On the Importance of Studying Poetry
The argument for the most ‘important’ subject in school being … poetry.
Read MoreKatherine Rundell's 'Super-Infinite: the transformations of John Donne'
Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite: the transformations of John Donne is a thrilling revisiting of poems that may be 400 years old, but are still fizzingly alive.
Read MoreRadical Attention
Julia Bell’s pocket-sized essay, Radical Attention examines the ways our attention has become a commodity and how an industry has developed out of our distractions.
Read MoreHow to Think Like Shakespeare
The tagline for this site is Thinking, Writing, Reading, Teaching, and you may have spotted that Shakespeare features regularly. So it’s exciting to come across a book which combines all five elements.
Read MoreAttention (3): the power of reading aloud
One of the deepest pleasures in life: being a child snuggled up to a parent, listening to a story. And also being a parent holding your child, telling that story (such as, for instance, Sam McBratney’s gentle series Guess How Much I Love You ). It is simply The ineffable magic in the mingling of a voice, a narrative, loving attention, and physical closeness.
Read MoreAttention (2): Maryanne Wolf and cognitive patience
Reader, Come Home: the reading brain in a digital world (2018) is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of our recent years.
Read MoreAttention (1): A Bunch of Asparagus
This is the preface to a series of short essays about ‘Attention’ in our world, including our schools. To start off: a still life of asparagus spears, by the artist Adriaen Coorte, from 1697.
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