Finding your passion - To the students of Classroom 21.

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all happy and well and have had an enjoyable and fun weekend. I think that I am so lucky that I have been able to find my passion in life, recently I have found myself thinking about it more and more each day. My only reason for telling you this is that hopefully, in some way,  it will inform/educate/inspire you to do everything that you can to find you own passion. I have so many people to thank that I have been able to experience the world in the way that I have, who have provided me with an education, which has enabled me to follow a career path of my choosing. I try each and every day to let them know how grateful I am. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you all, as you are such an inspiration to me and make my role as your teacher so enjoyable. Thank you!

I take very little credit for what I generally say to you regarding finding your passion or element, as the ideas are not my own. However after I realised that I had indeed found my passion, quite an eye opening experience, it has allowed me to develop my ideas further, which has been really cool. These ideas come from people far more knowledgeable and educated than I (see below). And that is the point. There are people both dead and alive whose knowledge and expertise vastly outweighs that which you or I combined will probably experience in our life times. You should learn from them as much as you possibly can. I find myself researching the life experiences of others more and more each day. Indeed I was recently reminded of a famous quote from an absolute legend, whose name will never be forgotten.  In fact he is that much of a legend I predict that the majority of you will know who he is, even though he has been dead for over 40 years. I thought it would be cool to share some of his inspirational quotes with you now. The first has Biology, Chemistry and Physics written all over it, hence the reason it appears first.

I have learnt that it is so important to remain ‘fluid’ in life as you never know what obstacles you will encounter and undoubtedly you will encounter some, which you will have to navigate in order to reach your goals. This ability to be ‘fluid’ undoubtedly comes from ensuring you learn as much as you can and are as educated in as many fields as you possibly can be. Therefore I encourage you to learn from others more educated and experienced than you each and every day. Here are a few other Bruce Lee quotes to inspire and focus the mind, including my own.

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”

“Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I’m still learning, for learning is boundless.”

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

“A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself.”

“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

Bruce Lee.

What an absolute legend!

It is quite possible that I have found the last six weeks the most enjoyable out of my entire teaching career to date, which is unbelievable as I have found the last eight years the most enjoyable period of my life to date! I am really very lucky. I am so glad that I have been able to share the learning experiences and achievements of Harry, Millie, Rowan, Jessica and Martha with you, thank you so much to you all for liking and sharing their work. I very much hope that they have been inspired in some way by your kind actions to continue with the passions that they currently have and are so obviously talented in. I also hope that you have been inspired in some way to continue to develop your own talents and skills.

The most incredible thing is that there are so many of you who are incredibly gifted and talented in your own right. There have already been a huge number of outstanding learning experiences and achievements that I have witnessed in Classroom 21 that I could have shared since the beginning of the academic year. Unfortunately I do not have the time to compile them all but I will do my absolute best to try. It makes me question how many outstanding students there are in St. James’ that I do not even teach, who I may not even have spoken to yet, which in turn makes me question how many there are in schools in Stockport, Greater Manchester and the U.K. as a whole? Then if you think about the world as a whole, where in places of education, outstanding examples of learning experiences and achievements occur every single second of every single day. The numbers are quite unimaginable.

Currently, I am so aware of the importance of trying to inspire each and every one of you to find  your passion in life. Everything I am currently doing is geared towards this fundamental principle. Again, I refer you to ‘The Man’, unfortunately not Jan ‘The Man’ Banda (this time!), unsurprisingly as I probably reference him at least once a week, I refer you to Sir Ken Robinson. I can not recommend enough taking the time to watch this short video produced by the RSA, you will understand the reason for everything that I am currently doing.

Every time I listen to Sir Ken speak I keep asking myself a single question, why are the people who make the decisions about our education system doing exactly the opposite? It is quite bizarre. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this everyone, I hope you have an enjoyable week ahead full of fun, learning and happiness.

Sir.