Just like last year, I’ll be taking a break over the next four or five issues, so this is a shorter issue than would normally drop into your inbox. I hope that you enjoy this selection of links and pics, feel free to get in touch, and look forward to catching up later in the summer.
Greetings from the Yorkshire Dales, it really is beautiful out here.
I’m in a cafe just a few miles from Richmond where I stayed last night, taking a last minute booking on my way up from Leicester in the middle of the country, passing through Wakefield and Leeds. I’m on my way to Durham where I’m meeting colleagues and will talk to them about their work with virtual reality, it’s wonderful to be able to connect with people all around the world trying to find ways to create opportunities for students and teachers, and help them to bring these technologies into their curriculum. I’ll say more about this later in the week, but first a little travel diary for you as I make my way up the country from South to North.
First of all, I should reassure readers of last week’s newsletter that I’ve recovered from Covid, having spent the first ten days of our trip to the UK living in a single room at my folks’ house on the South Coast, along from Brighton. When finally I tested negative, my wife then tested positive, so we swapped over and I took the boys out and enjoyed some time with my mum and dad while she recovered.
It feels very strange being in the UK, for starters it was odd anyway being here but not able to go out, but it is all familiar yet new, the cars seem tiny and roads almost un-passable, what has happened to me? Sadly, Covid meant we missed dates with friends and didn’t manage to visit our old stomping grounds, perhaps before we leave at the end of the month we will manage to do that.
When I was well, I took the boys to Brighton and we enjoyed a trip on the BA 360i which is basically a big tower with a viewing platform, it looks like a donut on a long pole, thankfully it doesn’t spin, instead it raises up slowly until you’re a few hundred feet up with spectacular views along the coast and across the town snuggled into The Downs, the long rolling hills that ridge along the south of England.
A few days later I dropped the boys off with their Welsh family, with my wife waiting for a negative test, we decided that it would be the easiest thing to do before I headed up north.
My first stop was Birmingham for a night’s stay and pick up my colleague Sebastien, flown in from France. We met at the airport and drove another hour up the motorway to Leicester for three days of The Playful Learning Conference. This is the conference that I was suppose to attend in 2020, so fittingly, the theme was time-travel, with each day a different year, you can follow #playlearn202122 on twitter to get the idea.
This is the antidote to all the terrible conferences you and I have been to. There’s little panic, no rushing quickly from one session to the next, there are places to have coffee and chat, and play board games. There are many fun and active sessions where people share their ideas and we try some of the activities that they will often use with their students. I had a wonderful time and I very much think Sebastien did too, he’s naturally social, friendly and generous person, one of the reason I’m working where I am, so it was a pleasure seeing him chatting with people and sharing some of the great things that he does as a teacher and researcher.
It was also nice to catch up with people in my network here in the UK, and a pleasure to meet new people who had come to Playful Learning through their different disciplines; teachers, librarians, learning technologists, researchers and more. There were a few colleagues from the states, some who had stumbled on Playful Learning by chance scanning through research or reading newsletters such as this one (yes, I inspired at least one person to come)!
We had a fun time with an interactive screening of Back to the Future, where we booed Biff and woofed when Einstein appeared, and waved a little flag that said “Not Okay” when there were things that might be less acceptable nowadays. We waved the flag more than I imagined that we would, especially at various points, for instance the Libyans, or Biff’s toxic masculinity. We pulled our party poppers when the lightning struck the clock tower and sung along with the end credits.
A few days later, leafing through my notes, I see various threads, looking at themes of engagement, participation, and especially how adults can give themselves permission to play. This last thing is key, trying to go against the programming that people have, that play shouldn’t be part of learning, that lessons should be serious, that the stakes should be high and stress a so-called preparation for real-life. As the last few days demonstrated, it’s just a nonsense. Learning should be playful, joyous, a social, collaborative endeavor. Dark forces disagree, which is why Play is political act.
After the conference I spent a few days with my uncle Richard who is a cricket commentator for BBC Radio Leicester, we visited the ground and wandered up to the gantry where he broadcasts, ball by ball, to listeners across the world, even a recent India T20 warmup attracted tens of thousands of listeners from the sub-continent, leaving wonderful comments on the now de-rigor YouTube stream. He’s a wonderfully warm presence on radio and in real life, so it was great to spent a few days with him. Also nice surprise was enjoying a meal at the Exeter Arms created by my cousin Tom who is enjoying a new career as a chef. It was tasty and delicious, beautifully presented, a real feast for the eyes.
I made it a family double on my way up to Richmond, stopping on Sunday for a walk around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my aunt Sally and my cousin Tori and her daughter Esme. This is a beautiful venue with some incredible pieces, that peak out from behind trees or appear on the horizon, as you walk through gloriously lush meadows, full of wild flowers. There are great plastic and fiberglass Damien Hirst sculptures, and Richard Indiana Love pieces, but sloping down from the house, there were a family of bronze Barbara Hepworth sculptures, with green holes and rough surfaces, warmed by the sun, totemic and resplendent, all facing south. I was reminded of the time I visited her studio in St.Ives, with plaster, rock and chisels, a workshop looking out on a small leafy courtyard. I’m transported to a time and place, I can feel my heart rate calm, my blood pressure ease, my mind at peace.
Finally, Sally showed me where she had memorialized my aunty Penny, who sadly died from cancer about five years ago. Penny was a dancer and artist who ran many great arts centers and companies, a cultural ambassador in the true sense, working in Ireland, the UK and also Zimbabwe, in the States and throughout Europe. We’re a creative family, there’s definitely a common gene that seems to steer us towards more artistic professions, we are teachers, artists, performers, writers, and often work with people in roles of care and support. Penny encouraged us all, she brought people together, a fixer, connecting people with ideas and opportunities to make and create. We all miss her, she was great fun, it was moving to see her name here, in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where she would visit and walk among the art.
Thank You
It has been lovely spending a few days up North, I have to remind myself that I am a Yorkshireman, born in Bridlington, on the east coast. I have dipped my feet into the cold north sea, my team is Leeds United and I am partial to fish and chips with gravy. Spending so much of my life growing up in the south, it has been nice to reconnect with my roots, ‘ by eck.
The next few days, I’ll be in Durham, working at the University and meeting people before heading back to Wales to catch up with the rest of the family. I hope that you’re well and hope you are managing to find some time for yourself this summer.
Let me know what you’re up to, it’s always lovely to hear from you. Take care, best wishes.
Issue #126 - The Spaces in Between
Love reading this one...and will definitely check out the Playful Learning conference! I just gave a talk about drawing for disciplines outside of art and it was so fun to get folks to think about art as a way rather than a thing. Have a great rest of your trip!