A libertarian inclined blog for teachers and learners of all ages. Comments, emails and links to other educational stuff welcome.
Recent Comments
-
Headteacher job london on Teacher as hero
-
Tony on Exam results in South Africa are bad but the exams themselves may actually be quite good
-
suresh on Police academy
-
MBA Lady on How to learn how easy a language will be to learn
-
Jack Courtney on "There aren't very many jobs for teenagers ..."
-
MBA Lady on "There aren't very many jobs for teenagers ..."
-
Kim Ramsey on Higher paid teachers – bigger classes – better results
-
Procerin Reviews on Higher paid teachers – bigger classes – better results
-
Mia on How Chinese soldiers are trained to keep their heads up
-
Logic Prevails on How Chinese soldiers are trained to keep their heads up
Monthly Archives
-
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
Most recent entries
- Category error!
- The SATs fiasco makes the cover of Private Eye
- Summer holiday
- Grilled Balls
- Party talk
- Lowest bidder
- Another teaching blog
- Unstructured
- “Parents should not rely on SATs …”
- Let the feral kids get jobs
- Rock and roll cricketers?
- The many degrees of Robert Mugabe
- Making the students love ID cards
- The genetics of autism
- Meeting a celeb at a posh school doesn’t count
Blogroll
A don's life
children are people
Dare to Know
Educating Outside The Box
Elemental Mom
Ewan McIntosh's edu.blogs.com
Green House by the Sea
HE&OS
It Shouldn't Happen to a Teacher
Joanne Jacobs
kitchen table math, the sequel
Life WIthout School
Mr. Chalk
Mortarboard
O'DonnellWeb
school of everything
Stay at home dad
Successful Teaching
The ARCH Blog
The Core Knowledge Blog
The DeHavilland Blog
To Miss with Love
Websites
-
A-Z Home's Cool
dyslexics.org.uk
Education Otherwise
Educational Heretics Press
E.G. West Centre
European-American University
Homeschool World
Independent Schools Council
Indian Moms
Kumon
New Model School Company
Reading Reform Foundation
Ruth Miskin Literacy
South West Surrey Home Education
TES
The Supplementary Schools Project
Mainstream Media education sections
BBC
Guardian
Independent
Telegraph
Times
Syndicate
RSS 1.0
RSS 2.0
Atom
Feedburner
Categories
Adult education
Africa
Architecture
Asia
Australasia
Bias
Bits from books
Bloggers and blogging
Books
Boys
Brian teaches
Bullying
Business education
Canada
China
Class size
Comprehensive schools
Compulsion
Computers
Consent
Crime
dcsf
Diet
Discipline
Distance learning
Drama
Economics
Educational memories
Equality
Europe
Examinations
Exclusion
Famous educations
Gerald Hartup
Girls
Globalisation
Grammar
Grammar schools
Higher education
History
Home education
How the mind works
India
Initiatives
Intelligence
Languages
League tables
Learning by doing
Links
Literacy
Maths
Medicine
Middle East
Movies
Music
OFSTED
Parents
Physical education
Play
Podcasts
Politics
Primary schools
Qualifications
Quote unquote
Reading
Real life
Religion
Russia
Safety
School choice
Science
Scotland
Self education
Sex education
Socialising
South America
Sovietisation
Spelling
Sport
Targets
Teacher training
Technology
Television
Testing
The internet
The private sector
This blog
Three Rs
Training
Truancy
UK
USA
Video
Violence
Vouchers
West Indies
Other Blogs I write for
CNE Competition
CNE Intellectual Property
Samizdata
Transport Blog
Brian Micklethwait
(the personal blog)
Previous entry: New immigration law threatens the British higher education industry
In Saturday’s Times Magazine (I read this on paper and can find no link to it), Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli talks about “an extraordinary mentor”:
My father was the bank deputy in our Tuscan village, and the manager he worked for was Amos Martelacci, the single most influential person I’ve met in my entire life. Self-taught and from a poor family, he was obsessed by travel, spoke several languages, had amassed and actually read tens of thousands of books and was advocate to the whole community, forever available, a source of wisdom and encouragement to all. He came into my life when I was 18 and studying for my final exams at school [Bocelli would go on to graduate in law from the University of Pisa] and the difference he made to me was profound. He passed on to me a love of literature, particularly French and Russian. He taught me to doubt apparent certainties, questioning everything. And while he lived to see, and was made happy by, my success, he viewed it with detachment, showing me in turn how to accord it the correct value. Was I his surrogate son [Martelacci was married but had no children]? Perhaps, but if so, he had many others, for he was kind to everyone. I named my eldest boy Amos in his honour. You can imagine how I felt when he [Martelacci] died on my 40th birthday.