Reflections as a Global Educator
“Your feet will bring you where your heart is”. Karen Marie Moning It’s been a long while since I felt so emotional in a concert that tears rolled down my face. It was in the final choral moment of “Ode to Joy '' at the finale of the 4th movement and it took me by… Continue reading I choose Europe
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.
‘Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions’ It certainly doesn’t need a blog post to make this statement clear and obvious to anyone who has children or thinks in the longer term. Or cares about the future even. But sometimes even the most obvious truisms need repeating from time to time. When… Continue reading Teachers are our precious assets.
“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
“The memories of childhood have no order and no end”. Dylan Thomas I seem to have spent a lot of time this year searching for hope and light. Looking for a better narrative to tell students that it will get better. To be able to tell my own children that there is a good future… Continue reading Light is stronger than darkness, even in darkness
“As we grow old, the beauty steals inwards”. Ralph Waldo Emerson “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth”. HL Mencken For Proust, it was the lime blossom tea and the madeline, that set off a stream of consciousness, reaching direct to the… Continue reading The need for decent people
“History is the antidote to hubris” David McCullough I have had a few moments in these last few weeks of the end of summer, to really spend time to think and reflect about the new academic year ahead. Sometimes, we are completely in the thick of the moment that we don’t stop and look up… Continue reading Standing in fear in the moment when we need to find courage.
“Remember then: there is only one time that is important – Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.” Leo Tolstoy This year seems less about time slipping by, and for many in our corner of Europe, it’s been more about time being frozen in… Continue reading Perception; Did we know we were happy when we were happy?
Don't it always seem to goThat you don't know what you got 'til it's goneJoni Mitchell “Big Yellow Taxi” There are a few well worn phrases, overused in education that exist in all staff workrooms & faculty lounges around the world such as “don’t smile until Christmas” or “when is the vacation?”. Perhaps the most… Continue reading Defining Global Britain in the 2020s? It is already here. In praise of the British Council
The first time I returned to the UK from my first ever visit abroad as a school boy, I made sure I stood on the ferry deck, in the rain and wind from the English Channel, to get my first glimpse of the White Cliffs of Dover. A symbol of “home” for anyone who calls… Continue reading “The return of the native”; reflections of an extraordinary academic year. (with apologies to Thomas Hardy)
Mail from Moldova 