“Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it starts here with us.”
The people who lived through this will have a perspective that’s precious to modern American history and will be told for generations. — Brandon Barnes (age 18)
As I open the book, raw emotion pours from its pages. Fear, grief, disappointment, confusion, anxiety, anticipation and faith. It’s a generational perspective of our world captured in time. Words offer hope; these are the voices of our future.
In Perseverance in a Strange Land, students discuss the pandemic, systemic racism, and the murder of George Floyd. Their honest accounts allow us a brief insight into the minds of our future leaders.
Youths’…
#4 — “You need to get out more.”
What Is Anxiety and How Does It Affect Us?
Forty million US adults battle with anxiety every year. But in reality, many more are affected. These statistics don’t include the indirect effect anxiety has on friends or family members. Those who are desperate to help but unsure of what to say for the best.
Anxiety changes behaviours, attitudes and personalities. It’s heartbreaking to watch a loved one suffer. To see the person you once knew disappear before your eyes. How will you help them see sense? What can you say to put them at ease, stop them worrying?
The truth is there’s no magic bullet, but you can make…
The hard path leads to fulfilment; the easy path will destroy your soul.
My heart wasn’t in it anymore. After six years of study and seven years climbing the ladder, I threw in the towel. Not just on my job. No — I struck myself off the register. I quit my entire career and there was no going back.
The worst part was breaking the news to Mum and Dad. Words weren’t needed. Their faces said it all. Pride, dreams and hopes crashed to the ground and shattered into a million pieces around them. It cut me to the core; I felt sick to my stomach.
Have you ever truly, deeply disappointed your…
You’re not a qualified teacher and your home is not school
“… We now have to do everything we possibly can to stop the spread of the disease. Primary schools, secondary schools and colleges across England must move to remote provision from tomorrow…”
“Uh, what? Oh Gawd, please no!” As you switch off the TV, images of the last lockdown flash through your mind. Pressure starts to mount and anxiety wells in the pit of your stomach.
On 4th January 2021, the British prime minister dealt the crushing blow to many parents. Schools closed with immediate effect. …
A homeschooling community’s strength in face of a legal battle against the authorities.
When Portsmouth City Council (PCC) took the law into their own hands they ruffled more than a few local feathers. UK home educators have joined arms in a legal battle against the overzealous authority.
PCC issued local home-educating (HE) families with, “legal threats … ordering them to send children to mainstream schools.” In the year up to October 2020, Notice to Satisfy (s437) letters landed on 137 doorsteps. That’s over half of Portsmouth’s HE community!
Does that mean that 50% of Portsmouth’s home-edders aren’t receiving an adequate education? Absolutely not!
The Goalposts Were Moved
In April 2019, PCC adopted a heavy-handed approach that goes…
But share everything you’ve got anyway.
Fellow writer, here’s a question for you. Has fear of regret ever held you back? Maybe you’ve written pieces and never shared them.
I know I’m not alone for writers are a strange breed. We overthink everything; squeeze every last drop out of an experience. Where are the lessons? What’s the truth? We reflect and dissect. Make sense of it all and then write. But stop! There’s more to learn. “I’m no expert. Why should anyone listen to me? If I wrote this piece again next month I’d share a whole different perspective.”
“You cannot stay at the same level…
Will we be victorious in the fight against superbugs?
Antibiotic resistance is one of humanity’s greatest challenges. Without new antibiotics, we’ll be unarmed against infectious diseases within decades.
Luckily, scientists are working to stop this frightening prospect from becoming a reality. At the forefront of the research, ants take pride in their place. Yes, ants! Could they be our heroes in the fight against superbugs?
Superbugs are bacteria that have benefitted from man's overuse of antibiotics. Via genetic mutation, they’ve adapted and developed resistance to them. The likes of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are monsters of our own making.
Why worry about MRSA? In 2017, there were 120,000 MRSA…
A natural wonder reserved only for the rich
Before 1900, there were 77 countries in the world — yet not one had the colour purple on its flag. But why?
First, we must go back in time to the thirteenth century. Synthetic dyes were not invented for another 700 years. The earliest known national flag, the English Cross of Saint George, was now instated.
On the Mediterranean coast was a Phoenician trading city, Tyre. Dyers were hard at work disembowelling sea snails; by the thousands.
From the Bottom of Bottom-Feeders
These were not just any sea snails. Bolinus brandaris hold precious milky secretions in the hypobranchial gland (behind the rectum). Used by the…
Victoria Jane
Past dietitian | Present home-schooling mum and writer | Future sage | Gaining wisdom through experience and reflection.
