Running through the Acronym (5) Travel

We carry the gifts of our parents throughout our lives. The good points and bad, the appreciated and the resisited, the conscious and the almost invisible. Our genes affect who we are, how we act, and the way we face the world, but our parents made thousands of more simple choices to guide our choices

Running through the Acronym (4) Sport

I have always been into sport – everything from football to volleyball and cricket to hurling – but, as I get older, I find myself fascinated by the role it plays in our lives: why is it so fascinating? why do people obsess about it? does it affirm or harm us when taken to extremes?

Running through the acronym (3) The Arts

First I should say that ‘the Arts’ are only included here because they helped the acronym. I am really not comfortable with the expression ‘the Arts’ and can never imagine using it in a serious way. It seems to me to be the preserve of Sunday Supplements and TV luvvies.  A narrow view, I know,

Working through the acronym (2) Education

Education, self evidently, is about Teaching and Learning, and as a teacher for all my  life, I’ve surely discovered that when you teach you also learn. There is no template to successful teaching; there couldn’t be, not if you are going to meet the needs of different pupils in different situations, and if you are

Working through the acronym (1) Faith

I suppose I may as well start by running through the topics in the order they are listed in the acronym. That means starting with Faith, which probably loses a fair number of readers right there! As a personal and crucial element of our characters and personalities. Faith can be difficult to write about, never