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The Thinker I am an admirer of the very talented Sculptor, Francois Augusta René Rodin. Many see him as the founder of modern sculpture. My favourite piece is “The Thinker”, which I was fortunate to see in Venice. The original casting is in the Musée Rodin in Paris. I find the sculpture to be both beautiful and thought provoking. Another of his gems is “The Cathedral”. With this Rodin has crafted two hands barely touching each other, like the entrance to a cathedral. To me the sculpture highlights the power of the human hand and promotes reflection on all the good that hands can do. It is also a fine reminder to a thinking teacher that learning by doing and thinking about it usually pays dividends.

"To recognise teacher excellence is to recognise the future. For nothing is surer than that..." ~ Austin Asche

I taught with someone years ago who had previously exited society and lived for one or two years as a hermit somewhere in the wilds of Tasmania. I guess he achieved emotionally what he wanted to achieve and on returning to society spent the rest of his life valuing community.

I’ve never forgotten the excitement of turning the pages of a new exercise book, covered by my conscientious mother in first brown paper, then a pasted picture from some calendar or magazine and finally with fine plastic that clearly had a dubious length of life. I can’t remember whether covering our books was an option or whether it was mandated and if you didn’t you would get into trouble - getting into trouble was part of the norm, in my memory.

We have recently updated our Professional Development Calendar for 2025!