Aug 14, 2022·edited Aug 15, 2022Liked by Tess Lawrie, MBBCh, PhD
Hello Tess and Mike,
Much thanks for this. As a post-retirement Jr. High and Elementary school ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) for over 2,000 kids in West Tokyo, I was particularly looking forward to hearing this. The following are just some initial reactions in real-time, but I will go back later to edit out typos, listen again, and edit for clarity and perhaps more information.
7:00 'Elderly' vs. 'Elders' good point. It is one of the differences between empathy-driven communities and rule-driven institutions.
9:00 ... The corporate nation-state of Japan, where I live, is infamous for 'helicopter parents' and a 'love of nature', only if it is controlled. The aesthetics of the bonsai tree and tiny gardens which serve as a proxy for wilderness indicate the vicarious experience of real wilderness that institutions love. Real wilderness and 'wildness' defies rules and rigid social hierarchies. Zen and local shinto shrines are about the only remnants of a Taoist / Animist mind-set which dove-tails well with 'education' as maturation. Instead of that more natural approach, the corporate nation-state of Japan is more similar to the CCP of China ... espousing neo-Confucianism, basically social engineering with meritocratic ideals. The problem though, as Harvard Prof of Political Philosophy Michael Sandel points out in his latest book, is that meritocracy ... whether derived from Confucian social engineering of the Far East, or the ideals and conceits of individual freedom coming from the West's 'Enlightenment' ... is that meritocracy eventually devolves into credentialism at best, or worse — cronyism and nepotism, and at worst, authoritarian-tyranny.
Good reasoning regarding why children should not be given the vaccines, but Mike is a bit lucky in being able to even express his thoughts personally. I work for the public schools in West Tokyo — 8 elementary schools, 3 Jr. Highs, and a special needs school — there is no opportunity in Japan for a public servant to speak their personal opinion and still keep a job. My guess is that Japan is even more heavily institutionally controlled than England.
30:00 ... “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” It was not long after the Nuremberg trials and Hannah Arendt's book that Solomon Asch and then Stanley Milgram conducted their behaviorist experiments showed how easily the average person conforms to peer pressure or to authority ... and Laura Dodsworth's book, 'State of Fear' documented brilliantly how power mongers have behaviorist psychologists nudging the British people through fear and the results of those post Nuremberg experiments.
37:00 ... The sordid history of Phizer, yes, conveniently erased from the public discourse because Big Pharma now owns mass media and social media. And how quickly we have forgotten the Opioid Crisis in America, and Big Tobacco's stranglehold on health before that. As far as I know, no one from the Sackler family, or the namesakes for Duke University have ever been held accountable
42:00 ... Outsourcing common sense to the state. Yes. This dovetails well with the temptations of power over others, In Japan, it takes the form of micro-management, which is the death of imagination, joy, growth, moral autonomy, and so many other things that make life worth living.
44:45 ... Yes ... authority has a low tolerance for ambiguity. Whereas morality is gray, codified law or algorithms is black and white.
46:00 ... The British pushback against rules does give one some optimism. I am not so optimistic with Japan. NPI's (the Kabuki show of masks, social distancing, alcohol disinfectant at the entrance of shops), vaccinations, and the boosters ... most following the narrative, and without even a law forcing them to do so.
49:50 ... Bingo! Micro-management and abusive partners. 'Dark-triad' personality types,
50:50 ... The Hero's Journey!!! YES! I first saw that 6 part interview between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers on NHK educational TV here in Japan about 20 years ago, have since bought the series on DVD, and used 'The Hero's Quest' as the basis for a graduation seminar I taught at Jissen Women's College when I still had tenure. This went over very well with the ladies, if for no other reason, because the female of our species often go through the potentially traumatic experience of child birth.
Just an interesting note, Campbell was a follower of Jung and the collective subconscious ... which dovetails with wilderness and the 'spiritual naturalist' mindset espoused by such thinkers as Spinoza, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Niels Bohr, and Albert Einstein ... 'God' as a metaphor for nature in its entirety.
54:30 ... the topic of Smartphones caused me to cringe because all Jr. High students in Japan, and most elementary school students from 5h and 6th grade, are trained to tune in and express themselves from their own school-owned laptop. As only a communication teaching assistant now, I am so angry that the functionary bureaucrats posing at teachers are forcing kids to give presentations through a digital screen hooked up to their computer, and in masks. The kids' voices are muffled because of he masks, muffled because hey are looking down at their computer screens, have no chance to show micro-expressions because of the masks, and their gestures and body language are all geared towards hitting a keyboard rather than telling a story to an audience. This will not fare well for Japan's rising generation.
'Rewilding Chlldhood' does not have a snowball's chance in Japan. Just a recent anecdote. Right after the kids finish their lunches in silence, they have about 20 minutes to kick a ball or stroll around the sports field. During my first meeting with students in class, I always bring a few soft frisbees and demonstrate my most active sport-hobby by demonstrating 3 non traditional techniques of throwing a flying disc with student volunteers in the classroom. The kids loved it, so I thought I'd donate about a half dozen frisbees to the school for the kids to play with after lunch. The head sports coach refused my donation as too dangerous. Apparently, unlike kicked soccer balls, frisbees have a greater chance of flying over the field's fence. Weird physics of Japan ... or more likely, what happens with imaginative play rams head to head with micro-managed tradition.
Another point that surprised me is that Tess grew up in South Africa. And of course, Mike in the backwoods. I am a country-boy myself, growing up in rural North Carolina ... camping and fishing my way from elementary school days to now. Lots of stories. I feel sorry for the kids growing up in urban Japan under helicopter parents, and in a culture that looks down on 'free time' as an affliction of the impoverished.
Good comment, thanks. Believing that since kids, parents, and educators who are not frightened to death and inaction are attracted to wilding that it will be difficult to keep under check even by “advanced civilizations”. These civilizations are collapsing all around us. We are and become what we pay attention to and intend. Revolutions may not be televised but they are real and tenacious in our hearts and those of our kids. We all need to be the changes we wish to see in the world.
Fantastic and really valuable feedback. Also very encouraging and supportive. We'll see if I keep my job though. I'm treading on thin ice with this. Thank you very much indeed for your insights 🙏
Oh wow. I did not expect a reply from you, and yet, based on the values I saw in the interview, I should have. I've got lots more to say, and want to support both you and Tess in any way I can ... but I also waver between slim hope and dark pessimism. Will try my best to stay on the bright side of wide-eyed disillusionment. I've been busy corresponding with buddies all day (had a Facebook account silenced, so looking up friends with another) and on substack in comments. You might enjoy this this thread ... https://live2fightanotherday.substack.com/p/japan-boldly-jabs-away/comment/8394640.
But in the meantime, I hope you can protect your position, and even leverage it to reveal the dark-powers that-be. If worse comes to worse, local or digital education communities may be our last best hope. And I am hoping ours overlap.
Will subscribe to you now, and let you know when my expanded comments are worthy of a read. Thanks again for sticking your neck out and speaking truth to power!
As one social primate to another, or a little spark of the divine, my thanks to you Mike. I was just reminded of something a former colleague once shared with me. We don't so much 'walk into the future, feeling our way in the dark, as walk into the future facing backwards, trying to guess which way the path should lead by looking at the path we've traveled.' I kind of like that. Cousins to the bonobo, walking backwards into the future. 😂 Will be writing about my own rearview experiences in Japan shortly. Got a lot of notes to compile and edit. And edit. And edit ...
Just guessing Mike, but would you be familiar with the books of primatologist Frans de Waal? He is one of the big influences on what I've come to believe about human nature thus far. If you haven't, his TED talk is a short and hilarious introduction to the academic I would most love to kick back and have a beer with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk&t=12s
Come to think of it, I got a lot of mileage out of that video in classes with Japanese college students. Thinking about the elephant experiments, I used a lot of task-based, collaborative exercises designed with built-in information / curiosity gaps which intrinsically motivated students to use English, rather than force them.
Unfortunately, this pedagogic psychology was lost on my most of my Japanese colleagues. Especially Japan, positions of authority or tenure are gained through credentialism at best, cronyism at worst. Merit has little to do with it. 'Carrot and stick' through grades or future job prospects was the blunt tool most Japanese teachers rely on ... or worse, use me as their stage prop, a foreigner who has lived here 40 years, but is ordered to pretend he can't understand Japanese.
As the censuring of free speech is now being imposed world-wide is showing a lot of us, the censuring of communication is dehumanizing to the point of solitary confinement ... approaching the equivalence of the death sentence for a social primate. And as my colleagues have so little empathy for the situations they put me in, I have had nightmares of how little nudging it would take to push the average bureaucrat or manager to behave with the likes of Unit 731.
Reminds me of the conformity experiments of Solomon Asch, and compliance experiments of Stanley Milgram. A few months ago, I read Laura Dodsworth's book 'State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponized Fear During the Covid-19 Pandemic'. I just went back to check the index, but did not find any mention of those post Nuremberg behaviorist experiments. My guess is that this is when the CIA and other 3 Letter agencies began weaponizing behaviorist psychology. It might make for a good prelude to further editions of her book.
Ooops, just realized I had mentioned that research in my firs comment.
Well, that settles it, I am going to have to buy your first book now. Looking forward to long dialogues with you. Cheers Mike!
Epic post and welcome information, thanks. Working with family to find alternatives in education for our seven year old grandsons. Kids click into place when exposed to the real and fundamental. This is a great example of where to begin in building back to a healthier, more grounded society.
Check into invasive plant control - learn to be a gardener for nature. Recognize the species that are a negative. Local Departments of Natural Resources often have volunteer dates and locations to pull an invasive as a team. Nature's garden is very large.
Or litter pick up - make it fun - find ten pieces, let's see if that is fast or slow here. . . . Do you think that means people pick up their own litter? or that not many people get to this spot?
Those are my two favorites for anytime, anyplace, something to do. It goes back to my childhood family outings or car trip run around time. We were simply all told to go find 10 pieces of litter wherever we stopped for a break. In retrospect, they wanted us to run around a little. Some places have group litter pick up dates and supplies. Makes it more fun.
Thank you Tess and Mike. I will buy the book - one for us grandparents and one for my daughter and her husband and two babies under three. We’re in the US, so hopefully not too much unrelateable local events and official government office experiences. Otherwise, wish my daughter experienced your unorthodox teaching. I grew up traveling the world as an army brat. In Thailand, the water buffalo came right up to our school windows. We wondered around Bangkok with those same rules. Be home for dinner. So much fun! And so much learning about another culture on our terms as very young teenagers.
Absolutely inspirational video, wish my kiddies had the opportunity to be in his school. Having been a foster carer for nearly 20 years , an ethos like this would move mountains for some of the children I’ve fostered ….I’ve always encouraged them to walk, help on the allottment, be with animals etc and they still remember the time they were with us as very important for them…so I can totally relate to the great outdoors…..as the saying goes “ let Mother Nature soothe your furrowed brow” Thank you both so much for all you are doing to save humanity and regain our sanity !! X
Loved this Talk .. What a lovely man Mike is And great respect for him standing up. Lucky children to have such a cool Headmaster .. Id love to have gone to a school like that or for my children to have. We so need more schools like this
I quite agree to the Nazi Germany link .. My Grandfather had 2 brothers murdered horribly by the Nazi's for not saluting them ... Right from the beginning of this I have spoken up .. I didnt care .. I didnt it thinking of my Grandpa his Brothers my Great Granny and all of Germany .. For all the harm they are causing the people of the world ...
Bath and North East Somerset Council also post on FB blindlingly obvious health warnings about the heat or river threats etc .. I often leave remarks ,saying that people do have common sence and such like ...Ive noticed too other people leaving such remarks too ..Which is encouraging Utterly bonkers Thankyou Tess and Mike
Not at all you deserve it .. So refreshing to hear your side of the story as a HeadMaster in these mad time as you say the madness of others who have children in their care who won't speak up because they are frightened about their jobs .. Theres nothing more precious than a child's life 💖
I was born and bred in and around B,ton so know the Downs and the beach so well ..Spent many hours dodging the rough seas along the seafront n my bike . Not worrying about the dangers..
Perhaps your next role is to see more schools like yours open around the country .. The children would love it.. Life skills are so much more important ..I was always staring out the window at school .. Everything went over the top of my head .. Learnt more the day I left ..
I love Tess talks...Thankyou Tess & Mike. This is all good stuff & big topic....I think we are very lucky indeed if we get some great teachers. The syllabus is an "issue" for me.... eg Are kids taught about the legal system & it's horrendous failings, & political systems or "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" ...or manners/behaviour skills? Ways to verify what they are being told? Perhaps someone here might tell me please. Seems to me many, if not most all, who excel in tertiary edu & rise up in the system due to that, ...& are good at reading & remembering, and believing a lot of BS, often without propper probing & verification...Too many folks believe these experts' BS .. they are ...apparently so intelligent? But just try and ask them for some explanations eg C19...& they don't want to look at the evidence ... like politicians. I think out of the scores of very highly educated folks I know I would say the lions share are not "intelligent" ...they are just "educated"..& have some sort of "ticket" (a Meal ticket!). I remember my father was displeased with a school report about me when about 12 yo...the teacher wrote I was "dogmatic"....I think now at 70 yo...re this instance it was him that was being dogmatic.... & I was actually being anti-dogmatic. I ask us all here, how can anyone know the "truth" about say, ancient history....just look at how they lie about even history as its happening right in front of us today. I say all people need to be very, v skeptical of wrongful authority & propaganda....Govs are v dangerous ..they kill on an industrial scale with impunity. And sadly they don't prosecute their own crimes.
Hello Tess and Mike,
Much thanks for this. As a post-retirement Jr. High and Elementary school ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) for over 2,000 kids in West Tokyo, I was particularly looking forward to hearing this. The following are just some initial reactions in real-time, but I will go back later to edit out typos, listen again, and edit for clarity and perhaps more information.
7:00 'Elderly' vs. 'Elders' good point. It is one of the differences between empathy-driven communities and rule-driven institutions.
9:00 ... The corporate nation-state of Japan, where I live, is infamous for 'helicopter parents' and a 'love of nature', only if it is controlled. The aesthetics of the bonsai tree and tiny gardens which serve as a proxy for wilderness indicate the vicarious experience of real wilderness that institutions love. Real wilderness and 'wildness' defies rules and rigid social hierarchies. Zen and local shinto shrines are about the only remnants of a Taoist / Animist mind-set which dove-tails well with 'education' as maturation. Instead of that more natural approach, the corporate nation-state of Japan is more similar to the CCP of China ... espousing neo-Confucianism, basically social engineering with meritocratic ideals. The problem though, as Harvard Prof of Political Philosophy Michael Sandel points out in his latest book, is that meritocracy ... whether derived from Confucian social engineering of the Far East, or the ideals and conceits of individual freedom coming from the West's 'Enlightenment' ... is that meritocracy eventually devolves into credentialism at best, or worse — cronyism and nepotism, and at worst, authoritarian-tyranny.
Good reasoning regarding why children should not be given the vaccines, but Mike is a bit lucky in being able to even express his thoughts personally. I work for the public schools in West Tokyo — 8 elementary schools, 3 Jr. Highs, and a special needs school — there is no opportunity in Japan for a public servant to speak their personal opinion and still keep a job. My guess is that Japan is even more heavily institutionally controlled than England.
30:00 ... “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” It was not long after the Nuremberg trials and Hannah Arendt's book that Solomon Asch and then Stanley Milgram conducted their behaviorist experiments showed how easily the average person conforms to peer pressure or to authority ... and Laura Dodsworth's book, 'State of Fear' documented brilliantly how power mongers have behaviorist psychologists nudging the British people through fear and the results of those post Nuremberg experiments.
37:00 ... The sordid history of Phizer, yes, conveniently erased from the public discourse because Big Pharma now owns mass media and social media. And how quickly we have forgotten the Opioid Crisis in America, and Big Tobacco's stranglehold on health before that. As far as I know, no one from the Sackler family, or the namesakes for Duke University have ever been held accountable
42:00 ... Outsourcing common sense to the state. Yes. This dovetails well with the temptations of power over others, In Japan, it takes the form of micro-management, which is the death of imagination, joy, growth, moral autonomy, and so many other things that make life worth living.
44:45 ... Yes ... authority has a low tolerance for ambiguity. Whereas morality is gray, codified law or algorithms is black and white.
46:00 ... The British pushback against rules does give one some optimism. I am not so optimistic with Japan. NPI's (the Kabuki show of masks, social distancing, alcohol disinfectant at the entrance of shops), vaccinations, and the boosters ... most following the narrative, and without even a law forcing them to do so.
49:50 ... Bingo! Micro-management and abusive partners. 'Dark-triad' personality types,
50:50 ... The Hero's Journey!!! YES! I first saw that 6 part interview between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers on NHK educational TV here in Japan about 20 years ago, have since bought the series on DVD, and used 'The Hero's Quest' as the basis for a graduation seminar I taught at Jissen Women's College when I still had tenure. This went over very well with the ladies, if for no other reason, because the female of our species often go through the potentially traumatic experience of child birth.
Just an interesting note, Campbell was a follower of Jung and the collective subconscious ... which dovetails with wilderness and the 'spiritual naturalist' mindset espoused by such thinkers as Spinoza, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Niels Bohr, and Albert Einstein ... 'God' as a metaphor for nature in its entirety.
54:30 ... the topic of Smartphones caused me to cringe because all Jr. High students in Japan, and most elementary school students from 5h and 6th grade, are trained to tune in and express themselves from their own school-owned laptop. As only a communication teaching assistant now, I am so angry that the functionary bureaucrats posing at teachers are forcing kids to give presentations through a digital screen hooked up to their computer, and in masks. The kids' voices are muffled because of he masks, muffled because hey are looking down at their computer screens, have no chance to show micro-expressions because of the masks, and their gestures and body language are all geared towards hitting a keyboard rather than telling a story to an audience. This will not fare well for Japan's rising generation.
'Rewilding Chlldhood' does not have a snowball's chance in Japan. Just a recent anecdote. Right after the kids finish their lunches in silence, they have about 20 minutes to kick a ball or stroll around the sports field. During my first meeting with students in class, I always bring a few soft frisbees and demonstrate my most active sport-hobby by demonstrating 3 non traditional techniques of throwing a flying disc with student volunteers in the classroom. The kids loved it, so I thought I'd donate about a half dozen frisbees to the school for the kids to play with after lunch. The head sports coach refused my donation as too dangerous. Apparently, unlike kicked soccer balls, frisbees have a greater chance of flying over the field's fence. Weird physics of Japan ... or more likely, what happens with imaginative play rams head to head with micro-managed tradition.
Another point that surprised me is that Tess grew up in South Africa. And of course, Mike in the backwoods. I am a country-boy myself, growing up in rural North Carolina ... camping and fishing my way from elementary school days to now. Lots of stories. I feel sorry for the kids growing up in urban Japan under helicopter parents, and in a culture that looks down on 'free time' as an affliction of the impoverished.
Thanks again for this, Tess and Mike.
Good comment, thanks. Believing that since kids, parents, and educators who are not frightened to death and inaction are attracted to wilding that it will be difficult to keep under check even by “advanced civilizations”. These civilizations are collapsing all around us. We are and become what we pay attention to and intend. Revolutions may not be televised but they are real and tenacious in our hearts and those of our kids. We all need to be the changes we wish to see in the world.
Not a wasted word in your comment KW. Much thanks.
I will be going back to Tess and Mike's chat to think and expand more on my own comment, but n the meantime, will subscribe to you as well.
Will try to do the subject some justice, thanks. I’ve skirted around it but not engaged it directly as yet.
Fantastic and really valuable feedback. Also very encouraging and supportive. We'll see if I keep my job though. I'm treading on thin ice with this. Thank you very much indeed for your insights 🙏
Oh wow. I did not expect a reply from you, and yet, based on the values I saw in the interview, I should have. I've got lots more to say, and want to support both you and Tess in any way I can ... but I also waver between slim hope and dark pessimism. Will try my best to stay on the bright side of wide-eyed disillusionment. I've been busy corresponding with buddies all day (had a Facebook account silenced, so looking up friends with another) and on substack in comments. You might enjoy this this thread ... https://live2fightanotherday.substack.com/p/japan-boldly-jabs-away/comment/8394640.
But in the meantime, I hope you can protect your position, and even leverage it to reveal the dark-powers that-be. If worse comes to worse, local or digital education communities may be our last best hope. And I am hoping ours overlap.
Will subscribe to you now, and let you know when my expanded comments are worthy of a read. Thanks again for sticking your neck out and speaking truth to power!
Cheers from Japan Mike!
steve
Thank you very much indeed for your excellent feedback and insights 🙏
Hi Mike,
As one social primate to another, or a little spark of the divine, my thanks to you Mike. I was just reminded of something a former colleague once shared with me. We don't so much 'walk into the future, feeling our way in the dark, as walk into the future facing backwards, trying to guess which way the path should lead by looking at the path we've traveled.' I kind of like that. Cousins to the bonobo, walking backwards into the future. 😂 Will be writing about my own rearview experiences in Japan shortly. Got a lot of notes to compile and edit. And edit. And edit ...
Cheers from Japan, Mike.
Excellent Steven. I'm making notes for a new book and know what you mean about the multiple edits.
A great quote and very true. I'm looking forward to reading your insights.
I like the notion of a "social primate" ❤️🙏
Just guessing Mike, but would you be familiar with the books of primatologist Frans de Waal? He is one of the big influences on what I've come to believe about human nature thus far. If you haven't, his TED talk is a short and hilarious introduction to the academic I would most love to kick back and have a beer with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk&t=12s
Come to think of it, I got a lot of mileage out of that video in classes with Japanese college students. Thinking about the elephant experiments, I used a lot of task-based, collaborative exercises designed with built-in information / curiosity gaps which intrinsically motivated students to use English, rather than force them.
Unfortunately, this pedagogic psychology was lost on my most of my Japanese colleagues. Especially Japan, positions of authority or tenure are gained through credentialism at best, cronyism at worst. Merit has little to do with it. 'Carrot and stick' through grades or future job prospects was the blunt tool most Japanese teachers rely on ... or worse, use me as their stage prop, a foreigner who has lived here 40 years, but is ordered to pretend he can't understand Japanese.
As the censuring of free speech is now being imposed world-wide is showing a lot of us, the censuring of communication is dehumanizing to the point of solitary confinement ... approaching the equivalence of the death sentence for a social primate. And as my colleagues have so little empathy for the situations they put me in, I have had nightmares of how little nudging it would take to push the average bureaucrat or manager to behave with the likes of Unit 731.
Reminds me of the conformity experiments of Solomon Asch, and compliance experiments of Stanley Milgram. A few months ago, I read Laura Dodsworth's book 'State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponized Fear During the Covid-19 Pandemic'. I just went back to check the index, but did not find any mention of those post Nuremberg behaviorist experiments. My guess is that this is when the CIA and other 3 Letter agencies began weaponizing behaviorist psychology. It might make for a good prelude to further editions of her book.
Ooops, just realized I had mentioned that research in my firs comment.
Well, that settles it, I am going to have to buy your first book now. Looking forward to long dialogues with you. Cheers Mike!
— steve
Grizzly story, I really wish you strength.
Thank you Tsipora.
My best friends are Japanese, and it is summer break now ... so cool beer and a fishing trip or two goes a long way to replenishing those batteries.
Nearly 4 am here in Japan, so I'll catch a bit of shut-eye, and then run thought the interview again and edit my thoughts as necessary.
Cheers, and thanks for reading.
Epic post and welcome information, thanks. Working with family to find alternatives in education for our seven year old grandsons. Kids click into place when exposed to the real and fundamental. This is a great example of where to begin in building back to a healthier, more grounded society.
Check into invasive plant control - learn to be a gardener for nature. Recognize the species that are a negative. Local Departments of Natural Resources often have volunteer dates and locations to pull an invasive as a team. Nature's garden is very large.
Or litter pick up - make it fun - find ten pieces, let's see if that is fast or slow here. . . . Do you think that means people pick up their own litter? or that not many people get to this spot?
Those are my two favorites for anytime, anyplace, something to do. It goes back to my childhood family outings or car trip run around time. We were simply all told to go find 10 pieces of litter wherever we stopped for a break. In retrospect, they wanted us to run around a little. Some places have group litter pick up dates and supplies. Makes it more fun.
Thank you Tess and Mike. I will buy the book - one for us grandparents and one for my daughter and her husband and two babies under three. We’re in the US, so hopefully not too much unrelateable local events and official government office experiences. Otherwise, wish my daughter experienced your unorthodox teaching. I grew up traveling the world as an army brat. In Thailand, the water buffalo came right up to our school windows. We wondered around Bangkok with those same rules. Be home for dinner. So much fun! And so much learning about another culture on our terms as very young teenagers.
Really wonderful and generous words from you. Thank you very much indeed. It really makes a difference ❤️
Absolutely inspirational video, wish my kiddies had the opportunity to be in his school. Having been a foster carer for nearly 20 years , an ethos like this would move mountains for some of the children I’ve fostered ….I’ve always encouraged them to walk, help on the allottment, be with animals etc and they still remember the time they were with us as very important for them…so I can totally relate to the great outdoors…..as the saying goes “ let Mother Nature soothe your furrowed brow” Thank you both so much for all you are doing to save humanity and regain our sanity !! X
Great feedback and a massive motivation for me. Thank you very much indeed 🙏
Loved this Talk .. What a lovely man Mike is And great respect for him standing up. Lucky children to have such a cool Headmaster .. Id love to have gone to a school like that or for my children to have. We so need more schools like this
I quite agree to the Nazi Germany link .. My Grandfather had 2 brothers murdered horribly by the Nazi's for not saluting them ... Right from the beginning of this I have spoken up .. I didnt care .. I didnt it thinking of my Grandpa his Brothers my Great Granny and all of Germany .. For all the harm they are causing the people of the world ...
Bath and North East Somerset Council also post on FB blindlingly obvious health warnings about the heat or river threats etc .. I often leave remarks ,saying that people do have common sence and such like ...Ive noticed too other people leaving such remarks too ..Which is encouraging Utterly bonkers Thankyou Tess and Mike
Thank you very much indeed for your kind and generous words 🙏❤️
Not at all you deserve it .. So refreshing to hear your side of the story as a HeadMaster in these mad time as you say the madness of others who have children in their care who won't speak up because they are frightened about their jobs .. Theres nothing more precious than a child's life 💖
I was born and bred in and around B,ton so know the Downs and the beach so well ..Spent many hours dodging the rough seas along the seafront n my bike . Not worrying about the dangers..
Perhaps your next role is to see more schools like yours open around the country .. The children would love it.. Life skills are so much more important ..I was always staring out the window at school .. Everything went over the top of my head .. Learnt more the day I left ..
All the best for the future
it looks like I pressed something that I didn't mean to like reporting your comment .. Im so sorry Mike 😱🙈 sorry
I love Tess talks...Thankyou Tess & Mike. This is all good stuff & big topic....I think we are very lucky indeed if we get some great teachers. The syllabus is an "issue" for me.... eg Are kids taught about the legal system & it's horrendous failings, & political systems or "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" ...or manners/behaviour skills? Ways to verify what they are being told? Perhaps someone here might tell me please. Seems to me many, if not most all, who excel in tertiary edu & rise up in the system due to that, ...& are good at reading & remembering, and believing a lot of BS, often without propper probing & verification...Too many folks believe these experts' BS .. they are ...apparently so intelligent? But just try and ask them for some explanations eg C19...& they don't want to look at the evidence ... like politicians. I think out of the scores of very highly educated folks I know I would say the lions share are not "intelligent" ...they are just "educated"..& have some sort of "ticket" (a Meal ticket!). I remember my father was displeased with a school report about me when about 12 yo...the teacher wrote I was "dogmatic"....I think now at 70 yo...re this instance it was him that was being dogmatic.... & I was actually being anti-dogmatic. I ask us all here, how can anyone know the "truth" about say, ancient history....just look at how they lie about even history as its happening right in front of us today. I say all people need to be very, v skeptical of wrongful authority & propaganda....Govs are v dangerous ..they kill on an industrial scale with impunity. And sadly they don't prosecute their own crimes.
Set our children free! They’re the only hope for a future of freedom!
Very interesting Doc.
Is the montesory school similar to what was discussed?