Treegazing

I seem to have been running behind all day, largely because I got sucked into watching Nadal v Djokovic in the Australian Open. I didn't see all of it by any means (it lasted the best part of 6 hours!), but tried to catch the key stages in between going for a run on the moor and a short cycle up the valley. The athleticism and level of skill was like nothing else I think I have ever seen - with all due respect to Roger Federer. It was positively gladiatorial in the brutal strength of the ground strokes. They seem to have taken the sport to a whole new level today. It was a pity that one of them had to lose - although, truly, there is no real loser in such a great contest. I really like both these men. In the post match speeches they were almost as articulate with their words as they were with the racket. It was awesome to watch.

Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback to yesterday's blip, both the image and the write-up. It was heartening to find so many people - a lot of you clearly teachers - in agreement. There is a quote from a favourite book of mine, Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, that it seems appropriate to share tonight.

Education leads toward a continuing self-discovery; training leads toward a final self-definition.

By rights our schools should balance education with training. The art of teaching should be about both training and educating children. In an ideal world there should be a synergy between the two disciplines. I think most teachers would love to spend more time educating and less time training, but our current system makes that virtually impossible. That, to me, is really sad - and actually a terrible indictment of our society and its dominating values.