Posts from September 2015

On one occasion at a Minister’s Association meeting an Anglican colleague took me aside while we were enjoying a cuppa before the meeting proper began. He asked whether he could “pick my brain”. A strange expression! Were brains up for grabs and he wanted to choose mine? Or was my brain that hard to crack that he needed a pick? We really ought to come up with a different expression for those moments when we want to benefit from someone…

One of our regional State High Schools is introducing a new way of teaching their students, using a tool that is becoming increasingly popular around the world.  It is called Classcraft and is managed by an on-line company by that name: classcraft.com.  Their stated objective is that “Classcraft helps teachers manage, motivate and engage their students by transforming their classroom into a role-playing game.” The thinking behind this latest phenomenon is some statistical data.  In the USA 58% of Americans…

Just two weeks after my sixteenth birthday the late J. F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the US of A.  I remember well his inauguration speech – well, at least one line of it, which became famous and has often since been repeated and quoted: “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That’s a line that more Aussies should take to heart today.  The…