Ross Farrelly

Published in  Sydney's Child,  August 2003 Many of us have mixed feelings when we think of studying Shakespeare at school. Such recollections can range from the depths of boredom and anguish to the heights of sublime joy and intellectual awakening. But regardless of our opinion of Shakespeare, we speak his language everyday. It is estimated that Shakespeare added around 1500 new words to the English language. Whenever we use our mind’s eye, to find method in someone’s madness, as they eat us out of house and home, because we thought they had a heart of gold and a spotless reputation but we were actually living in a fool's paradise; whenever we decide that discretion is the better part of valour or detect something in the wind; whenever we remark that brevity is the soul of wit, that  love is blind or caution someone that all that glistens is not gold or advise someone to be neither a lender nor a borrower;  from the salad days of youth, throu...

Published in Sydney's Child,  April 2003. Reproduced on http://www.goodtherapy.com.au/ February, 2006. The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates Amazing isn’t it how much faith we put in our schools. Right from the tender age of five when our children are so impressionable we send them off day after day to be taught by a teacher we have hardly met. How much do we know about the teachers who will educate them, the friends they will meet and the ideas they will be fed? Very little I suggest. Nevertheless with very little knowledge of what they are about to receive we gaily send them off the school trusting that they will learn something of value and not come across anything too horrific. What do we expect our children to learn at school? The list is long and  varied depending on who you talk to. It normally includes: literacy and numeracy, art and music, sport, languages, history and geography, discipline, social skills, perhaps religion  and...

Books I've written How to become a Primary Teacher , published by Australian Associated Publishing House, March 2007. Zen Tails Primary Values Teacher's Guide , published by New Frontier Publishing, March 2006. Zen Tails Primary Values Student Workbook , published by New Frontier Publishing, March 2006 Books I've edited Zen Tails: Happiness is Sharing - A First Book of Happiness Zen Tails: Love is Helping - A First Book of Love Zen Tails: Wisdom is Listening - A First Book of Wisdom all published by New Frontier Publishing, 2008