Roger Dickinson - Selah

  Anyone following my social media profiles or those of our African Spelling Bee partners, will be inundated with posts and videos about our upcoming spelling bees. (If you haven’t - then please do check us out at:   www.africanspellingbee.com   Spelling Bees are an integral part of our programming at A Better Africa Foundation but were never intended to be the primary focus. A concern right from the start of our programmes in 2009 was whether spelling bees actually assisted in literacy improvements or if they were simply a distraction. 14 years later and our spelling bees have now expanded to partnerships across 25 countries with hundreds of thousands of spellers coming through our various competitions each year.                                                           Spellers at the 2019 African ...

  I often hear (and use) the phrase: "Well its not a silver bullet". This is often said in reference to a quick fix or easy pathway for some complex or difficult problem. In particular I hear it used in regard to the education system in which I spend most of my time. The unspoken belief however, is that   there actually is  a silver bullet to be found. And once we find it all our problems will go away. I wonder now if the metaphor actually gives us more clues to our problem, and a way forward, than we may think? Of Silver Bullets and Werewolves T he term "silver bullet" is often used metaphorically to refer to a simple, straightforward solution that can effectively and quickly solve a complex problem. The phrase originates from the folkloric belief that a silver bullet is the only weapon capable of killing a werewolf, a creature of folklore and myth. The idea is that just as a single silver bullet can eliminate a werewolf, a silver bullet solution can provide an eff...