I was listening to the Gospel in church this week. Two of the stories Jesus told — about the impact of a little yeast on a bowl of flour, and the ability of a mustard seed to grow into a tree (I have always struggled with that one, since mustard…
The other day I watched a group of children at one of our schools doing African dancing and drumming. They were completely absorbed — moving in ways they had never moved before, laughing, concentrating, pushing themselves physically. What struck me most was not the energy or the joy, though there…
The announcement that the government intends to ban children under sixteen from using social media was genuinely welcome. When Keir Starmer says that children are being “robbed of their childhoods” by social media platforms, he is right. When he adds that he will also prevent under-eighteens from accessing AI chatbots used for…
Last weekend, Kingham Lodge hosted three concerts as part of the Dean and Chadlington Music Festival. Two others took place at Chipping Norton Theatre, a third at Bruern Farm, and a gala in the theatre at Heythrop (a Warner Resort Hotel but a splendid historic site). A Desert Island Discs took place in Chadlington…
There is a particular kind of government announcement that manages to be simultaneously well-intentioned, inadequate, and infuriating. Last week’s ‘Every Child Can’ programme is a masterclass in the genre. The headline sounds impressive: £132.5 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme to enrich the lives of children through arts, sport, nature,…
We all know the saying. It took a village to raise a child — and most of us, if we are honest, have a feeling for what it meant even if we have never lived it. It meant that children were not the exclusive property of their parents, watched over…
Last week, Jack Clarke, a co-founder of Anthropic — one of the leading companies developing artificial intelligence — was interviewed on television. He was relaxed about it, which was itself slightly alarming. Primarily he was talking about the need to find a brake on how AI is developing before it…
Last night I was watching Newsnight on television and Jack Clarke, a co-founder of Anthropic, the AI company, was being interviewed. A very laid-back chap about to become a billionaire as Anthropic floats. He was very clear that the future does not lie with coders because the AI can now…
The commission led by Alan Milburn — former Health Secretary, asked by Keir Starmer to investigate why 957,000 young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training — has now published its interim report. Its central finding is stark: a rising tide of mental ill-health, anxiety,…
For a long time the evidence has been mounting about how damaging screens are to young children. Slowly, oh so slowly, governments are mobilising to ban under sixteens from social media. They still don’t seem to have woken up to the addictive and harmful effects of gaming for under sixteens…
