Year: 2017

When one’s inner self meets power – character is put to the test

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln   Power is a very strong word. Not just in terms of the word, but with the control that comes with it. Not many are taught about handling the power given to them, because

Read more »

Why I am what I am

I am going to start with a famous quote – a deep and beautiful quote that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple said, in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other

Read more »

Why would you fit in if you were born to stand out?

I love you, my friend, if you ever had to hear in your address: “You’re abnormal!”.  You are lucky. I do not understand what people mean when they say that you are crazy! But I want to know – do they understand what the norm is? Many people spend half of their lives (or even

Read more »

On the Transcendence of books

As an adult (a term which I am still taking time to get a grip with), it is sometimes hard to imagine what my thought process would have been like as a 10-year-old something. If I take my mother’s view into account, I would have been nothing less than an uncontrollable dynamo of chaos, always

Read more »

Oak Wings

Hi, my name is Rebecca! I know you can see me. The brown hair, the hazel eyes, the ruffled top, whatever you wish, it’s true. I’m not here to tell you what I have done in the past, I’m not here to tell you how I look like in the mirror, I am here to

Read more »

To be normal in an abnormal society?

“Nobody realises that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal”. Camus  We don’t need any definition for ‘normal’, but we are ruled by the structure of this label in society. Every single soul is so different; we have different characters, but we are moved around like on a chessboard.  Life is like the

Read more »

Fire

Fire can cause a lot of damage. That is it can burn houses, schools, people and even factories. There was a school called St. Barnabas Secondary School. It was a school and there was a thief who came to their school to steal their property. The thief didn’t find anything to steal and so he

Read more »

Fire

Fire is the flame. Light, heat and smoke is produced when something burns. It burns fiercely, causing damage to people, institutions, houses, animals, etc. Everybody fears fire. Fire can also burn as a result of accident, e.g. with petrol or electricity. One night at a school called Moi Girls Secondary School in Nairobi, situated along

Read more »

A New and Improved Mindset for Education

Unleashing students’ inherent creative potential ought to feature at the very forefront of what the education system stands for. What is proving particularly disconcerting in the 21st century, however, is how increasingly time-consuming and addictive technology has infiltrated and corrupted our schools and universities, detracting from academic vibrancy and crippling social cohesion. Rather than using

Read more »

Burning Platforms: The Celebration of Those Who Are Pushed Over Those Who Choose to Jump

Adversity – a condition of misfortune, hardship, difficulty, distress, the suffering of an individual from the conditions that surround them. Man’s ability to weather a storm is well-documented and well enshrined in popular culture; the subject of many a Pulitzer-prize winning novel, or academy award winning movie. Heck, our love for the underdog goes all

Read more »

The Bull

Present day. Immortalised she stands, glistening in the sun, which beats down onto her brow. She stands defiant. She stands tall. Stance low and grounded, her opponent is battle ready, snorting and grunting thick pillars of ashy, white smoke. He sways, shifting his weight around, ready to annihilate her without a flicker of guilt. Our

Read more »

We and our daemons

When presumed to apologize, before being sentenced to death for “corrupting the youth of Athens and being impious” (euphemisms for caring about his fellow souls), Socrates told the Athenians that he deserved free meals for the rest of his life for working to save them, an exhaustive job he would keep on doing. The philosopher

Read more »

Power colours the nature of Man

Introduction Power is the ability to control things and people. Power is what makes the United States the greatest nation on earth. Power is what makes South Sudan the poorest country in the world. Power is what makes education practical and applied in the UK, and it is the same power that makes education theoretical

Read more »

The icon in the woods, by the cabin

To be common and familiar is to be expected. Men enjoy their patterns and comfort, they stray from the anomalies and punish or dignify them, if they refuse to conform. To be different is to be estranged or made into a deity with superhuman qualities. The thought of any of these two consequences makes Camus’

Read more »

Victory of Innocence

The statue of the charging bull has long been symbol of the confidence of investors in the stock market. In fact, we have seen it more as a symbol than as a work of art. With the recent addition of the “Fearless Girl”, who seems to be staring the bull down, however, there has been

Read more »

Lost In Pindorama

It was night time. The sound of the rustling of leaves made Jason shoot up from his deep sleep. His vision blurred when he stretched and made a noise. His blurry vision could only perceive tall trees around him and instincts told him that he wasn’t at home or even near a remote settlement, forget

Read more »

Work isn’t everything

The word “education” comes from Latin, educationem, which means a “rearing or training”. In the past, this used to refer to nurturing children physically and expanding their minds. That should attest to the basic rationale behind education. As for the origin of the word “school”, it comes from Greek, σχολή, pronounced “scholē”. Its earliest meaning

Read more »

Ain’t no pigeonhole big enough

“Should the role of education be to prepare students for working life, or to broaden their mind?“ The question at hand seems to reinforce, in my view, the idea that our society is hell-bent on commercialising even abstract things such as education. I think that treating education as a product isn’t necessarily the best approach.

Read more »

The Abyss

I leap into the cold winter air and feel every bit of its freshness. It is blue all the way to the horizon where the ocean meets the sky. No matter how many times I view it, the gorgeous open canvas mesmerizes me every single time. This is the only time of the day I

Read more »

The Apology of Algebra

Why should we learn things like algebra? It is not uncommon to hear people say things about the putative uselessness of subjects such as math. If one is to apply the principle of charity and refrain oneself from asking what people think the house they live in was built with (or, for that matter, how

Read more »