If you are looking for a well-referenced, very readable and intriguing but satisfying book which explores why difference in human brains is of value in our development as human beings, then you should read ‘The Pattern Seekers’, by Simon Baron Cohen. It was recommended to me by a very good friend a couple of months …
Category: brain
May 02
What is work, anyway?
A fascinating recent Australian study about the effects of working beyond the age of 40 achieved some press coverage last week, and it prompted me to reflect carefully on what work actually means in our society. The study analysed cognitive test results for 3,000 men and 3,500 women above the age of 40 in Australia, …
Nov 02
Why diversity is good for your brain – and every other aspect of your life
A great article appeared in a recent Guardian newspaper on the topic of diversity and why it keeps your brain active. The author, Professor Richard Crisp from the Aston Business School, in fact likens the benefits to the brain of living in a multicultural society to the benefits to our bodies of a daily run; when we …
Aug 10
Learning leadership from the most impoverished of women
I recently attended a dinner in aid of The Hunger Project and their work in seeking to end world hunger by empowering people – and especially women – in poverty-stricken areas to make change happen. In the course of their work, they have discovered something that should not surprise us, but might nonetheless challenge our …
Jan 22
Learning from the great women of this world: the humility of a local hero
At the weekend I attended the celebration dinner of the annual Student Leadership Conference run by the Alliance of Girls’ Schools (Australasia) – a fabulous 4 day conference in which Head Girls and their Deputies from girls’ schools in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Phillippines and further afield, including the US, are led …
Dec 05
Fidelis et Fortis
‘FIdleis et Fortis’ is the motto of James Gillespie’s High School, in Edinburgh, where I was a pupil for the last 4 and a half years of my secondary schooling. These were formative years but in common with many young people at the time, I know that I did not appreciate enough the influence that …
Jul 22
The eighth habit
Stephen Covey’s death last week has sparked – quite rightly – a flurry of accolades for a man who has been described as a pioneer in the genre of self-help literature which aims to enable people to lead their best lives. His 1989 bestseller, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, subtitled ‘Powerful Lessons in …
Mar 04
Microsoft, School Principals and the World of Work
The annual conference of the US National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, which I attended last week in Seattle, took as its theme ‘Our new world of work: challenges and opportunities’, and proved to be an excellent forum in which to consider and debate the issues surrounding this topic. Ellen Stein, the Head …
Feb 04
Girls learning to lead: deciding on next year’s Head Girl and her team
I am just about to announce – tomorrow, after our morning assembly – the new positions of responsibilities for our Sixth Form girls for the coming year. The time has come for our final year pupils, with public exams looming, to relinquish their leadership roles and to pave the way for the next generation of …