Walking along Bexhill Seafront the other day, Paul said "I performed in the De La Warr Pavilion when I was a child." He reminisced about saying little poems at South Coast festivals "Get upon a chuff-chuff" he declaimed "Ours is a nice house, ours is". and so on. He won prizes for singing ("I never won gold" he said, a little sorrowfully) and later for making a speech about life on Mars.
In My Day
Alone, I think, among my siblings, as a child I competed in the local competitions, entirely in the verse-speaking class.
My first ever poem was recited at the age of four and went like this:"Goose, goose girl, come and mind your geese
They're making such a cackling we can't get any peace."
Over the next few years, I recited a range of poems. I had a clear voice, which elocution lessons made clearer, and a formidable memory, both attributes which I still possess. I was also pretty cute, which I certainly am not now.
In fact Mamma didn't think I was cute enough because she continually grumbled that I didn't win gold, not because I wasn't the best reciter in the contest, but because the regular winner was cuter than I.....
In these ways we shape our children's self-esteem.
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