Thought For The Day – Thursday 23rd January 2025
Educare/Educere
Above: A picture from Nairobi, Kenya, published last week. Children study by a gas lamp in tents owing to financial challenges in society, education and at home.
Tomorrow, Friday 24th January, is World Education Day.
Etymologically, the word “education” is derived from the Latin words educare and educere.
Educare means to bring up, mould, nourish and train.
Educere means to bring forth, lead out and manifest.
Both definitions and derivations are key to our work at TBSHS, and beyond.
On the one hand, education advises, cares, enthuses, equips, guides, inspires, leads and nurtures.
On the other hand, education also brings to the surface what is innate or within. The Greek philosopher Plato thought education was the art of recollecting and remembering what people, deep down, know anyway, because of their immortal souls.
The music band Manic Street Preachers began their iconic song “A Design For Life” with the sentence: “Libraries gave us power.” This was a succinct testimony to their working class culture, literacy, reading and roots in South Wales. Their forthcoming album, co-produced by a former parent of the school, is called “Critical Thinking”. Critical thinking is another key aspect of education.
We pay tribute to all involved in the vast, and lifelong, activity of education. Homes, schools and community groups in our local area, in the U.K., and around the world.
We are very mindful that we are very blessed and fortunate to come to school today and each day.
We play our vital part in extending educational opportunities locally, nationally and internationally.
Education positively raises people up.
Education positively changes lives.
Education positively transforms, and looks after, people, creation and the world.
The global focus of World Education Day 2025 is: “Artificial Intelligence and Education: Human Agency in an Automated World”.
Just like TBSHS in the last eighteen months, brilliantly led by Mrs. Ellen, this “A.I.” focus and theme encourages vital reflections on the power of education to equip individuals and communities to navigate, understand, influence and equally spread technological advancement in an ethical and moral and a positively transformative and respectful way.