On How Technology Made Us What We Are
This chat between Tom Chatfield and and Tom Hodgkinson was interesting, I thought. I’d no idea that when the Incans – and, from some quick browsing, other Mesomerican peoples – invented the wheel, they saw it as something for children. It stayed a plaything because their lives were dominated by mountainous slopes.
Dulwich Street Art
I love the idea of the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery. In 2011, Ingrid Beazley who was working at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, met Stik, the street artist, and showed him round the permanent collection. From there, the project was born and fairly soon walls across Dulwich and Peckham were given modern interpretations of old masters. Today,...
Pupil Curiosity
Prof Coe’s 2013 talk has aged well, I think. I’d forgotten this prompt, but it’s a lovely way of framing the challenge of teaching curiosity. “If your pupils knew the answer, but didn’t know why, how many would care?” Improving Education – A triumph of hope over experience from CEM on Vimeo.
Walking The Canterbury Tales: The Pilgrims Way
For my “lockdown holiday” I thought I’d walk the route of the Canterbury Tales. I assumed, wrongly, that there would be loads about it online. There isn’t. There are some great resources, but it took me longer than I’d thought to find a GPX map for my phone so this is a quick tying together […]
What Shaolin Monks Taught Me About Teaching
The best teacher training I have ever had was from a 34th Generation Shaolin Warrior Monk, Shi Yan Jun. Over the years, I have had in-school training such as INSETs, after-school twilight sessions, teacher observations (given and received). I have had off-site training run by battle-hardened professionals but sweetened with coffee,...
Even idleness is eager now
From George Eliot’s Adam Bede [via the brilliant Brain Pickings] Surely all other leisure is hurry compared with a sunny walk through the fields from “afternoon church”… Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for mankind. Do not believe them: it only creates a vacuum...
Evelyn Waugh’s Letter “This is quite true”
This was read out again last night at Letters Live, this time just as brilliantly by Tom Hollander.
The School Side of the Brain
“When it comes to thinking about learning, nearly all of us have a School side of the brain, which thinks that school is the only natural way to learn, and a personal side that knows perfectly well that it’s not.”
Wald and Where The Bullets Aren’t
Love this, from Fast Company: In WWII, Allied bombers were key to strategic attacks, yet these lumbering giants were constantly shot down over enemy territory. The planes needed more armor, but armor is heavy. So extra plating could only go where the planes were being shot the most. A man named Abraham Wald, a Jewish […]
Digby Court – Please Help
This was forwarded to me by a friend of Kate’s. I’ve signed up and if you could spare a moment to read the following, I hope you might too. Hello lovely friends I write to ask for your support for a cause that is very close to the Parkinson family’s heart. This email is a […]