Every young person has ideas worth hearing. What often stands between a good idea and real influence is not the idea itself, but whether the person holding it has been taught how to share it in a way...

As fate would have it, three separate incidents would occur within a few weeks that would ultimately turn me into a willing teenage Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. A confidential informant...

Every year, students ask me for a strategy for the Singapore-Cambridge O-Level English Paper 3 Listening Comprehension examination. For Paper 1, time can be divided. For Paper 2, sections can be paced...

Is it ever beneficial to experience a bit of self-deception? When we begin a DIY project, optimism can carry us beyond our actual knowledge and skills. Yet that same confidence can inspire us to create...

Millions of people open a language app every day, keep a streak going for weeks or months, and then quietly realize they still cannot hold a real conversation. If that sounds familiar, you are not...

More and more celebrities as well as everyday people are ‘coming out’ as dyslexic, signalling a societal shift away from stigmatisation of dyslexia. There is also increasing awareness of dyslexia as much...

Some young people cannot easily explain why a worksheet leaves them cold while a piece of music, movement or drama draws them fully in. It is rarely a lack of ability. More often, it is a mismatch between...

Ambition is rarely the missing ingredient for young people in Alternative Provision. Many carry vivid ideas about becoming a performer, designer, writer, filmmaker, organiser or technician, or something...

“You work with youth? Wow, you’re brave.” Or “Teens are so tough, I don’t know how you do it!” If you are a youth-serving professional, you have heard these expressions several times in your career...

It is back-to-school season. Some students planned for months. Others decided at the last possible second that college, community college, or vocational school might actually be the move. If that is...

We book the appointments, run the assessments, and ask what's wrong with our children. We pour everything we have into finding answers for them. Very rarely, almost never, do we stop to turn the same...

I sat down to watch Narcissist’s Playbook expecting to take clinical notes. I've spent years working with survivors of narcissistic abuse, and I wanted a resource I could point clients toward, something...

The two-time Academy Award winner and five-time nominee has built an extraordinary career through research, culture, and visual storytelling. The return of her masterclass offers a larger lesson about how industry...

Most classrooms are built around a simple, familiar arrangement. One person holds the knowledge and the authority, and the other receives it. For many learners, this arrangement works well enough...

Whether you’re a parent trying to get out the door, a teacher guiding a classroom transition, or a caregiver supporting a child in a public space, you’ve felt that moment when cooperation suddenly...

There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a young person who has decided that education is not for them. It is not defiance, and it is rarely laziness. It is the settled conclusion of a learner who...

Every year, I meet students who know the English language reasonably well, who can speak confidently, who can even write decent essays at home, and yet somehow collapse during the...

Most people have been taught to treat imagination and analysis as competitors: one generates possibilities, while the other closes them down. Yet our most meaningful ideas emerge when imagination...

There is something that happens when a young person steps onto a stage, speaks a line with conviction, moves their body through a rehearsed sequence, or delivers something they have...

When we think about children’s books, we naturally picture libraries, classrooms, bookstores, or bedtime stories at home. Those places have introduced generations of children to the joy of reading, and I believe...

There is a growing recognition that a young person cannot learn well if they are not well. Academic achievement, creative development, and intellectual growth do not happen in isolation from...

Many parents who pursue alternative forms of education encounter criticism from family members, friends, spouses, and even popular influencers. Perhaps you too have heard that you are making the wrong choice.

There is a meaningful difference between telling a young person they are strong and giving them the conditions to discover that strength for themselves. Many young people are told they are resilient...

There is a quiet truth that every educator eventually discovers, students rarely remember the technology we used, but they always remember how we made them feel while learning. Whether we teach in a...