カテゴリー: English-language posts

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APDEC 2016 – initial thoughts

(この投稿の日本語はこちら)

2016-07-19 09.30.40

I just got back last night from APDEC 2016 in Taiwan. I’m pretty tired but I want to get some initial thoughts down – hopefully I’ll write more about these topics in the coming weeks (once I recover).

About childhood:

  • Play is really, really, really important for children’s development. It’s important for cognitive learning, and also equally important for emotional health (Peter Gray).
  • Children spending time away from their parents is really important, and they cope with it very well – they’re not nearly as dependent on us as we (like to?) think they are (Henry Readhead).
  • Children need other children to play with – there’s nothing wrong with also playing with adults, but playing with other children is vital.
  • Play is also vital for adults – ideally you’ll experience your work as play .
  • Parents need help to be the best parents they can be – without training they’ll tend to copy their own parents.
  • Educators, parents, and children (and indeed, probably everybody in the world) would all do well to learn Non-Violent Communication. This is something I feel I might be able to help people learn, though I also need to learn a lot more about it too.

“APDEC 2016 – initial thoughts” の続きを読む

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the one thing both sides can agree on

In the UK (if it’s still appropriate to call it that…..) there’s an incredible amount of bad feeling, division, distrust, resentment and anger going on right now, and when people are this angry at each other they tend to focus on their differences (which they use as insults to yell at each other).  I’d like to suggest that, understandable though this anger and shouting is, it would be more useful to try to find something that both Leavers and Remainers can agree on.
“the one thing both sides can agree on” の続きを読む

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The Brexit debate is no longer democratic

A simplistic view of democratic process is that it is about voting for what you want, but in reality democratic decision-making is far more complex: it’s about dialogue, and negotiation, and compromises both sides can live with. This is because democracy is founded on the idea that everybody has a valid perspective and therefore should have the right to contribute to decision-making – the aim then becomes a solution or compromise that satisfies as many of the interested parties as is realistically possible without compromising the central principle of mutual respect. “The Brexit debate is no longer democratic” の続きを読む

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Real learning comes from curiosity

（この投稿を日本語で読むのはこちらです）

It’s my belief that we should leave children’s learning up to their own curiosity, because learning that comes from curiosity is true learning that they will remember throughout their life, whereas learning that they have forced upon them is shallow and soon forgotten. As an example, I want to reflect on my school-based maths learning.

At 16 years old I got an “A” in my maths GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education, a national exam in England), an exam that involved extensive algebra and trigonometry. Getting an “A” means that at the time I really must have learned the material, and yet now I can hardly do algebra at all. I can’t solve any but the most rudimentary of problems. “Real learning comes from curiosity” の続きを読む

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Computer Games: an early experience of competence and confidence

minecraft E 20per

（この投稿を日本語で読むのはこちらです）

For his birthday in January 2015 Boo decided he wanted Minecraft. In case you don’t know it, I’ll briefly explain: Minecraft is a computer game where you (along with other players) run around freely in a 3D world , building things and exploring – kind of like Lego if you and your friends could be the little Lego men and had an infinite number of blocks to play with (and an infinitely large bedroom). It’s a creative game that I was also really interested in playing, and once I installed it on our tablets we played together for at least a couple of hours every day. “Computer Games: an early experience of competence and confidence” の続きを読む

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Introductory post

Hi.

Welcome to my new site. It’s a personal blog: I’ve got rather a lot I want to say, so this is where I’m going to try to say it. It’s hard to distill any clear theme, other than that I’d like everyone to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives, so I’m going to write about topics that hopefully work to bring that about. Education and childhood are probably the topics I know best, so that’s where I’m going to start.

I also like drawing, so I’m going to experiment with adding illustrations and comics to the posts. Actually the word “experiment” probably applies to this whole endeavor: I can’t even decide what language to post in – even this English translation (of this original Japanese-language post) is experimental. I’d like to share my thoughts in English, but my focus is Japanese (to develop my ability, and because I live in Japan) and having to write everything twice is somewhat onerous. We’ll see how it goes….

Since this is my first post, I’m going introduce myself. I’m from England, and came to Okinawa in 1998 after a year on the Japanese mainland. I spent eight years as an Assistant Language Teacher (originally on the JET programme, now I have JETlag…) which involved teaching communication-based lessons in elementary and junior high schools. I enjoyed this so much that I wrote a book about it which you can buy here. Nowadays I’m an part-time lecturer at four schools on the island: Okinawa University, Okinawa International University, Okinawa Christian University, and Okinawa Language Center. I’ve also worked at several democratic schools.

I live with my wife and two children, who may well feature in this blog so I’m going to introduce them too:

“Wonderwife” is Okinawan, and three years younger than me. She’s cheerful and positive and funny, and as such is very forgiving of my various foibles, for which I am eternally grateful.

“Boo” is six years old, loves making things (in real life and in Minecraft) and rarely stops talking…just like his dad.

By contrast “Gwiddles” (AKA “Gwiddling” AKA “The Gwiddler”) at four and a half still can’t actually talk (certainly not with any grammar). She has WonderWife a little worried that she may never learn human language, though I’m confident she’s just a late developer – I’m more worried about what she’s going to say once she finally does decide to learn to talk like the rest of us.

Okinawan Family Robinson
(translating the drawings from Japanese is also a bit of a task, again, we’ll see how it goes…)

Most of our weekends are spent playing in various parks and beaches around the island. When I can sneak a little freedom I go surfing.  And now I have a blog to keep me busy….

That’s all I have to say for now.  There might be more English-language posts coming soon, but in the meantime thanks for stopping by.

Simon