Writing again

A friend of mine recently asked me whether I was still blogging and what pseudonym I was using.
I am still blogging only I have been concentrating on other pieces of writing rather than making a regular contribution to this particular one. I need to redress the balance and at least contribute once a week to this blog, where my thoughts on society, life and all are represented.
I’ve been dipping into Comment is Free on the Guardian website, posting the odd comment here and there but not linking my comments with any contribution on this particular blog.

Time to be more organized, I think.

My friend also said “what is the point of blogging if you are not going to share your username with people who would be interested in reading our thoughts?”
Well he has a point, only I am not sure I am ready to ‘come out’, such is my lack of confidence in anyone being remotely interested in what I have to say.
Also, the interest of others is not really my main purpose in writing. The real reason for writing is giving me time to collect and gather thoughts, to meditate on current issues and to have something to look back on, once again reflecting on my thoughts in a specific time.
However, such is the egotism within me I would be most content if someone, friend or an unknown quantity gained, something from my writing.

It is so interesting though how synergy occurs so frequently in my life. Surely one of the reasons for blogging is to give a personal voice and view on the world. I interrupted this particular piece of writing to read another blog, and lo and behold, there is reference in what I was reading to voice, to speaking and listening and to how we do not give our young people enough time in the curriculum, or indeed their lives, to find and express their voice.

So it's voices; it's speaking, and it's listening. Do we grade our students on the power, the clarity, and the expressiveness of their individual voices? Of course not. Thankfully not.

[We care only about the length of their sentences, the number of 'connectives' they use, and whether they deliberately use plenty of 'wow words' - designed to demonstrate a working knowledge of multi-syllabic 'colourful' and 'sophisticated' English adjectives and adverbs.]

Do we grade them on their ability to listen to one another, and their ability to respond and to feed back, and to engage in open and genuine dialogue? Of course not.

We don't value these things - and is it any wonder therefore that we're so useless at them? And the pity is that no-one even cares, or even thinks it matters.

We value what we can measure, and we measure the things that don't even matter. Not any more. That's if they ever did.

Of course, it is not only children who lack the time, energy, purpose and inclination to find their voice. Adults rush around this crazy world thing plenty of thoughts but what do they do with these?
The power of thought and the ability to communicate our thoughts through the spoken or written language singles us out from our fellow animals.
So surely we should stop ignoring this hidden talent of ours and do something to find and develop our voice both individually and collectively. And may be we should share our thought with people who have given the impression of being interested, like-minded or not.

So, I am now setting myself the challenge of trying to write more regularly than I have done so before.
I am not promising myself or anyone else the length and complexity of writing that I have so far offered. The essays here took time, effort and were prompted by a range of complex issues and scenarios. Sometimes my writing may move towards the serious and lengthy. Other times, it will be just as this one is; short, sweet and hopefully to the point.