The future is here and you have no place in it

Last week, a school in Chicago run by Artificial Intelligence AI) opened its doors to learners. I read the news the way you read a death notice from a town you left long ago: twice, slowly, looking for the detail that would make it untrue. I had not expected my profession to be among the first to go. Being the eternal optimist, I refused to buy into the fear. I told myself it would go the way of Y2K; a great deal of noise followed by a Tuesday morning like any other.

I am less sure now.

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  The status of teachers, age 60

  There is a particular kind of birthday that people announce with great cheer but they are dreading it in actual sense. Sixty is one. Sixty-four is another, because it is the age at which the...

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  When victory arrives and no one has won

  The wisest people I know talk about their old victories quietly, the way you talk about a car accident you walked away from. They do not regret winning. They regret not seeing, at the start, what...

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  The thin line between discipline and abuse

  So, whatever you do, do not let your reaction be emotional. Anger, frustration, disillusionment, violence; none of it will solve your problem. What you need is sober analysis. Strategy. The long...

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  Why Mukulu’s harsh words mattered

  We have a complex relationship with the difficult people in our lives. We may flinch at their honesty, recoil from their high standards, yet we cannot look away. Figures such as Simon Cowell...

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  Why fathers matter more than ever

  Father’s Day was first organised in 1910 but did not become an official holiday until 1972, sixty-two years later. One might consider this delay a minor bureaucratic footnote, but it tells us...