The XCarLink adaptor is simply a box which interfaces between the iPod or iPhone and the CD radio head unit. The adaptor unit about the size of four match boxes and has two cables leading from it. One of the cables connects directly to the iPod or iPhone, the other to the CD changer port on the back of the head unit.

 

These instructions explain how I fitted the XCarLink adaptor into my VW Golf V (MK 5) TDI SE (2005)

The cable from the adaptor box plugs straight into the available CD changer socket on the back of the head unit. Before connecting, I ran the cable from the bottom of the centre console to behind the CD radio unit. In order to do this, the cigarette lighter and ashtray needs to be removed.

1. Remove the gearstick cover. It pops out easily with little force needed.

   

2. Beneath the cover reveals two screws. Remove these and the ashtray and cigarette lighter unit can be lifted up and out. You'll need to disconnect the cigarette lighter cable and ESP cable (if fitted.)

   

   

3. I identified a suitable spot for locating the XCarLink interface unit beneath the ashtray and cigarette lighter unit.

   

4. I routed the cable from the XCarLink interface box to the iPod / iPhone down a gap between the carpet and the centre console.

   

5. Once all the cables are in place, switch on the CD radio and test the setup before putting the gearstick cover, centre console and dashboard back together.

   

6. I use a piece of velco (the soft furry piece attached the iPhone) and the hooks attached the the dashboard. The iPhone isn't very heavy and the velco works well to support the iPhone in an upright position and within easy sight and reach for both the driver and passenger.
    

This was an easy install and took less than 45 minutes to complete from start to finish.

 

Good luck and enjoy!

I spent this evening learning how to remove the CD / Radio head unit from my VW Golf V (MK 5) as I intended to fit the XCarLink iPod adaptor. I couldn't find much information about how to remove the radio, so thought I'd best fill the gap. I've added as many photographs as possible to illustrate each step.

My car is a VW Golf TDI SE (2005)

1. Remove the rubber anti-slip mat which you'll find in the tray on the top of the dashboard. It can be taken out by gripping between your fingers and lifting.
    
2. Underneath the mat there are two screws which have Torx screw heads. You'll need to have some Torx screwdrivers to unscrew both screws.
   
3. Gently prize the tray away from the dashboard. I found a couple of flat-head screwdrivers wedged in at each corner seemed to do the trick.
   
4. The top most section of the instrument facia can now be removed. This contains the ventilation grills. Lifting the section from the back, then work your way forward. Again, gentle persuasion with a flat-head screwdriver helped. The section is held firmly at the front with clips which can be released by sliding the panel upwards towards the roof. The section then separates and it can be lifted and placed to one side. Note that you can't remove it completely as a cable prevents you from doing so.
   
5. Two further screws are uncovered. Unscrew these to allow the front facia from around the CD radio head unit to be taken off. Again, working from the top, gently prize the facia forward working from top to bottom down one of the sides.
   
   
6. Four Torx screws hold the CD radio head unit in place. Once again, remove these screws and the CD radio can be pulled forwards.
   

After removing the CD radio head unit, I set about installing the XCarLink adaptor. Read my instructions for fitting the XCarLink adaptor and cables.

Modern day travelling brings with it demands for recharging portable devices. So many hostels provide minimal power points so we're glad to have brought a multiway short extension lead.

Memories of splicing and joining a multiway lead with an international plug attached one very late night, five years ago on a learning technology trip to Thailand reminds me of this top tip.

Luckily with iPhones and iPods in our bags, they share a universal charger which leads me to wonder why we brought so many!? Oh well.

It's a pity that even though we both have Canon cameras, the battery formats are subtly different and therefore require separate chargers, sigh.

USB has provided us with a huge advantage of sharing common connectors and cables. Lets hope that technology manufacturers will follow the European Commission's lead who have already agreed a standard for phone chargers. About time.

Setting off at 1am this morning we took the camel path up to the summit of Mount Sinai, some two and a half thousand feet. It was a gentle 3hr climb, finishing with 750 steps where famously many believe God spoke to Moses.

An hour or so later saw the most beautiful sunrise, the colours emerging over the mountain featured horizon was unforgettable.

I was surprised at the rapid rise of the sun and how quickly light reflecting from the sky lit the mountain ranges which surrounded us.

These pictures struggle to capture the setting and atmosphere as nearly 300 people gasped at the sight of the sun peeking over the crest of mountain tops.

Breathtaking. An adventure not to be missed if ever you are in this region of Egypt.

Having just visited the pyramids at Giza, it's interesting to reflect on the significant effort gone into building one, nevermind nine! Also, isn't it staggering how something unique and different really matters. I suppose seeing one pyramid is like seeing the hundred or so across the country.

If we want our schools to reflect an innovative and creative curriculum how do we get that view across to everyone outside? Designing aesthetically pleasing and different buildings is only one aspect of what's really needed.

Without considering how we present the inside out, much of the amazing work that goes on inside our schools to the local community is otherwise lost. Our schools contain some of the best talent in the world. Why hide it from view? The Egyptians haven't.

After being a bit late for watching a film at the cinema, Sarah and I managed our disappointment by visiting Krispy Kreme which were properly yummy, although sadly we could only manage a few.

We were captivated by the setup which, if you've been before, consists of a servery, pay counter and the doughnut factory itself.

I love seeing beyond the end product where so much of what we consume is hidden or masked from view. So much is lacking in our own education system about process and manufacturing that often our children aren't clear about where their food comes from. At Kings Road Primary School we've begun a Food 4 Life programme which gives children experience of growing and cooking.

Schools could follow Krispy Kreme's lead and open up their kitchens with glass panels so that children can see food being prepared and cooked. Could other aspects of school life be made more transparent? Easily. The challenge is there for us all. Ultimately it's about creating the best learning opportunities for our children and what better way than use the places where they learn.

(oh and in case you are wondering this is the first blog entry in nearly a year. Crikey, hopefully this iPhone blogging app will help.)

Last week, on day 1 of the new term I had a delightful conversation with one of my pupils. After a disruptive session the conversation went a little like this:

Jonathan:  Were you in control of your behaviour just then?

Pupil: Yes of course.

Jonathan: So if you wanted to stop being disruptive at that moment, could you?

Pupil: Yeah, suppose.

Jonathan: So why didn't you?

Pupil: Well, it's a bit like this, y'see, I think I'm just a little bit excited - it being the first day back and stuff.

This is clearly someone who is very aware of his behaviour and the impact it has, but perhaps someone who maybe can't hold back. I had a one-to-one chat with him about the strategies he has for coping with ADHD earlier this week. He had very few to offer, so I asked if he knew of anyone else who also has the condition. He replied, 'Michael Phelps'.

After a bit of research on the Internet we found that Michael Phelps had been diagnosed with ADHD as a young boy and at the age of seven, started swimming as an outlet for his energy.

This conversation hit home and together we are now exploring a list of activities that he could use to help him find a way in which to release pent up energy.

Could this boy reflect upon his own needs and 'Go for Gold' in his own and unique way?

After following a link to John Davitt's New Tools website earlier this evening, I noticed that John has a really cool tool on the front page. It's called Davitt's Learning Event Generator and looks like this:

Of course you'll have to play with the interactive version and press the 'roll' button a couple of times to see the seductiveness of John's thinking. I love the concept and the intention of getting teachers thinking 'outside the box' about how what they have been teaching for years and years can embedded in children's lives and learning, differently.

Here are a few rolls of my dice:

do how a light works as an illustrated diagram

do glaciation as a 10 second movie shot on a mobile phone

do life cycle of tadpole as a tableau maybe with Playmobil/clay models

Just wonderful and perfect for illustrating how we at Kings Road Primary School need to continue to develop our Creative Curriculum project at my phase meeting tomorrow.

At the beginning of August I attended the Essex International Jamboree in Thorpe-le-Soken. This photograph was taken at the closing ceremony using my Apple iPhone 3G. This device has a built-in GPS receiver and is able to determine the exact position for latitude and longitude whenever required.

Usefully, location information is made available to the camera application when taking photographs with the iPhone. The latitude and longitude information is stored in the photograph's EXIF header within the file.

Using Yahoo Map's API, the EXIF data can be read and once interpreted, a location pointer can be layered on a given map.

Ultimately this means that viewing sets of photographs can be location specific. Imagine browsing your library of photographs by location. Using a map of the world I could easily find my photographs scattered in far away places including New Zealand, Thailand, Caribbean, and America.

Of course, this isn't new technology as such. Placing photographs on a map has been achievable for some years and the process of 'geotagging' images with location data is well understood by many. What the iPhone does is make geotagging very straightforward as all the location information is stored automatically at the point of taking the photograph. All that's required now is for a piece of software that can interact with the mapping API to do the rest.

With a little bit of work I was able to develop a little module that allows the location of geotagged photographs to be displayed on a map. So you kinda get a "I was 'ere" tool that shows exactly where you were standing when the photograph was taken. Unfortunately, this uses Yahoo Maps rather than the very impressive Google Maps interface - but hey, nothing is perfect.

...oh, and to see the map you'll have to view the full blog entry.

I've recently got quite excited by photographs that have been geotagged with location information. This is an example of EXIF file header which can be found in files. I have highlighted the GPS location information which is stored by the Apple iPhone 3G.

ExifTool is useful tool. It is essentially a file editor that enables this information to be modified.

 

---

 

ExifTool Version Number	7.41
File Name	jamboree-small.jpg
Directory	/Users/jonathan/Desktop
File Size	28 kB
File Modification Date/Time	2008:08:30 23:54:50
File Type	JPEG
MIME Type	image/jpeg
JFIF Version	1.01
Exif Byte Order	Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
Make	Apple
Camera Model Name	iPhone
Orientation	Horizontal (normal)
X Resolution	72
Y Resolution	72
Resolution Unit	inches
Modify Date	2008:08:01 20:21:27
F Number	2.8
Date/Time Original	2008:08:01 20:21:27
Create Date	2008:08:01 20:21:27
Color Space	Uncalibrated
Exif Image Width	360
Exif Image Height	263
Gamma	2.2
GPS Latitude Ref	North
GPS Longitude Ref	West
Compression	JPEG (old-style)
Thumbnail Offset	191
Thumbnail Length	5904
Date/Time Digitized	2008:08:01 20:21:27+00:00
Profile CMM Type	ADBE
Profile Version	2.1.0
Profile Class	Display Device Profile
Color Space Data	RGB
Profile Connection Space	XYZ
Profile Date Time	2000:08:11 19:51:59
Profile File Signature	acsp
Primary Platform	Apple Computer Inc.
CMM Flags	Not Embedded, Independent
Device Manufacturer	none
Device Model
Device Attributes	Reflective, Glossy, Positive, Color
Rendering Intent	Perceptual
Connection Space Illuminant	0.9642 1 0.82491
Profile Creator	ADBE
Profile ID	0
Profile Copyright	Copyright 2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated
Profile Description	Adobe RGB (1998)
Media White Point	0.95045 1 1.08905
Media Black Point	0 0 0
Red Tone Reproduction Curve	(Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Green Tone Reproduction Curve	(Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Blue Tone Reproduction Curve	(Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Red Matrix Column	0.60974 0.31111 0.01947
Green Matrix Column	0.20528 0.62567 0.06087
Blue Matrix Column	0.14919 0.06322 0.74457
Image Width	360
Image Height	263
Encoding Process	Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample	8
Color Components	3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling	YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1)
Aperture	2.8
GPS Latitude	51 deg 51' 18.00" N
GPS Longitude	1 deg 14' 32.40" W
GPS Position	51 deg 51' 18.00" N, 1 deg 14' 32.40" W
Image Size	360x263
Thumbnail Image	(Binary data 5904 bytes, use -b option to extract)

 

I've been using the excellent GPS Tracker software on my iPhone 3G device to track routes and positions. At the weekend we competed in a pursuit race, which, due to the staggered start time and coupled with the fact Cracker is the fastest (sailing) boat in the harbour, our race is VERY short. We had other complications too, including a very low tide meaning we couldn't even get to the race course until moments after our race started (!)  and a flat engine battery meant it was always going to be tough to win!  However, we had guests on board and it turned out to be just good fun. It was also good to be back in Brightlingsea again having spent much of the season on the South Coast in Cowes and Ramsgate.

In two weeks time, we are off again - to West Mersea this time to compete in the annual Dabchicks Regatta. In fact it was exactly a year ago when Geoff came aboard and together we formed what he affectionately calls 'the engine room'. Amongst his other phrases, many of which can't be mentioned here (!), was BSBS (Brightlingsea School of Boat Speed). We did well that year and elevated ourselves into the quite unique club which we now know as 'BSBS'. Wish us luck!

"We are the engine room", eh Geoff?

Whilst the BBC are still dragging their feet with providing Windows only versions of their iPlayer software for downloading programmes, I've been using an alternative solution.

Paul Battley has found a solution using Ruby script run as a command line application. This is a cross platform tool that will work on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. There is a GUI interface as well, though the author recommends using the command line which works perfectly well within a Terminal window.

./iplayer-dl --pid-list=download.txt

The downloader is able to handle bulk downloads through creating a list of programmes using the PID identifier in a text file.

Download the latest iPlayer Downloader software. On a Mac you'll need to have installed Apple's Xcode development environment.

 

Ever since Sir Ken Robinson spoke about Creativity and learning at TED, I've been keeping a watchful eye on subsequent presentations.

Johnny Lee captured my imagination, maybe because he's a geek as well? Johnny has begun to explore ways in which the Wii Remote can be applied to other situations where a device able to track movement using infra-red opens up new opportunities.

The accelerometer on the iPhone 3G opens up new possibilities in much the same way. I love playing Cro-Mag Rally for example, where the phone becomes the steering wheel. Having a spirit level on your phone rates quite high on a scale of geekiness.

That aside, Johnny has discovered that you can use a $40 handheld device to create an interactive whiteboard. He found that the Wii Remote has a powerful infra red camera in the tip of the controller. By putting an infra red LED inside the tip of a pen, the Wii Remote can detect movement across a projected surface. Very neat. An interactive whiteboard for the cost of about £30.

Johnny continues by demonstrating how the Wii Remote can detect head movements by tracking an infra red LED attached to a pair of glasses and in an instant, find yourself moving within a 3D environment. This is definitely one to watch.

 

With so much consumer choice for home electronics equipment, it's a minefield for anyone trying to decide what device to buy. My neighbour was looking to buy a mobile phone recently and found it incredibly difficult knowing what which manufacturer and model to purchase. With over a thousand mobile phones to choose from, this isn't a straightforward decision. 

Searching around a bit, I stumbled across TestFreaks. It aggregates reviews from several different sources, many of whom are written by consumers. Each device is rated against several criteria, design, value for money, features, ease of use, and performance. These vary depending on the device being reviewed.

I've been looking at buying a games console so that I play some of the latest games which are somehow all available for consoles rather than Macs and PCs.

Why not look for reviews of your next consumer product?

 

 

I'm having a lot of fun with InstaMapper's GPS Tracking application on my iPhone 3G. The client application takes live GPS data from the iPhone's position and transmits this to their servers at regular intervals. Using GPS positioning, the iPhone software can calculate the speed at which you are travelling and also the heading as a bearing.

However, it isn't until you log in to the InstaMapper GPS Tracking website and analyse the data that the iPhone has transmitted, that things become really interesting.

After a recent trip to the Lakeside Shopping Centre to collect a repaired MacBook, I looked at the data recorded. Journey time home was 20 mins from start to finish, travelling at an average speed of 48 miles per hour. The InstaMapper site also overlays each GPS position when data was transmitted onto a Google Map showing my entire journey to and from the Centre.

...and of course, using Google Maps as the mapping engine, it can also be viewed using the Satellite view.

I've started to cycle more regularly and next time I shall take the iPhone with me to track the route, speed and distance travelled.

Unfortunately, with Apple's policy on not permitting 3rd party applications to multi-task on the iPhone, the application only transmits data when it has been launched and is the running foreground application. This means you can't have the device constantly uploading GPS data - which is a real pity as this would then become the ideal anti-theft security system. Well, it wouldn't stop the iPhone from being stolen, but you'd be able to track the device quickly and within just a few metres. I'd love to see InstaMapper creating a variant of their tool which perhaps just uses a Unix application which runs in the background and posts GPS data - it doesn't need a GUI. Is this possible?

There are inherent dangers of having a device posting GPS data of course, not least having someone close to home knowing exactly where you are at every heartbeat. Hmmmm.  Or, as in this case, being busted for growing Cannabis plants. 

It'll be unfair for me to say that I haven't blogged for ages because I haven't had the time to do so as I've had the same amount of time as I have always had. I hate the expression 'I just haven't had the time to...' because that really means 'I've chosen to do something else' which is ok really - life is a busy place to be and we each have different priorities and needs.

That said, although my blog may have experienced the odd piece of tumble weed, my online presence as been as busy as ever - I'm just spread around a bit (!)

I couldn't begin to recount everything that has happened in the last four and a bit months, but you might try skimming through some of those 'other' online places.

I've invested much of my time building a Kings Road Primary School community, involving pupils in Year 4 initially and gradually bringing others into the online space. Building online learning communities is not a trivial task, and requires a fairly careful balance of ingredients for trust to be gained and responsibility understood. I'm delighted to see the fruits ripening as pupils are confidently posting articles whilst developing an understanding of language and audience.

The Orion Online site is thriving too. Take a look at some of our recent activities:

The mobile blog is pretty full-on, and kinda tells it's own story of where I've been and who I've met along the way. Using the iPhone 3G to blog is not only a delightful tool to use, but have began tagging photos with GPS location information. Watch this space for more on GPS location tagging.

...and of course there is also my online presence on Facebook and currently features my sisters wedding, she looked stunning. Take a look: album 1 | album 2. 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how important Role Play is in engaging pupils in understanding and performing tasks to the best of their ability. I remember quite early on in my teaching career when I was working with friends from Ultralab on an eTui research project. The afternoon involved my pupils playing with toys, a radio controlled car, a programmable toy and an eTui (a meta-level learning toy.) We asked my pupils to complete a questionnaire about what they understand about how each toy moved, what it sensed and how it responded to the environment in which it was being used. 

Crucially, we gave the pupils the title of 'researcher' and issued them each with a clipboard. Short of giving them a white 'lab' coat, they were every bit the researcher, and assumed that role throughout the afternoon. Interestingly enough, I remember questioning how most of the children understood the role of a researcher, yet their experience of what a researcher actually does was limited.

Recently, in discussion with colleagues during lunchtime, I reiterated how significant children in my Enterprise Team, had taken to the idea of being in-role as designers, inventors and business people. Here's why.

Over a period of 4 days next week, pupils at Kings Road Primary School are taking part in an Enterprise Week. The pupils have been tasked with designing and making products (or providing services) to sell with the intention of making a profit on the £50 they have received to buy resources. The ideas that each team are developing are already proving to be highly secretive and there is much competition between teams and keeping ideas top secret is the name of the game.

Whilst pupils in my team were in-role, I had them sign a child-friendly version of a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) which gave them a sense of loyalty and assurance to each other that our ideas will not be shared with other children or teachers. Whilst other pupils have since shared confidential information, my team haven't. How significant was role-playing in ensuring that our ideas weren't readily shared with others?

Today, we finalised our plans, discussed and voted on our team name, 'The F Factor' and began work on designing a logo for the team. Again, I used role-play with the help of preprinted stationery to ensure pupils engaged with the idea of being a creative designer for our team. The logos they presented were of a high standard and their understanding of the task was obvious in the designs they had produced.

Role-play had an enormous significance in the primary classroom and is not just the domain of Key Stage 1 pupils, but can, and should be given opportunities throughout all year groups in the school.

 

 

 Last night, the School Council at Rettendon Primary School attended the Meeting of the Governing Body to present their view of the school and its activities over the last term. They had put together an excellent PowerPoint presentation with photographs and images to support what they were saying.

The School Council comprises of representatives from each year group, and despite being faced with the challenge of presenting to a room of adults, spoke with confidence and conviction. I was delighted that they were able to join us and speak in a mature manner, reflecting the views of all students.

Although not a new idea, it is occasions such as these which shows that these students are placed at the very heart of this small, community school. Everyone knows each other and everyone's voices are heard. I'd very much like to see how the involvement of the School Council at Governor meetings can be developed further, perhaps having them join the formal meeting and contribute to some of the discussions. It is very clear to me that with the School Council's presence and participation, there is much to be gained. 

A discussion regarding the arrangement of the curriculum, the class organisation, future building work should involve the students, after all, it is their education we are helping to improve. Needless to say, there are challenges, for example we'd have to look at how we make the meeting accessible to them including timing, accessibility to terminology and vocabulary used, and how we'd approach items of a confidential nature. None of these are insurmountable and something to be discussed for the future.

I made an audio recording of the meeting which has been made accessible on the Rettendon Primary School podcast. 

I'd be interested to hear from other governors, Headteachers, teachers, parents, pupils about how the School Council are involved in Governor meetings in their schools.

Congratulations to all who presented at last night's Governor meeting, you made us all feel very proud of your achievements.

As every software developer knows, especially ones like me who obey the 'hack it and run' rule, it's quite unusual for software to 'just work' out of the box. Tonight was a surprising exception as I took the brave decision to upgrade the Drupal software which powers this blog site.

Some people might ask why?  Well, for a whole heap of reasons really.

1. I was receiving an increasing number of spam messages which were somehow getting past the CAPTCHA mechanism that I have in place. I suspect some security loophole had been discovered in v5.1 which was then exploited.
2. If you want to explore and play with pushing software to its limits or seeing what else is possible, often you need to be running the latest version of the software to access the compatible modules and plugins.
3. I've learnt from previous experiences of not upgrading software versions that quite often you can get 'left behind' with future upgrade paths. This one is a real gotcha as you start to regret having not applied the last 3 upgrade scripts. As you spit through gritted teeth, you begin a long night of incremental software upgrading through each version, i.e 3 --> 4, 4 --> 5, 5 --> 6 etc. It's a miserable experience.
4. Not upgrading your Drupal installation is like not finishing the tiling in the kitchen - you won't get the full user experience of all the features and when you prepare to move house, you kick yourself indefinitely for not having finished it sooner.

Rather delightfully, the upgrade to v6.0 was straightforward and painless. Drupal coders write a fantastic migration script - well done guys.

I do wish you could solve some of the issues with having to re-apply customisations to 'themes' however. I'm now wise to this headache and despite my inner most desires, refrain from making too many customisations. On the other hand, the template files haven't changed much between versions and I'm getting pretty good at predicting where line 503 is in a 2000 line template file and making the odd code edit. Thanks guys.

Some of the really nice features of v6.0 includes:

• automatic checking of module updates.
• better versioning control for compatible modules.
• AJAX drag and drop feature for arranging 'block' and menu order (at last!)
• custom notifications for any Drupal event - this could be really useful.
• support for OpenID, ready for when single-sign on gets sorted (pig flies overhead)

and finally, finally!!!

• a fix for broken or chopped HTML in comment posts.

 Hurrah! So it's a pretty worthwhile upgrade. Back to the tiling then.... 

 

My Headteacher recently handed me a disc and said that I should watch both 'What If...' and 'Shift Happens'.  My Head had recently attended a course and two presentations were shown to provoke minds into thinking about the future of education, teaching and learning.

I found them hugely powerful and thought-provoking, and wanted to share them with you here.

What If looks back on statements that people in a variety of educational roles have made over the past few centuries, and some comments made, worryingly, since the turn of the millennium. The key message here, of course, is what if we'd listened to all those people along the way. What are we saying today that could be having an impact on what could happen tomorrow?

Shift Happens offers plenty of provocations through the use of statistics and reflects on where the world and technology has been and is heading.

    

Both presentations have really opened my eyes to maintaining an open mind about new possibilities and that we simply can't afford to make the same mistakes as we did in the last Century. My Head often says if we carry on doing the same things as we did yesterday, we can expect the same outcomes as of yesterday. If we want to do better for our children, we have to change what we do.

We are educating a different generation and this means embracing new technologies rather than immediately disregarding them. However, it doesn't mean building a curriculum around the technology, but instead use it to enhance and add value to teaching and learning.

For me, probably the most significant aspect of the Shift Happens movie is this statement:

"We are currently preparing our students for jobs that don't yet exist... using technologies that haven't been invented... to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

It just shows how open minded we need to be if we are to prepare our children properly for tomorrow's world. Learning knowledge, key facts and figures won't help the children of tomorrow, yet to give them skills to find out information for themselves, contribute their own understanding and challenge one another are much higher order skills.

What this means in reality is give pupils opportunities to be creative, to make decisions, problem solve, debate, discuss, be inventive and above all else, be themselves. If we allow them to develop their own uniqueness, this is what will set them apart from the rest of the world.

What are your thoughts?