September 2012

  • The miller's tale – I998

    As referenced earlier, 14 years ago, and again the other day, I had a conversation with a miller in the small caucasus mountains in Georgia that was more than merely thought-provoking.  I wrote it up as part of my field...

  • Foundational pop-up resources

    The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has released a set of school-focused resources based around circular economy ideas.  Their web pages say: Enriching the curriculum and enhancing young people’s skills and critical and creative thinking will be key to their future prospects...

  • Another day; another journal

    So, welcome to the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education (IJECEE) which is to be published by NAAEE which, I am told, is bearing all publication costs (except reviewing). Its blurb say it will publish scholarly written work, anonymously and...

  • Tbilisi redux

    Thinking again of T+35, and that video nasty, I recalled my only trip to Tbilisi.  I went for a week in 1998 as part of the evaluation of WWF's global environmental education programme which John Fien directed. Indelible memories still...

  • Badgers, cattle and the rural economy

    This autumn, trials will go ahead in the South West of England to test the suitability of controlled shooting as a method of culling badgers in an effort to combat the problem of bovine TB (bTB) in England, to test...

  • Tbilisi on You Tube

    I'm grateful, I think, to Alan Reid for the link to a gritty and grainy film of the first (that is, real) Tbilisi conference in 1977.  Shot in black, white, and 50+ shades of grey, this is a Soviet propaganda...

  • On the streets again – defending democracy in New Zealand

    What an odd title, you might think, given that NZ was the first country to have universal suffrage.  However, you might like to read the admirable and utterly irrefragable Bronwen Hayward on the latest efforts in Christchurch to rebuild a...

  • Grade corruption in Wales

    It is hard to know which is the more disturbing – a politician ordering an exam board to raise candidates' GCSE grades, or the board meekly saying "Yes sir, of course, sir.  Very happy to oblige."  The latter, probably.  Both...

  • No child left thinking

    On my more bleak days, I think this is government policy, but all I have to do is to read one of Mr Gove's speeches to be myself again. Actually, it's the title [ No Child Left Thinking – democracy at...

  • Thinking inside the box at Oxford

    Limited opportunities at Oxford ... Head of Environmental Sustainability                  Estates Directorate, The Malthouse, Oxford Grade 10: £49,689 - £57,581 p.a. Could you lead the University of Oxford’s mission to carry out its...