On Being a Lighthouse

Hello.

I am a lighthouse.

Let me tell you what I mean by this.

By teaching, I am a guide as you travel to those important places. I am an example, a warning. I sit, a spinning light-dotted ‘i’ on the edge of your horizon, saying, “By listening to what I know, think. Perhaps, go this way and not that.”

I spin three hundred and sixty degrees, to each degree a thoughtful word. Turning slowly, I reflect. Each flash, a thought, an idea upon which to cogitate.

My job can be solitary, isolated, and yet my purpose is to connect, a bridge between necessary paradoxes. And so I am teaching and learning. I am unique and a collaborator. I am a humble leader, dynamic yet enduring.

I am a lighthouse.

In these ways, this blog, The Education Cogitation, seeks to be a lighthouse. And perhaps, at its best, it might even be that. At others, I suspect it won’t be. However, no post will exceed 360 words, a statistical nod to the circular arc traced by a lighthouse. Posts will consider observations and wonderings arising from my daily experiences, both current, long past and moments upcoming.

And, some acknowledgements to lighthouses I’ve encountered along the way. To Tricia for trailblazing, to Rachel D back in the US for being the first to make me believe in myself, to James for wearing his writing on his sleeve, to my closest colleagues past and present – Mike, Carol, Tim, Glenda, Nicola, Zoe, John, Bob who provoked me to think in so many different ways. At this point, I’m starting to realise that there are many other lighthouses that have lit me on my way, more than I can count or acknowledge.

Finally, as a necessary somewhat self-evident disclaimer, the posts will remain my opinions, and not (necessarily) those of the school at which I am working – you’d have to ask them.

The picture that opens this blog is of Kidston Island Lighthouse, a constant visual reminder of this blog’s purpose. Thanks to Dennis Jarvis for this gently cropped title page photo licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.