In a popular Old Testament picture of the Valley of Dry Bones, the writer is told “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone: we are cut off.”

Be smart, be clever, be bright, be switched on, be witty, and we can get away with any underhand activity or endeavour, is the intended message and one which is also still being promulgated here in our midst today.

Those responsible for education will no doubt point us towards the increased literacy rate, improved examination results, uptake in number of university degrees to show that we can be well pleased with the system in place and the education that we are offering.

Do we come to bury education, or to praise it? Let us not so much think of those who have died but those who are still living here among us — what do we remember of them?

All around us we have drivers who overtake on blind rises, who will not wait their turn to overtake, who will not queue to turn right but will block the lane intended for those going straight, who will double or triple park for their own convenience while blocking the way for through traffic, who drive down the lane of oncoming traffic, who pull out from the side of the road forcing those already there to slow down or stop, who drive slowly in the overtaking lane, who do not use their indicators.

Children view their school, and education as a whole, in different ways. Some are indeed excited and inspired by what is on offer at their school.

By Tim Middleton The ironically-named Great War has had many iconic memoirs written about it, including ‘Goodbye To All That’, ‘A Farewell To Arms’ and ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ but there is another that stands out powerfully — Vera Brittain’s ‘Testament of Youth’ which provides a stirring account of young university students with […]

In more recent times (2015), the film The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, follows the path of a fur trapper who was mauled by a bear and left for dead by an ambitious colleague; here was one who came back from the dead, with the past catching up and affecting the future.

The truth is child after child cannot wait to leave school, to move on in life, to give up on their education. They hate school. So, what is it about school that children hate? Why do children have such negative feelings towards school?

A dessert rounds off a meal in a perfect way. They improve the mood of the recipient and leave a great taste in the mouth.

Have we ever wondered why we have the starter? Often it is very small so why bother? The purpose of the hors d’oeuvres is to whet our appetite for what is to come, to stimulate our taste buds in a particular direction, to get our digestive process going.

There is one other situation where we find the symbol X — the X Factor, that special, noteworthy quality which is deemed to be essential for people to succeed. We all know about the X Factor but what is it and who has it? Do we have it in education? What indeed is the X Factor in education?

Hard as it may seem on first reading, we would hate it if everyone was like us! The parent who pitifully cries out to their child “Why can’t you be like Tatenda?” has not grasped this. Vive la difference!

Many real kings have died down the centuries and there has been great sadness at the passing of many of them.

Here is the thing, though. Dreams, the dreams we have in our sleep, are generally totally unrealistic, impossible, unfinished, confusing, befuddled, and, for the most part, instantly forgettable. They clearly are not part of the real world.

Many people came by and ignored the rock, simply going round it as they walked on; others muttered loudly at the inconvenience and complained about the state of the country before they proceeded with their journey; others still bumped into it and cursed profusely.

The following very old legendary story certainly and vividly speaks volumes to us in the present day about education.

We are called to imagine there is no heaven or hell yet the same people will deem such places as already being figments of people’s imagination.

If a picture really is worth a thousand words, then the constant stream of selfies that people generate must be telling us volumes.

Children do not need to prove they are trying; they need to prove they are learning from those mistakes.

Normally a player is expected to score from a penalty but when it decides the outcome, now that is pressure!

Charles Sykes and Bill Gates are not the only ones to allude to this difference, to the concept of the real world.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty: that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.” Most would say he is declaring that the way we discover truth is through looking at beauty; everything that is beautiful is true and everything that is true is beautiful.

Many parents come out at some stage with the line, “My child would never do that”, even though all the damning evidence shows clearly he just did do that!

When we say we are ‘in’, we mean we are at work or at home, in other words, somewhere safe, comfortable, sure, known, secure.

It is interesting to note that in recent days children have been learning such lessons in logic, courtesy of Covid.