• gone from being unemployed to getting a permanent job at College
• gone from having 0 teaching hours per week to 12 teaching hours per week
• successfully completed the first year of my PGCE
• entered students to the Higher Tier of the GCSE exam, rather than all Foundation Tier
• managed to become a manager at the College (I know, how???)
• became quite active in the Union.

All told, quite a busy year. My management job is full-time (my previous job was part-time, allowing me to do 12 hours of teaching). But I need to be allowed to finish the PGCE, so next year I will (fingers crossed!)be allowed to carry on the minimum teaching load to keep up with the PGCE, 6 hours per week. As coincidence would have it, that is the amount of time given to the challenging students for English, so I can carry on teaching those classes for another year (I hope).

The exam is on Tuesday. I’m nervous. The majority of my students are sitting the Higher Tier paper. That includes almost half the challenging students. I hope my faith in them pays off, not for me, but for them. The Foundation paper may be capped, with a maximum mark, but the Higher Tier paper fails you if you don’t get a D. The students are capable, but sometimes they don’t want to work for it. But I at least hope that I have impressed upon them the importance of the exam.

Things that my students have taught me this year?

• Apparently if I were to kick one of them in the head it would constitute the Best. Lesson. Ever.
• I overestimate how well my students know internet memes.
• 34 years old is apparently “ancient”.
• Star Wars references are wholly lost on my students.
• As are Harry Potter references.
• And biblical references.
• Don’t even mention topical news references.
• There is no more inappropriate way to end a controlled assessment assignment than with “peace out homie and shit.”
• Students will still demand to “watch a film” during every class except the ones when they have to write a film review and therefore watching a film might actually be of benefit to those who keep moaning that they “don’t know what film to pick”…
• My students own more smartphones than any person has a reasonable need for.
• My students can hide smartphones in more places than any person has a reasonable need to contemplate.
• Despite having to read less whilst studying it, my students cannot abide poetry, and would much rather we had studied Of Mice and Men.
• I am still irrationally against teaching Of Mice and Men and am thinking about tackling 1984 next year…

Just after 26 miles, looking surprisingly relaxed!

Two weeks after completing the London Marathon and I think my body has recovered, more or less. The blisters on my feet have turned into peeling skin, the raw rubbing on my arms has faded, and my knees and hips are on speaking terms with me once again.

And so my thoughts turn to my next run…

Way back in 2012 I set myself a target of running a 5k, 10k, half-marathon and full marathon within the period 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2013. Starting with the BUPA 10,000 on 27 May 2012, then the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon on 7 October 2012 and culminating in the Virgin London Marathon 2013 on 21 April 2013. Along the way I neglected to run an officially timed 5k race, but knocked off several 5k runs as part of my training, so I’m allowing that as part of the target.

Somewhere in and around all that I forgot that I’m running the BUPA 10,000 again this year, and have an urge to go for the Royal Parks Half again, though I suspect I may not get an entry for that. I have however entered the ballot again for next year’s marathon. That particular course and I have some unfinished business to attend to, particularly mile markers 8, 13 and 17…

Crossing the finish line!

Back to the point. Although I am not officially running for Mind this time round, my fundraising page Barefoot and blistered across London will remain open for several other months, including the time I’m running the BUPA 10,000. So anyone who hasn’t donated, my 10k run might be a little nudge in the right direction to send some cash my way. For those who have donated already, well you could always treat this as another charity run…

I am £1002 short of my fundraising target for the London Marathon. So I need to find 100 generous people to give £10.02. Maybe you can donate. And you know two other people who can donate. And they know two people. I’m raising money for Mind, England’s leading mental health charity. One in four people will suffer from mental health problems, so 25 out of those 100 people I’m looking for are directly affected by the cause I’m fundraising for. And the other 75? You know someone in the 25, so you’re indirectly affected.

So please, give generously. And me? I’ll be back out on the streets in all conditions, barefoot and blistered…

My feet are a swarm of blisters, and even without the blisters feel like they have shattered. My back, shoulders, hips and legs feel twisted and knotted, and I can barely move.

But I completed the marathon. It was far outside my target of 4hrs 30mins. I finished in 6hrs 9mins 37s. Partly because of the blisters, partly because I collided with a wheelchair at mile 6 and went over my ankle, and partly because for several miles I could do nothing else except walk, and even then barely.

Ignoring what it did to my body, mentally it almost broke me several times. Mile 8. Mile 13. Mile 17. At these points I almost gave up. But thanks to supporting texts from Julia, the generous support of the other runners and the public, and my fellow Mind runners, I made it.

My donations page is still open: Barefoot and blistered across London and I would dearly appreciate it if you could make a donation if you haven’t done so already, or to encourage friends/family/colleagues/random strangers in the street to donate. It is all for a very worthy cause.

As for me, that is my last marathon. For today. Right now, if you asked me do I want to do the London Marathon next year, I’d tell you no way. Tomorrow? Who knows. Certainly I have a course to get revenge on. It almost broke me this year. The temptation to break it next year is appealing…

Race photos to follow!

This is my first marathon, and I’m in all likelihood incredibly nervous.

But you can help settle my nerves, by visiting my sponsorship page Barefoot and blistered across London and making a donation to my fundraising total.

As ever, I’m running on behalf of Mind. The London Marathon is their largest fundraising event of the year, so it is vitally important that each and every runner on Team Mind achieves their fundraising target of £1600. I’m a little short.

OK, I’m a lot short. £1200 short to be precise. So go on, give a little money to help a lot of people. People like me.

If you fancy a flutter, you can make a donation and guess when I’m going to finish by visiting my Guessability page. Not sure how long it will allow guesses to be made to it, but I’d say that you have until mid-day at least.

Wish me luck!

Between Two Thorns—the first in The Split Worlds trilogy

My good friend Emma Newman is launching the first book of her Split Worlds trilogy—Between Two Thorns.

In the run up to the launch Emma has been touring the blogosphere with a year and a day of short stories set in the Split Worlds universe which lead up to the events of Between Two Thorns. I was fortunate enough to host the second of these short stories on this site in November 2011.

Between Two Thorns is released in the US on 26 February, and in the UK on 7 March. You can of course wait until those dates to get a copy of the book, or…

Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns for a chance to win a great prize!

If you’ve been following Em then you’ll know that nothing about how The Split Worlds came to be published, and has been marketed, is conventional, so of course you won’t “just” have to wait for the launch. Not only can you pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns TODAY, but do so and you’ll be entered into a prize draw. The winner will have a character named after them in All Is Fair—the third Split Worlds novel (released October 2013)—and receive a special mention at the end of the book.

How to Enter

Simply pre-order a copy of the book from your favourite retailer. NB: if you pre-order from Forbidden Planet you’ll get a signed copy

If you order from Forbidden Planet or robottradingcompany.com (for ebooks) then you don’t need to do anything else: Angry Robot will take care of your entry for you. If you pre-order from anywhere else you’ll need to email a copy of your order confirmation to: thorns@angryrobotbooks.com and they’ll assign a number to you.

You can pre-order from any of the following retailers:

Forbidden Planet (signed paperback)

Angry Robot Trading company (DRM-free ebook)

Amazon UK (paperback)

Amazon US (paperback)

The Book Depository—UK Edition (Worldwide free postage)

The Book Depository—US Edition (bigger) (Worldwide free postage)

There are also two UK book launches, plus a global launch using the magic of telephone conferencing. All the details about the book launches, and the contest, can be found at Em’s website.

Good luck to everyone who enters, and good luck to Em for the launches. I’m planning to attend the London launch, so perhaps I’ll see some of you there?

The in-laws were visiting over the weekend, and Monday was effectively wiped out by a nasty bought of gastric flu, so the relaxing holiday began today.

I spent two hours of it at work. There were a stack of letters and reports that needed to go out to some of my students. They couldn’t wait until after the half-term. I had intended to go in on Monday but, y’know, vomiting…

I also have about 90 controlled assessments I need to mark. That’s about 20 minutes per assessment, if I want to make sure I’ve done an accurate job of it. So 1800 minutes. Or 30 hours. About 4 full days of work, not including breaks.

Then I’ve got to plan the next two assessments. Write up another two PGCE assignments. And makes sure that my materials on Moodle are up-to-date. Not to mention getting my planning for the next few weeks of lessons worked out.

Meanwhile in my non-working life I need to get the timing belt on my car fixed…

Now you might realise why I haven’t blogged since December. I only get to blog during my “copious free time” in the breaks between terms.

Happy lazy holidays fellow teachers!

Simply, an excusatory defence lets you know why someone did something. It provides the reasons. And those reasons may be something you may wish to take into account when considering the verdict, or if found guilty, during sentencing. An exculpatory defence obviates the need for any of that. Exculpatory defences, if successful, mean you cannot be found guilty of the offence.

What links the two defences is that in both cases there is absolutely no doubt that you did the thing you are accused of. Everyone accepts that, even the accused. But an excusatory defence allows the court to consider the circumstances in which you offended, whilst an exculpatory defence prevents you being blamed or punished.

The two are often confused; looking at the circumstances of a case causes many people to complain that you are “letting them get away with it”. It seems law is the only field in which gaining an understanding of why things happen is a bad thing…

I don’t make a secret of the fact that I teach children who others would characterise as “very bad”. With few exceptions, they are in our institution because they have been excluded from other schools due to their behaviour. Last year my two groups were the out of control “Band of Arseholes” and the overly sexualised TOWIEs. This year I have three groups (plus one group of mainstream students).

As with last year, I’ve been told to fuck off more times than I care to remember, called a dickhead, threatened (though oddly this year nobody has questioned my ability to teach—I must be getting better…). In each case I have sought to understand why students reacted the way they did. Did that mean that they were “rewarded” for their bad behaviour? Hell no. Consequences followed, as consequences must. But once students come to us, simply reacting to misbehaviour with the usual array of disciplinary responses stops working. Reporting someone to their tutor doesn’t scare a student expelled from his last school for punching a teacher. Becoming “just another adult who hates me” won’t draw them away from their pattern of behaviour.

Misbehaviour, punishment, more misbehaviour, more punishment. If you can’t spot the pattern then you aren’t looking hard enough. Doing something to break the cycle requires trying to understand, to empathise, and to learn what factors are influencing a child to behave that way. It does not mean punishment goes out of the window. It does not mean rewards for bad behaviour. It does not mean a child is not responsible for their decision to do something. It does mean learning why that decision was easier than behaving well, and providing assistance to the child to alter their way of thinking.

I have a lot of students who behave very badly. I have no “bad” students. Amongst the students I teach are these examples:

• Student A: does not know where he will be staying from one day to the next, constantly shuttled between relatives, sometimes only told when leaving our institution where he will be staying the night. Constantly threatened with being sent abroad to live with his father, who used to beat him.
• Students B and C: both bullied so much they had to move institution. Both have trust issues. Student C hadn’t been in education for over a year, and now has attendance issues since she started being bullied again.
• Student L: excluded from his last school for theft. Stole the items to sell so that he could eat, as his mum refused to feed him. Living with other relatives but worried about being taken into care.
• Student N: after her mother’s death three months ago, subject to a bitter custody battle between her step-father and her biological father. Suffering from mental health issues.
• Student AX: suffers from severe mental health issues.
• Student T: currently in the youth criminal justice system, my most recent dealing with T was clarifying whether he had an appointment with his case worker which justified his leaving my class early. His appointments had been rescheduled to earlier in the day, he hadn’t realised, had missed his appointment and was terrified of being breached. As he was on a tag and due in the Crown Court the following day, he was frightened this would go badly for him.
• Student H: strong suspicion that H is being groomed for sexual exploitation.
• Student R: severe alcohol abuse issues, R and her sisters have been taken into care, and separated. R is currently in a relationship with a far older man and suspected of being groomed for sexual exploitation.
• Student C: violent, aggressive, uncaring. C is regularly beaten by his father for trivial offences.

Student C is probably my most difficult student. He doesn’t see the point in education, declares that nobody can make him do anything he doesn’t want to do, and is regularly aggressive to everyone. He feels that teachers “don’t like him”. He is aware that he gained a reputation, and in Year 9 tried to change, but felt that he was still being punished on the basis of his past reputation, so he gave up trying. He told me that most of his schooling was spent in isolation and detention units due to his vocal outbursts. He has confessed he cannot control these and I suspect an underlying condition and have referred him.

If this condition is there, then C is being punished for something outwith his control: a diagnosis would give him an exculpatory defence. The rest of his behaviour is within his control. He has learned that misbehaviour is easier than compliance, especially when compliance with rules resulted in the same outcomes for him. Do as you’re told and be punished, versus do what you feel like and be punished. If the consequences are the same for him, he will choose the easier path. The cycle has to be broken. Does that mean he escapes consequences? No, but consequences should be applied differently. And yes, that may sometimes involve rewarding him for behaviour that should otherwise be a given, and attract no reward. Many rail against that, but C no longer sees benefits to adhering to rules, and so needs to relearn that good behaviour brings benefits. It is a state of mind that has been beaten out of him, physically at home and mentally at school.

All of the above students have given me disciplinary problems. The ones with the most difficult issues have, unsurprisingly, given me the biggest problems. I try to understand their current situation before punishing them for misbehaviour. Sometimes that means discipline is not as harsh as it might objectively merit. Sometimes it means behaviour management which some might view as lenient, or even rewarding the bad behaviour. It isn’t.

These children are responsible for their actions. They are responsible for their choices in life. But if you want to understand their choices, if you want to change those choices, then you need to know what led them to that choice. You need to understand and accept the things about which they have no choice in their lives. These things have a huge impact on how they behave, how they react, what they see as their options. Understand these, understand the child, and you can help them change these choices.

This isn’t letting them get away with it. It isn’t rewarding bad behaviour. It is empathy. It is responsibility. It is accountability. It is caring. It is making the difference in a young person’s life and helping them become a better person. It is one of the very reasons for education.

or

Stick Your GCSE Reforms Up Your Arse Mr Gove

For those who missed it over the summer, the GCSE English results were—and this is the technical term—a catastrofuck. A complete shambles of duplicitous goal-post moving and ideological sophistry, with the sole object of enabling Pob (or Michael Gove as he calls himself now) to drive through his politically motivated “reforms”.

As every good exercise in sham-democracy must, this has a consultation period, where the DfE presents teachers with the fait accompli and lulls us into thinking that our opinions matter to anyone. However, where there is a consultation period, there is some poor schlub at the DfE who has to read the responses, and maybe (just maybe) if teachers show just how angry these proposals have made them, then perhaps the worst of the changes can be reversed.

The consultation document and the response form can be found here, and I would urge anyone who teaches GCSE, or cares about education, to read through it and respond. Go. I’ll be here with the ranting swears when you get back.

Anyway, the first thing you’ll notice about the response document is that it has been thrown together by someone who has never before used Microsoft Word, and hasn’t figured out yet how to create text boxes, fields and check boxes. It is a mess, but don’t let that stop you sending in your response. I didn’t. I just berated them about this, frequently and sarcastically, throughout my response.

There are 28 questions in the response. I won’t go over all of them, but a few are worth looking at in detail.

Obviously, they put the most important question at the start of the consultation, namely

“Do you agree that the current Key Stage 4 qualifications require reform in light of their unreliability as an indicator of achievement?”

Just kidding, you don’t think Gove actually gives a shit about us agreeing with the reforms do you? No, the consultation makes it clear that the need for the reform is a given, and that nobody could doubt that GCSEs must die, and die in a fire. Instead, the first two questions are all concerned with what we’re going to call the new qualification…

In my response I pointed out how fatuous this question is. I indicated I wasn’t sure if we shouldn’t call the new qualifications GCSEs, but I disagreed with calling it the English Baccalaureate Certificate, on the grounds that this would confuse it with a recognised and well-regarded qualification like the International Baccalaureate. The next question however sought our opinions on what alternate names should be used. My suggestions?

Gove Levels?

Gove’s Folly?

Michael Gove’s Unworkable Ideological Destruction of Aspiration and Our Children’s Future?

Yet Another Pointless Reform Which Places Blame on the Teaching Profession and Undermines Any Achievement That Students Make?

Question five brings out the English teacher in me.

“Do you agree that it will be possible to end tiering for the full range of subjects that we will be creating new qualifications for?”

My answer to this is yes, it would be possible. Just like when my students ask me if they can go to the toilet, I tell them that barring any medical problems, I believe that yes, they can. That doesn’t mean I’ll allow them to go to the toilet, and in this case while it is possible to end tiering, at no point have we considered if it is desirable.

You will of course be delighted to know the desirability of retaining tiering is (sort of) addressed in question six, where we are asked if there are particular approaches to examinations which might be needed to make this possible for some subjects. The approach needed will be to increase the length of examinations, both in terms of numbers of questions and duration, to ensure that a full range of abilities can be tested. So, we will have insultingly easy questions for high performing students to answer, and demotivatingly difficult questions for our less able students. Tiering had the advantage that you assess to student ability, and removing it says that the DfE does not trust teachers enough to know their own students and what they are capable of.

Michael Gove is appalled that some students get lower marks than the national average (any maths teachers who want to explain to him what an average is, feel free). His reform proposals are a knee-jerk reaction to his belief that GCSEs are getting easier, and everyone is getting A*-C, and that’s just wrong. Yet his reforms are pushing towards a medals for all, no tiering system which refuses to acknowledge that students have differing abilities, and not all of them should be sitting the same level of exam at the same time. Not if you want them to actually succeed and progress.

And here’s the rub. Gove blames tiering and low results for the fact that students don’t progress into further study at A Level and beyond in that subject. He makes a category error and assumes the lack of progression is due to being entered at Foundation Tier, rather than because of lack of ability/interest in a subject. Oh noes, Cassandra was entered at Foundation Tier for English, and got an E, so can’t do A Level. If only she had been entered at Higher Tier and got… an E… so can’t go on to A Level anyway…

Question eight raises the spectre that subjects outside of the core will be further relegated and devalued. It asks whether more time should be given to the core subjects, or if greater emphasis should go to the core subjects. Assuming he isn’t proposing to increase the length of the teaching day or reduce the length of holidays (and this is Michael Gove we’re talking about, so I don’t rule out either proposal), then extra curriculum time can only come from cutting PE, RE, Art subjects etc.

Question 15 is a personal favourite, not so much for what is asking, but the fact that by this point in my response I had lost all patience with it.

How can Awarding Organisations eliminate any unnecessary burdens on schools and post-16 institutions relating to the administration of English Baccalaureate Certificates?
Comment: Not offer the English Baccalaureate and instead offer a qualification which is rigorous, teacher-led, not insulting to the profession, which encourages a depth and breadth of study, and won’t be labelled as “dumbed down” or “grade inflated” by a public which is not involved with the teaching of the subject, nor interfered with by a “wag the dog” government for ideological reasons.

I mentioned previously that Gove doesn’t like tiering. He is getting rid of Higher Tier and Foundation Tier, and replacing it with one tier, one qualification for all students: the English Baccalaureate Certificate.

And also the Statement of Achievement. For students for whom “entry at 16 might not be in their best interests”. The idea is in post-16 education they will get support to enter an achieve the EBC post-16. But the consultation also says that

“We will also consider whether a “Statement of Achievement” could be of benefit to more students to support transition at 16, for example to those who are expected to achieve a low grade at 16, or indeed to all students” (my emphasis).

Low grades? Give them a Statement of Achievement instead? Sounds like a second tier to me. In fact we could be going back to the O Level v CSE days. Smart kids get EBCs, thick kids get Statements of Achievement.

Oh, I know Gove doesn’t intend it that way. But look at the way CSEs are viewed now. Look at the derision heaped upon the Foundation Tier by this consultation. It will happen to the Statement of Achievement too. And the worst of it is that the students will know it.

Question 20 is notable only for the fact that I quote “The Princess Bride” in it. I may be the first teacher to have done that. It asks

“How best can we prepare schools for the transition to these reformed, more rigorous qualifications?”

They keep describing the EBC as “more rigorous”. But they don’t say how it will be. The phrase kept cropping up, and it annoyed me so much that I had to quote Inigo Montoya and say “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

You can easily make GCSEs “more rigorous”. If “rigour” is what he feels is lacking, change the syllabus, change the specification. Replacing the GCSE won’t guarantee more rigour anymore than changing my running shoes will guarantee a faster time in a 10k. But if Gove wants rigour, then rigour he must get, and we at the chalkface must be prepared. So to the thrust of that question. How best to prepare schools? My answer:

Stop the reform now. Go back to the DfE. Tell Michael Gove that he needs to call in Headteachers and subject leaders from around the country and talk to them about what needs to be taught in each subject, what the best methods for assessment are, how it should be delivered. Then come up with a truly reformed, truly rigorous, truly world-class qualification. Not this ideological hodge podge.

I am including questions of interest from the consultation only. And question 22 is possibly the most interesting. It is short, and it is about languages. But the implications of it are telling.

“Should all languages in which there is currently a GCSE be included in our competition?”

In other words, should all languages, currently examined with a GCSE, be available as EBCs. Or should some of them be excluded? What happens to these excluded languages? Do they never get taught in British schools again, or as I suspect, do they remain available as GCSEs. In which case, if it is acceptable to retain some subjects at GCSE, there cannot be a problem with the GCSE as a qualification. The whole object of this consultation is that the GCSE is a massively flawed system in which there is no public confidence. If that is the case, all subjects in which there is a GCSE should be reformed. To allow some subjects to remain undermines this point of view, and that the consultation countenances that puts the lie to the whole project.

The final question I will comment on, because it affects me directly. The question of how to support post-16 institutions to provide EBCs. The consultation states there is a 10% shortage of English teachers in the FE sector, and 25% in maths. I teach English in FE. How to support the sector?

How about paying my tuition fees to get my PGCE? How about offering bursaries for subject specialism in the FE sector. More widely, how about not shafting the FE sector, and paying us at the same level as secondary teachers. How about recognising us as professionals? How about allowing us to teach in secondary schools, the same way secondary teachers are allowed to teach in FE with no additional training? How about viewing us as equivalent to secondary teachers. Hell, how about viewing us as professionals, as teachers, as a sector worthy of support? Just a thought Michael…

These are just a few of my responses and thoughts on the consultation. They represent my opinions, the opinions of a trainee English teacher in the FE sector, one who may not even be particularly good, but one who gives a damn about it and is trying to be a good teacher. The questions I’ve highlighted provoked a range of reactions from disbelief to outrage in me. I could have written paragraphs and paragraphs about each question. I completed the consultation during half-term whilst staying at my in-laws, and my wife and father-in-law will testify to how blue the air turned with each successive question.

Should we be striving to provide the best qualification for our children? Of course. Should we expect them to achieve to a high standard. Absolutely. Does the GCSE need to be reformed? Possibly.

Is the DfE proposal the right way to go about this. I have grave doubts.

Why yes. Yes I am. Which means once again I am looking for your money. So are you feeling generous?

On Sunday 7th October 2012 I will be running the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon, a 13.1 mile run through four of London’s Royal Parks: Green Park, St James’s Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, as well as some of the iconic landmarks of the capital.

This will be the second time I run the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. The first time I ran it, both of my feet got so badly blistered I couldn’t walk for a week. It’s part of the reason I’ve called my year of running challenges “Barefoot and blistered”. The other part of course is the fact that I’m doing it barefoot.

I’m running on behalf of Mind and I have set myself the target of raising £600. Over twice as much as I set for the BUPA 10,000. But very achievable.

But only achievable if you are all very generous and support me by visiting my sponsorship page and giving as much as you feel able. Please remember that if you are a UK tax payer, then please fill in the Gift Aid declaration so that the charity can get the tax benefit. It’s like you getting the government to pay them money! And with the current government, that’s quite an achievement!

So dig deep, be generous, and above all spread the word. Email, Twitter, Facebook, whatever. Please do share the link to the fundraising page and encourage others to donate. Sharing links are at the bottom of this post, and on the fundraising page itself.

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high … You should never agree to surrender your dreams. ~Jesse Jackson

The Paralympics are coming to a close. J and I were watching the Men’s 100m T42 final, and the commentators were discussing whether Richard Whitehead would move to using prosthetics with a bendable knee like some of the other competitors in the race, and that his coaches were looking at it as a possibility for 2016. We wondered how those prosthetics work. J said “you would have known, if things had been different”.

It’s not the first time we’ve had that conversation. J sent me a Guardian article asking “Could exoskeletons help disabled people to be more active”. The photo illustrating the article was similar to images that were in my mind in my early teens.

When I was in high school, we had to decided in our second year what subjects we would study for the following two years, and sit our exams in. I was good at science. I wanted to do two sciences. I wanted to do physics and biology. The school forbade it. If you wanted to do two sciences, you had to do chemistry plus one of physics or biology. Physics and biology was an impossible combination.

But I wanted to do both. Because I wanted to build robotic limbs and exoskeletons. I wanted to create devices which could supplement weakened bones and muscles, or replace missing arms and give a person a fully functioning body. To do that I needed to understand biology, and I needed to understand electronics. So I needed to do physics and biology.

Explaining this resulted in laughter. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that what I wanted to do was silly. It was science fiction. It was impossible. I watched too much Star Wars, read too much Asimov. I should be realistic and stop being silly. So I gave up, humiliated that I had been set on something so obviously ludicrous that adults laughed at it. It was around that time that I picked up a video about becoming a solicitor from the school’s library. There was a sensible, realistic career. So I applied myself to that instead.

And twenty years on, the Guardian has photographs of people in the sorts of devices I dreamed about. Artificial limbs which are wired into nerves and controlled by thought are available.

I now teach. And I am conscious of how easily a careless word can completely crush the dreams and enthusiasm of a student. So whenever a student comes to me with pie in the sky dreams, I know to stop, and think. Twenty years ago thought-controlled limbs would have seemed as ludicrous as touch-controlled pocket computers which can send messages and retrieve information from around the world. Yet twenty years on, they are common place. I can’t go back and tell myself not to surrender my dreams. But I can ensure that I don’t ever tell a student to surrender theirs.