Mundane Insurance

Manufacturing industries are a common knowledge as are the likes of the motor car, television, foodstuffs and electrical goods that exist around us every day and are forcefully advertised. Banking too but it is only true to a lesser degree regarding insurance because if canvasing the average person in the street about insurance they would think only about their life insurance, health insurance, motor cover, house and contents, pet plan insurance and so on. Put like that, it is all very wearisome and therefore hardly a subject worth writing about, or is it? That was certainly the author’s impression of insurance even up to the point of moving into the financial sector from manufacturing industry.

Pursuing the subject a step further, hazarding a guess, if those very same people were quizzed regarding the types of people they imagined are employed in insurance they would probably describe their insurance broker or simply a voice at an insurance call centre. This account therefore will, in all probability, dispel the notion that all insurance dealings are routine and in the main, predictable as did an international group of young insurance delegates at a Middle East seminar, many of whom were totally unaware that the insurance industry’s activities were so diverse.

The Future Knowledge Compendium

Thriving in the 21^st Century

Humans have a unique capability to both understand their situation in the world and to envision and act to realise their aspirations in the emerging world. And most of us would welcome knowing how we can become ever more skilful at both understanding, and shaping the future of, our emerging world, so that we can thrive in it. The 21^st century is very different from the 20^th century. Globalisation, the greatest economic prosperity uplifting machine humanity has ever invented, and mass education, are combining to sweep humanity into an emerging interdependent global village. It is creating a global educated middle class that will number 5 billion in 2030.

In this emerging world, a world where our future prosperity will be increasingly based on metaphysical wealth, on what we know, 20^th century nation-first, competitive, win/lose, mindsets and agendas can no longer work. These now yesteryear mindsets will instead undermine our best endeavours, including making our future ever more climate and pandemic safe.

Humanity is now beginning to learn that it now has no option but to adopt planet-first, collaborative, win/win values and mindsets, if it wishes to shape our emerging global village so that it can become liveable for all: ever more prosperous, harmonious, inclusive, sustainable, healthy, and secure. Meeting these challenges successfully will require that humanity innovates for itself a new future knowledge curriculum so that it can economically thrive in a sustainable and humane manner.

Peter Ellyard has asked the question: what would be the contents of such a curriculum? In The Future Knowledge Compendium: A Curriculum for Thriving in the 21^st Century, he has sought to answer this question.

The Knowing and Caring Profession

Teaching has always struggled with its identity. Is it a profession? A vocation? Something that people who can’t do anything else fall into? A safety net or a career?

Is it a walk in the park? All those holidays. Something anyone can do, let’s face it, we all went to school.

Or is it a complex, challenging, somewhat maligned and misunderstood profession made up of exceptional and perhaps not so exceptional members. How would we know?

The Knowing and Caring Profession takes a look behind the rhetoric and rigmarole, to explore education and more specifically the education profession through a variety of lenses.

Phil Lambert’s approach to education, teaching and the broader profession is at times confronting, challenging and controversial. At its heart, it is an exploration of education by a teacher, a bureaucrat, an academic, a leader and a parent, all rolled in to one.

Phil brings a different perspective to many of the complex and challenging facets of education. From curriculum and class sizes to teacher education and student learning outcomes, Phil distils what can be polarising and emotive topics into easy to digest, fascinating and, at times, funny anecdotes and examples for non-educators.

Anyone who has even a passing interest or involvement with the education system will gain significant insight and understanding of what is truly at its very core, a knowing and caring profession.

IELTS Topic Vocabulary: Essential Vocabulary for the Speaking and Writing Exams

This book is invaluable for all the students preparing for the IELTS exam. It contains essential topic-specific vocabulary for the exam, divided into 20 topics, as well as two separate sections on useful vocabulary for the writing exam, including collocations. There is also a section on idiomatic language that can be used in speaking exam. Exercises throughout the book reinforce the vocabulary so that it becomes active, enabling you to use it in the exam and boost your IELTS band score.

Practice Questions with answers in Pure Advanced Level Mathematics Book 1

This questions and answers test book contains work covered in several advanced level pure mathematics courses, including, the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (pure mathematics), The University of Cambridge Advanced Level Pure Mathematics (Papers 1,2 and 3) and The University of London Pure Advanced Level Mathematics Course. Book 2 will cover most, if not all, of the other topics found in the courses listed above. This book is intended for students studying and writing for the above courses. The questions and answers are of examination standard, and rather than having answers at the end of the book, they follow each exercise to make it easier for students to study particular topics rather than working their way through the book, and to aid in quickly finding the answers to questions.  

Taste The Arabic Proverbs

Treat your palate to a sample of Arabic sayings and adages with a varied collection of traditional Middle-Eastern proverbs. In Taste the Arabic Proverbs, an expansive range of mores and suggestions are offered with ties to the cuisine, ingredients, and food-preparation techniques of the Middle East. Warnings, jokes, and recommendations are translated from Arabic to English. These educational and guiding rhymes are accompanied with paraphrases and connotations outside the realms of Islam. As a multi-cultural reference, Taste the Arabic Proverbs is a treasure for the appetite of those seeking guidance on concepts such as kinship, wealth, determination, and generosity.  

The End of Schooling

How much the prosperity of both individuals and nations would burgeon if only more funding could be provided for education is a popular contemporary view. Class sizes made smaller, curricula more expertly designed, teachers more wide-ranging in their interests and competence. This mechanistic outlook is challenged. Education, like pure art, seeks to fathom the world's depths without ever totally reaching its bedrock. Participants need to be ready for surprise. To be left feeling mystified, wondering, overwhelmed. In a Nature never still, each generation has to face environments in novel ways. Education's incomparable brief, then, is to deal with the real demands made on humanity. Definite answers are unavailable. Invitations are to share interminable journeying. To find delight in evanescent experiences. Not to seek arrival at supposedly perfect destinations.