Discovering the ideas, traditions and practices associated with open learning from around the world was singularly the most generative discovery of my life. More than anything it has improved my health, happiness, and ability to think and act in the world in ways which are constructive. This journey is one which cannot be measured but […] Read more...
This expresses the philosophy of education underpinning the values of Ragged University. This thesis is an expanded version of a presentation originally given at the British Educational Research Association conference held in Liverpool John Moores University 8th November 2018 which spoke to the of ‘Transitions: Challenges, Threats & Opportunities across the Post-compulsory Sectors’. Its original title […] Read more...
It took around 15 minutes for the barrister to realise. Nobody else did, except me. It felt like one of those dreamlike states wherein you open your mouth and wave your arms but nobody notices. The longer it goes on, the more the inner turmoil swells to busting point, but you can’t burst. It’s a […] Read more...
James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, set in the mountains of Tibet, created the fictional ‘Shangri-La’ – a place of the spirit, seemingly outside time, where people lived long lives in a fastness far removed from a world beset by war. For most visitors and many Scots, the Highlands of Scotland – the Gaidhealtachd – […] Read more...
Come along to the community hall on the side of St John’s Church Edinburgh at 6.30pm for some food, some drinks (BYOB) and a talk on physics by Gino Title of talk: What is Condensed Matter Physics?
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”– William Blake ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ in G. Keynes, ed., Poetry and Prose of William Blake (London: Nonesuch Library 1961)
Nervous exhaustion, melancholy, Weltschmerz, ennui, alienation, neurasthenia, Americanitis, stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, burnout ~ the labels & the socio-cultural context may change yet the symptoms remain the same. We are not referring to issues of faulty brain chemistry here such as clinical depression, mania or psychosis, yet these common & everyday emotions are increasingly being […] Read more...