Troy in Paris (Eiffel Tower in background)

Since returning (and before we left for that matter), I kept hearing, “How can you take your son out of school for that long, won’t he fall behind!?”. And the question always comes with some sense of panic – as if the parent asking the question truly believes the child will fall behind in life, never to recover. Ridiculous. Today our school systems are (IMHO) a pile of crap, with outdated curriculum being run by a system that motivates the teachers to give the kids more and more homework – to hopefully improve the grades – to make the system look better. But in the end, it is stripping away the most important thing – giving the kid an opportunity to develop some common sense and the ability to learn make decisions on their own. I believe the time we spend away with Troy in Europe is far better developmentally than if he would have stayed in class.

I might be wrong, but here are a couple of articles that Kay has clipped from the past few years that shed a deeper light on the subject. The first deals with the issue of homework. Right now Troy is in Grade 4 and he is spending HOURS and HOURS trying to memorize the different names and situations from Medieval times. That should come in handy some day… Or not? The second deals with how we are over protective of our kids and consequently stripping them of their ability to learn about risks and rewards.

This was my experience in school – I was board out of my mind for most of my time, being force fed statistical information on subjects that ultimately served no purpose in my life thus far (I’m turning 50 in 2009, perhaps the Medieval stuff might come in handy yet!?). A third article that I will include in a future ramble talks about how many C+ students (much more than you think) turn out to be our community leaders. Winston Churchill, Richard Branson, Bill Gates and many others were reportedly bored to tears in the school system too. But they all had curiosity and an appetite for risk – the very things that homework and our child protective society is squelching.
This quote rings true for me, “The A Students end up teaching the B students how to work for the C students.” MARKS DON’T MATTER.

Marks Don’t Matter from MyRareGuitars.com

Musikmesse 2008: Hand-Painted Guitar from Africa

And here is a picture of one of MANY Vintage Framus guitars that were on display with Vintage CARS:

Musikmesse 2008: Vintage Framus Guitar & Vintage Car

And here we are with Scott Hager from KARPATENHUND. Maybe next year he will come and join us!

Musikmesse 2008: Scott Hager from Karpatenhund

And here is Santino from POWER TRIO GROUP, one of the best guitar players I met all week. Check him out:

Musikmesse 2008: Santino Giambersio from Power Trio Group

And here is my new friend SPIROS Zafeiriadis from Greece. Proud owner of the EASTWOOD Tuxedo:

Musikmesse 2008: Spiros Zafeiriadis

More Messo at Musikmesse 2008 from MyRareGuitars.com

Here is Arne, owner of Taranaki Guitars in Germany and dealer for EASTWOOD Guitars:

Musikmesse 2008: Arne from Taranaki Guitars in Germany

Here is Bryan and Brian from St. Blues Guitars, which were also on display at the Taranaki booth. Nice to meet you guys:

Musikmesse 2008: Bryan and Brian from St. Blues Guitars

Here is Wendell Ferguson and John Newman manning the EASTWOOD booth. Wendell was dazzling the crowds with his finger picking:

Musikmesse 2008: Wendell Ferguson & John Newman

Our new AIRLINE TWIN TONE guitar got quite a workout at the show, and it was especially cool to see a couple of original SUPRO Dual Tones on display:

Musikmesse 2008: Original Vintage Supro Dual Tone Guitar

Our Eastwood Airline Twin Tone guitar is a tribute to the Supro Dual Tone guitar – one of which was used by Keith Richards:

Musikmesse 2008: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones with a vintage Supro Dual Tone guitar

Our ESTWOOD Twin Tone got plenty of interest at the show, and was purchased by this 14-year-old lad:

Musikmesse 2008: A future UK blues guitar legend?

…Whom I’m making the early prediction will be one of the next great British Blues Guitarist – except he is from Germany – and as I am away until the 28th, I don’t have his name and website address! One of the other EASTWOOD boys took it back to Canada! I’ll post an update with the info soon.

Check back in a couple of days, I have a bunch more pictures I am sifting through.

Frankfurt Musikmesse 2008 is a Hit! from MyRareGuitars.com