Spark curiosity. Kids are natural learners. They are all different. Mentor. Stimulate.
Tests should be diagnostic not the be-all and end-all.
Sir Ken Robinson – How to escape education’s death valley – All children are different.
Ken Robinson – Do schools kill creativity? Creativity is as important as Literacy.
Animal Rights.
Do we need to give rights to animals? I think so.
All life on this planet came from one single cell. Every living thing on this planet has the same mother. We all share the same DNA and protein. We have all evolved for exactly the same length of time.
The trouble with human beings is that we like to create a hierarchy. We put ourselves at the top, of course. In fact some people don’t actually recognise us as animals at all. They think we are some god-created being who is so special that they are not related, not part of the animal kingdom. Except that we are. We are made of the same DNA as everything else.
Then we anthropomorphise. Anything that resembles us, like Chimps, Gorillas and Orangutans, are given special status. In fact we are generous enough to award this status to creatures whose intelligence is pronounced. So whales, dolphins, porpoises and orcas are awarded special status. Some even include elephants, dogs, cats and pigs in this elevated status.
In actual fact all creatures are important. The slugs, snails, beetles, spiders and flies are equally important. They form the basis of the food chains. When they go the frogs, newts, swallows, hedgehogs and swifts all disappear.
My contention is that we need to protect all life.
A Charter For The Rights of Animals
It is recognised that all animal life on this planet is born with the natural right to life. All animals feel pain and have a natural instinct to survive. They should be respected. A rich diversity of animal life is necessary for the health of humans.
- No animal should be killed without good reason.
- No animal should be tortured or mistreated
- No habitat should be destroyed without due respect and consideration given to the creatures living in it
- All creatures are part of a rich web of life that we are part of and their contribution to this rich web should be valued and understood whenever any human interference in this natural order is considered.
Well it’s simple but it’s a start.
I welcome any additions, improvements or comments.
Religious Schools – an anathema!!
The Tory policy of increasing the number of Religious Schools is shown to be a terrible idea.
An Islamic school has been judged in breach of basic human rights by segregating boys and girls.
Good.
I do not think it is right that religious people in this country have the right to have their children indoctrinated in religious schools. Schools are about education not brainwashing. They should be multicultural, mixed sex and open to all creeds – just like the rest of society. If we do not learn to get along together and integrate we are not going to have a harmonious future. We have much to learn from each other. We can only do that by mixing.
I say shut down religious schools and integrate our children.
There are no such things as bad kids.
Teaching can be ecstatic and it can be infuriating. Sometimes a student will wilfully disrupt your lesson. Bad behaviour can drive you mad.
I used to tell my staff that there was no such thing as bad kids; only those damaged by their experience. It was our job to mend them.
When I retired they presented me with a framed quotation.
‘There is no such things as bad kids; only those damaged by their experience. It is our job to mend them.’
Christopher Goodwin
2011
I often look at that and wonder how well I did. It’s always our failures that stick in our minds.
If you want to hear more about the philosophy that drove me you can try my book on education.
In the UK:
In the USA:
Also available on your local Amazon site.
Education Philosophy – what is more important than test and exam results?
What is more important than literacy, numeracy, exam results and knowledge?
This is more important. This is fundamental to everything that should happen in a school. If we don’t teach children to care, to be tolerant and build a better world we are wasting our time.
“I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is:
Help your children become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.”
– An excerpt of a letter written by a Holocaust survivor to educators, published in “Teacher and Child” by Dr. Haim Ginott, child psychologist and author
In the future it will not matter………………….. The value of education.
In a hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in or the type of car I drove but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.
These were the words I kept on the wall in my office. I looked at them regularly. They summed up some of my philosophy in education.
Every child matters. We make our children more human. We can change the future and build a better world. The kids we teach are tomorrow’s hope.
Give them love and wings.
Sun Zoom Spark – A Documentary Film made of me by a very talented Film Maker – Mark Richardson.
This was a film documentary made in the Summer I retired. 2011. Mark Richardson was an English teacher at my school and a talented film maker. He asked to make a documentary about me. I was very honoured.
This is a great nostalgic trip for me and a nice record of my education philosophy and thirty six year career.
Thank you so much Mark.
PS – I’ve written those books, travelled and grown – but I still miss my students and colleagues.
A Big Thank You to all my Readers! Thank you for buying and reading my books! Please leave a review!
Thank you so much kind readers. Your continued purchase of my books, your reading of my material on line and your positive encouragement gives me energy.
Writing is a lonely business. I enjoy it greatly but it is time-consuming and solitary. It is a real boost to get positive feedback and the buzz of knowing people are putting their faith in my writing ability and buying the books.
These days more books are being purchased through digital channels rather than paperback. Myself – I prefer having a book to hold. It is something to cherish.
My books are my babies. They are all important to me. I’m glad you like them too.
While I enjoy writing I do not enjoy promotion. That is a chore which is why I neglect it. But it is necessary or nobody gets to hear about what books are available. I think I have actually written 54 books now. I’ll have to check.
What is crucial is what people think about the work I have produced. The reviews are the life-blood of a writer. So if you have enjoyed reading my books please leave a review.
If you would like to have a browse on what is on offer please follow the links below:
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Elsewhere in the world my books are available on your local Amazon in both paperback and as digital.
Thank you everyone!! I Appreciate it!
Writing
Writing
I prefer writing to reading and I love reading! My head fills up with thoughts and ideas that I am driven to write down. As soon as I have committed them to paper I am free of them. I find the creativity essential to my mental well-being. I become elated when I write. I love making up stories.
My wife says I am obsessive. I would prefer to see myself as driven. Writing is a compulsion.
I have been writing books for forty four years. I doubt that I will ever stop.
I do not write in order to become ‘successful’. That is not the motivation. I know it will never make me rich and famous. I write in order to revel in the joy of communication. I write to attempt to capture the thoughts that are in my head, commit them to the tangible symbols of words and understand them better myself. I write because I am an idealist who wants to change the world for the better; who believes that we can make it better and who believes in the power of words. I write for the sheer joy of it.
I write for myself. I do not write for a market. Because of that I am totally unrestrained. My work is often shocking, extreme and pornographic. So be it. That is what comes out.
I know that writing for yourself is indulgent and does not achieve the stated aims of improving the world and communicating with others. This is a conundrum. I know that if I was hopelessly stranded on a desert island I would still write. Yet I also know that any creative person requires an audience. I need an audience in order for the process to be complete. To be completely satisfied I need to know that people are reading my books. That is why I have published fifteen of them so far.
Being in the luxurious position of being retired with a pension that enables me to live I can and am devoting myself to rewriting all those books that have come out of my type-writer over these last four and a half decades. I have the time, energy and inclination. I am enjoying myself.
Hopefully I will ruffle a few feathers, gain a few friends, shock a number of people, and have a great deal of fun in the process.
Sometimes I write graphically about torture, environmental degradation, exploitation and war. I write in the hopes that these things will improve. I want to shine a spotlight on them. I write because I am angry. I write so that they we can raise our awareness and sensibilities. I write in order that those things will not happen.
I write about sex because I think our culture is hung up about it. Sex is natural. It should not be taboo or embarrassing. We have made it so.
I write about the future as a warning.
I write to relieve the pressure cooker in my head and because I love doing it.
I hope you might enjoy being my audience.
My books are available on Amazon under Opher Goodwin. Why don’t you have a look and see what you think?