Reflections as a Global Educator
It’s not often I get to stroll across Westminster Bridge, umbrella in hand, on the 1st March, St David’s Day and wearing a Martisor for the start of Spring. The Houses of Parliament, the river Thames, Boudica and Big Ben, all familiar and famous. Especially familiar for me on that first Wednesday morning of March… Continue reading Internationalism over isolation; how to live in an age of stupid.
“In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life; it goes on” Robert Frost I’ve decided not to go all out with New Year’s resolutions for 2023. If the 2020s has taught us anything so far, it is the sheer unpredictability of our global society and almost the fear of it… Continue reading Life; it goes on
This week, my 2am thoughts have been replaced from the fear of the 9th May with "Hey ho, let's go" but at least it is nice for once to see social media on Moldova featuring, mostly, the success of the country getting through to the final of this weekend's Eurovision. I wonder if the UK… Continue reading Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming
“I see Earth! It is so beautiful” Yuri Gagarin. When the Puritans of England banned Christmas Day, theatre & dancing in the 1640s, a ballad appeared, half mocking, half fearful, that the World everyone once knew, was now upside down in Cromwell’s England. It’s alleged that this ballad was also played when Cornwallis surrendered to… Continue reading “The World turned upside down”
“Let us not return to what was normal but reach towards what is next.” Amanda Gorman The lesson of the 2020s so far has been not to look too far ahead, not to expect too much and to maybe stop using the word “normal” for the time being. The 2020s have also been about showing… Continue reading What comes next in 2022?
Time, time, time See what's become of me I am still thinking of those Alaskan bears from November, who were gorging on salmon from the rivers, getting ready for a longer winter sleep and hibernation until Spring. The glorious Autumn has given way to a much colder December in Chisinau and after I have seen… Continue reading “A hazy shade of Winter; was 2021 all bad?”
“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by so quick you hardly catch it going”. Tennessee Williams As the plane took off from Chisinau airport on a Saturday morning, to cross Europe and take me back to my family and the UK for the October break, my mind did take… Continue reading Making the moments matter
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” – Sylvia Plath Moldova celebrated its 30th anniversary as an independent country on the last weekend in August as it marked its declaration of independence from the collapsing USSR in 1991. It is always hard to… Continue reading “In search of lost treasure. A new academic year in an odd and uneven time”
“Control your own destiny or someone else will” Jack Welch I cannot remember a time when I have ever had such direct access to power. This Spring, I find on these rainy, sunshine mornings that I walk past and greet the Prime Minister of my adopted country as he leaves his building every morning. It… Continue reading If we “future proof” our schools, we control our destiny
We will lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our examplePresident Biden, inauguration speech at The Capitol, 20th January 2021. There have been many surreal moments over the last year in the lifespan of this pandemic. Sometimes, it feels as if we are barely holding on with our… Continue reading Perspective and agency for now; any potential paradigm shifts are for later.
Mail from Moldova 