed me about how I should start my martial arts up again, and gave me a few “dojos” to consider joining.

That’s all for now, check back next time!

We took part in a few events at the Taranaki Cycle Festival this past weekend. I joined in the Frocks on Bikes mystery ride to support women riding bikes for daily transportation, wearing a frock or dress, for example. It was hilarious. 17 of us rode about town, paraded through an antique bike exhibit, and finished off with champagne at an art gallery. I had gone mountain biking before with one of the gals (red dress and ferns in her helmet). She led me and 2 others on a “beginner” ride. “Come on, it’s got some tricky parts but give it a go!” Kiwis definitely blow past the intro level in most outdoor activities.

Des and Kai (and maybe me) are signing up for the next Velo Deus 20, a race on 20 inch wheel antique bikes. 4 to a team and you can trade off every 2 laps on a short loop course downtown. Crazy is an understatement. Do they do this in Austin?

On Saturday we happened upon the Extravaganza Fair. Gypsy meets music fair meets steampunk! Kai designed a silk screen hat and air brushed his arm with skulls. The traveling trailers are out of this world.

The NZ Cycle Fest also hosted a bike film night which was very similar to our Surf and Soul Cinema Series in Port Aransas. The founder was a cool guy who chose inspiring short films. Look up the Zenga family and their video, Tall Bikes Will Save the World. Here’s the link: https://vimeo.com/218705523

A quaint, retro bike exhibit was set up at East End skate park as well. There were a few “oohs and ahhs” and “I’d like to make that” from Kai and Des.

I had the first New Zealand birthday and my present to all of us was at night out to see the Michael Jackson History Show at the TSB theater downtown. The star gave it everything he had and I feel like I witnessed the real deal!

As you can see, New Plymouth has a great vibe. Hee Hee!