…the village, far from the city with its movement and activity, was also sheltered from the passage of time… From my childhood I have no happy memories. I don’t mean to say that I never, in all of those years, felt any happiness or joy. But suffering is all-consuming: it somehow gets rid of anything […]
I cannot draw. This has been my mindset since about 8 years of age. Aged 48, I now understand how it came to be that “I cannot draw” and how this mindset (and inability) developed. So, why can’t I draw? More importantly, how can I do something about it? In second class my friend was […]
“Along with poetry, travel writing is one of the oldest literary forms in the world.” […]
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough” Robert Capa I travelled to India three times in the 1990s spending about 8 months on the sub-continent without taking a photo. My philosophy: that life was for living not recording and about the moment largely revolved around a romantic notion that one did not need […]
Sonia Chhabra, Headmistress at Bal Bharati Public School in New Delhi, is my exchange partner and made her home an open, warm and friendly place for me to live happily these last two weeks. Her husband Rohit and two sons, Siddant and Shaurya, are intelligent, creative men who shared their knowledge and ideas about life […]
Why shouldn’t we separate children as young as seven or eight into two groups: those few children who are “gifted and talented” and the many, many more who aren’t? What harm is there, really, in a talent show being named a “talent show”? In my view, the biggest reason a preoccupation with talent can be […]
In all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as the best predictor of success. And it wasn’t social intelligence, it wasn’t good looks, physical health, it wasn’t IQ. It was grit. Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future day in day out, […]
Reviewing the books read or re-read in 2016, I chose the thirteen most satisfying. In other words, I reflected on how much stimulation and pleasure was felt sitting with the book – and why. If you have the patience, the following slideshow will countdown for this year. The rest of the post details why I […]
When the Europeans arrived in the Sydney region, writes Aboriginal activist and elder Burnum Burnum, ‘they landed in the middle of a huge art gallery’. On the shorelines today, in the national parks and reserves, and even silently underlying suburbia, are more than 10 000 artworks, carved or painted on stone. Sydney is the world’s […]
Students and teachers at NSW State Schools have great opportunities to be creative with access to quality digital tools for free or greatly reduced prices. The Adobe Creative Cloud is available for students via the BYOD Software Hub by simply registering with their @education.nsw.gov.au student email. This will give access to all Adobe’s powerful desktop tools and the mobile apps at no cost. Students are […]