The precious book that Heidi receives in Frankfurt contains a story which she returns to time and again: the story of the Prodigal Son. Why should this story, in particular, matter so much to her? On the face of it, the prodigal son’s experience is utterly different from Heidi’s. He turns away from his father:Continue reading “Heidi, the Prodigal Son, and Patience”
Category Archives: Slow Movement
Spring unfolds
Over recent weeks and months I’ve been trying to respond to the unfolding seasons by sketching what I see rather than by taking lots of photos. It’s an attempt to slow down and really see what’s there, though my artistic skills aren’t yet up to the job. (However, I have learned quite a lot inContinue reading “Spring unfolds”
Slow Education: an extract from ‘Out of the Classroom and Into the World’
A lecturer in the department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge once told me that the question she is most often asked is, “How long did it take you to learn Chinese?” Her reply to this unanswerable question was always “I don’t know, because I’m still learning.” Much the sameContinue reading “Slow Education: an extract from ‘Out of the Classroom and Into the World’”
Fishing for Koi with an Afghan Veteran
Since I’m focusing on Slow Education at the moment, I thought it might be worth reposting this article I wrote for First Things a while back: Throwing my bags into the car, I waved my wife and children a hasty goodbye and then reversed out of the drive, automatically turning on the radio as I went.Continue reading “Fishing for Koi with an Afghan Veteran”
My latest article for UnHerd
Here’s my latest article for UnHerd in which I write about education during and after the lockdown, industrial and slow education, and the importance of leisure.
Creating a nature journal
A few days ago I wrote about why we might want to create nature journals. Today I’m going to share a few thoughts about what could be included in those journals.
The Slow Movement and Literature
I have written elsewhere about the Slow Movement and education – see here and here, for example – but today I want to consider the Slow Movement and literature. Reading quality literature, we might argue, is now an act of counter-cultural resistance.
The Venerable Bede and Modern Education
In the introduction to her translation of Bede’s The Reckoning of Time, Faith Wallis has a fascinating aside about education in Anglo-Saxon England:
Roy Peachey's Books 