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First: A bit of food for thought, much needed for the coming revolution-
Before we start this timely, wise, spiritual, none-violent, loving and kind revolution for the common good, let us pause for a moment, think and reflect on some wonderful wisdom-heritage we are blessed to have, to guide and inspire us for the coming education revolution!
The playwright, T.S. Eliot posed the pertinent questions:
"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
Whilst, the poet, W. H. Davies, reminded us of what this life is all about:
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Then, the philosopher, Lao Tzu, told us what a values-led education may look like:
Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
And the economist E. F. Schumacher reminded us that the main problem with modern education is that it has abandoned the search for wisdom:
“All through school and university I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of many of the things that I most cared about and that seemed to me to be of the greatest possible importance to the conduct of my life.”
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Now is the Time to say NO to all those who have destroyed all that was once good in our education
‘It's time for a slow teaching revolution’
By Roy Peachey*
We have slow food, slow travel, even slow journalism.
Responding to the relentless 'McDonaldisation' of the world, the slow food movement reminds us of the value of locally produced, seasonal food, just as slow travel brings us back in contact with the local communities and local traditions we miss as we fly off in search of peak experiences.
In a 24-hour news era, slow journalism eschews the frenetic demands of the breaking story, revisiting and reflecting on old news and forgotten tragedies.
In almost every area of life, we are turning away from the restlessness of modernity towards another vision of the world, one where time is not a luxury but a resting place. We have reached a point where slowness is hardly counter-cultural. It’s almost a necessity.
But not in schools. Schools still march to the shrill demands of the bell. Courses are crammed into short half terms. Lessons have to be fast paced.
From the moment we step through the school gates to the time we pile out again a few short hours later, there must be activity, busyness, speed. Reflection is out. Breaks are monitored. Silence exists only to be filled.
But it needn’t be that way.
Let’s look at the world we and our students inhabit, the fast-paced, consumer-driven, connected world that has provoked the trend towards 'slow'.
According to Robert Colvile in his recent book, 'The Great Acceleration', "the cult of disruption in Silicon Valley, the ceaseless advance of technology and our own fundamental appetite for novelty and convenience have combined to speed up every aspect of daily life."
For Colvile, the speed of the modern world is not so much a problem as a fact. In fact, he goes further, arguing not only that acceleration is a good thing, but it is something we have actively chosen.
Others are less sanguine. In 'Alone Together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other', Sherry Turkle warns of the human cost of speed-driven technology, while in 'The Shallows: how the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember', Nicholas Carr argues that distraction and speed are essential to the working of the internet and inimical to human flourishing.
No one is immune from the problems that the pace of modern life presents. Distracted from distraction by distraction, students and teachers alike are beset by demands on their time, demands they are unable to ignore. Time, tide and exam classes wait for no man.
But not every class is an exam class. Not all schools have to follow the national curriculum. Now that A-level reform is underway, not every school year is lost. With the lower sixth form about to be untethered from public examinations, we have time to decide, as schools if not as individuals, what to do with our teaching time.
Take reading. We don’t give students the time they need to read. They turn to second-rate substitutes instead. Why read Plato when you can read a book about Plato? Why read 'Great Expectations' when you can find the plot on Wikipedia?
The answer, of course, is that what Plato wrote is much more interesting, much more dramatic and enjoyable, than any of the thousands of books that have been written about him. The answer is that reading 'Great Expectations' can be a life-changing experience in a way that flicking between Wikipedia and York Notes never will be.
Slow teaching means giving students time to read. It also means giving them time to think. How often do we demand immediate answers to our questions? Silence is more often uncomfortable than golden in the classroom.
Slow teaching also means resisting the temptation to wrap up every discussion. Plenary sessions are often unsubtle attempts to bring thinking to an end. But we needn’t be tied to arbitrary lesson lengths: slow teaching encourages us to work for as long as the topic demands.
We should reflect on whether our current structures create the type of schools and quality of work we want. I once met a friend, a published poet, on the last day of his holiday and the first day of mine. “How’s the poetry going?” I asked. “It’s been a good week,” he replied. “ I wrote three lines.” Would we accept that rate of return from our students?
The example of Charles Causley, who was a schoolteacher as well as a wonderful poet, suggests we should. He gave his pupils all year to write their poems because that’s how long poetry takes.
And not just poetry either. When the students of St Paul’s Convent School in Hong Kong built a plane it took them seven years. If teachers think big they also need to think long. Neither planes nor Rome were built in a day.
Slow teaching means giving students time to explore and time to learn. Time to explore the natural world and scientific concepts. Time to learn their tables and their poems. Time to read whole books. Time to go outside the curriculum and further into it.
Yet I can hear protests. All of this is slow-cooked pie in the sky. We live in the 21st century and speed is of the essence.
But we are not automata. We have time for slow teaching, just as we have time to read, think and be with our families. We do have a choice and that choice is to teach differently. We may not be able to cram as much information into each lesson as we did before but our lessons will be deeper, fuller, better.
It isn’t pace that makes lessons great. It’s knowledge, enthusiasm and humour.
Slow teaching isn’t a pipe dream. We know that it could work because it already does. Slow teaching, like slow cooking, is already here: in the home school movement; in Montessori schools; in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. And if they’re just names to you, then you might want to slow down and check them out.
There’s more to be said about slow teaching – of course there is – but there’s also time to say it. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we’re prepared to slow down, step back and join in.'
*Roy Peachey, head of higher education and careers Woldingham School
Read the original article which was first published in The Telegraph on 13 September 2016:
It's time for a slow teaching revolution
For more readings on this and other related topics please see:
Books to read:
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A Personal Tribute to my Mum, Nancy
By
Kamran
Read at
‘A Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving for the life of
Nancy Clifford'
14th December 1923- 17th August 2016
St. Thomas More Catholic Church,
Coventry,
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Good morning Father Day, and good morning Friends,
Mum was always calm, peaceful and reflective. Let me begin my tribute by wishing you all peace in all you do, in the form of a great Celtic blessing, which I am sure mum would have liked and approved of:
The Warmth of the sun to you
The Light of the moon to you
The Silver of the stars to you
The Breath of the wind to you
And the Peace of the Peace to you
Nancy and I: My Story
My Tribute to Nancy, my Mum; giving thanks for a wonderful friendship which began in a November day in 1973
With mum at her 90th Birthday Party
I very fondly remember that day in November 1973. A couple of years earlier, God looking after me, I had met a beautiful girl, called Annie, in Oxford, the girl that later on became my dear wife.
In November 1973 Annie had invited me to meet her parents and the rest of the family.
I was, I must admit, quite nervous. I was only 21 year old and except my landlady and a few of her friends in Oxford, I had not been to an “English Home” meeting English families.
And moreover, I was also quite hippyish at that time: Very long hair, bushy, hipster-like beard, holes in my blue jeans, wearing high hill boots and a Persian lamb sheepskin jacket with all sorts of trimmings!
Oh, my God I thought! What are they going to think when they see this boy from Iran! What have we got here? A boy from Mars! I thought they would be wondering and saying to themselves and perhaps to Annie too!
I must cut a very long story short: I had a hell of a good time. Annie’s mum and dad were just wonderful, and you know what, they even liked my sense of humour, jokes, and laughter, and it seems my looks too! Or at least I hoped they did!
Anyhow, my friends, Annie and I got married on 27 July 1974, and I not only got the best wife and a best friend for life, but I also got the best English mum and dad, I could have ever dreamt off.
I am very sorry that Terry was taken away from us, far too early. I, nonetheless, cherish our moments we had together, our travels in this country and in Canada, and much much more. I give thanks for his love and friendship.
I now give my utmost thanks and gratitude for the long, fruitful, meaningful, mother-and- the- son- like relationship that I was able to build and nurture with Nancy, my loving, Geordie, English mother.
Mum, as I had always called her, was an ocean of kindness and love.
Her kindness and compassion was so deep and so vast that even the blind could see and the deaf could hear.
She was always there for me, at good times and not very good times. At her presence I always felt calm, tranquillity and peace.
She gave so freely, never expecting anything in return. I give thanks for all the wonderful times we had together, too numerous to recall at this moment. This is a story for another day and another time.
I give thanks for the love of my life, my dearest friend, Annie, our sons Kevin and Paul and their beautiful fiancées; Sarah and Katie. I give thanks to my Sister-in-law, Jackie and my brother-in-law Gordon. We, too, have been together since that November day in 1973. Thank you for your love and friendship.
I also wish to give thanks to my extended English family, the Mcnaneys and Cliffords, some present in this room. Many thanks to all my friends from Coventry, some here today.
I am sure, knowing and loving you all, the way I do, must have made me a better person. For that I am grateful.
Nancy, my mum, I can only say I have lost a very dear and cherished friend and mentor. I will never forget her loving smile, warm words and positive attitudes towards me, regardless of who I was or what I became. I am praying in my own way for my mum and friend Nancy and I ask The Almighty to ensure her continuous love for me. God grant Nancy eternal rest; she was a lovely lady, who, if required, may still be a peacemaker in heaven.
In closing I wish to recite a favourite prayer which mum and I used to say many times together.
Nearly 20 years ago or so I was going through some challenging times in my life. Mum was always a great friend and listener. I used to go to her house and talk and talk. We always ended our talk with this wonderful and fitting prayer which I very much love to share with you:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Mum I loved you very much. Thank you me darling for everything. Words are not adequate to explain how much I owe to you.
Give my love to Dad, uncle Ger, uncle Kev, auntie Chris and auntie Mary; and auntie Mema.
Look for my Dad and brother, Keyvan, too. They, too, loved you very much.
My dad was very fond of Mrs. Clifford. He had much love and respect for her. I know this very well. Any time he saw me, or phoned me, one of his first questions was: ‘How is Mrs. Clifford?’ ‘Kamran, always look after her’; he used to say to me. And when he could not come to Coventry any more, he used to say, he misses going to the Fishymores with Mrs. Clifford and the rest of us.
Mum, I love you and I am going to miss you.
I hope I was good to you, worthy of all the love you gave me.
And as you used to say: Good night and God bless.
Love ever,
Kamran
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We live in a world with many complex problems, at all levels, local, regional and global. It is said thateducation is the key that opens the door to a more harmonious world.
The pertinent question is: What kind of education and learning would help us address these challenges and create a sustainable world and a better life for all? T.S. Eliot posed the question: "Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
Reflecting on the questions above, we are going to need an education system that respects planetary boundaries, that recognises the dependence of human well-being on social relations and fairness, and that the ultimate goal is human happiness and ecological sustainability, not merely growth of material consumption.
In short, we need to listen to our hearts, re-learn what we think we know, and encourage our children to think and behave differently, to live more in synch with Nature.
If we do this successfully we can become wiser as a species, more “eco-logical.” We and the planet that gave birth to us can be happier and healthier, healed and transformed.
This must be very clear and obvious to everybody. But, it seems, not that obvious to our dogmatic, agenda-driven, neo-liberal, mumbo-jumbo- loving politicians and the so-called experts with their fancy MBAs from the fancy universities!
These fanciful people have created an education system which is devoid of any values, needed to build a better life, a better person, a better world.
Nowhere better this can be noted than a look at ‘their’ higher education bill (see below). It is mind- boggling, how dogmatic and destructive our democratically elected politicians can be!
I wonder if our education system and values are the main reason for why we keep voting against our own self interest! Think about it!
This higher education bill forces market dogma on our universities
‘Proposals to judge teaching quality by graduate earnings are a convenient way to ignore the causes of rising debt, falling salaries and the widening income gap’
This week we have learned that the number of state school pupils going to university is falling. At the same time, graduate earnings are stagnating, while the poorest students are being plunged into more and more debt. You might think it’s about time for the most radical reforms to higher education since 1992. Sadly, the new higher education bill is going to make it worse.
Our government says it is committed to widening attendance, pitching university fees as a trade-off for higher salaries. There is plenty to dislike about a bill that will turn our universities into a competitive marketplace of winners and losers, but one of its worst aspects is that it measures teaching quality according to the earnings of graduates. This is not fair or sensible. This is the dogma of market-imposed education: if you do well, you deserve it. If you don’t, it’s your fault.
Our government is setting up a system where failure to get a high-paying job is blamed on university teaching. It’s nothing to do with being working-class. Nothing to do with the colour of your skin. Nothing to do with the gender pay gap. It is simply because you didn’t invest enough in your education. It is because you didn’t make your market choice wisely enough.
It would also be true in reverse: a high-quality education is your ticket to a high salary. Tell that to black women.
If this were true, then it would also be true in reverse: a high-quality education is your ticket to a high salary. Tell that to black women. It’s not just wrong – it’s insulting to everyone who has to deal with structural inequalities across society.
Obviously, the amount you earn is affected by far more than what degree you took and how well you were taught. Your gender, sexuality and ethnicity play massive roles. Your social background plays a massive role. The state of the economy plays a massive role. Using salaries as a measurement of teaching quality makes no sense at all; still less as a justification for setting higher fees. Granted, there are benchmarks to widen participation, but this is a small and inadequate concession in the context of full marketisation.
Everyone wants our higher education system to be amazing. Nobody argues with that. But trying to judge higher education teaching according to graduate earnings is pointless. There is a simple way to test this. The next time you’re negotiating a pay rise, try telling your boss how satisfied you were with your undergraduate seminars. See how that goes.
The universities that will succeed if the higher education bill passes will be those that best prepare their students to earn higher and higher salaries. Forget the social value of your education: your salary is the measurement of your worth. Keep this in mind the next time you have to go to a hospital. That nurse who is caring for you – who may have £100,000 of debt, by the way – earns way less than a hedge-fund manager. According the bill’s logic, that nurse must have had a rubbish education. They probably have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
The government is forcing market dogma onto our universities. Students will become consumers. Life after education will become a return on investment, with winners and losers. And, as is usually the case, the losers will be people who were already losing.
This article by Malia Bouattia, president-elect of the National Union of Students, and its black students’ officer, was first published in the Guardian on Monday 8 August 2016.
And finally, given the rubbish choices on offer at most “Centres of Learning and Excellence”, there is no wonder why they are now offering Bogof (Buy one get one free) degrees all over the place! Mind-boggling, again!