Bongo Blog

Ages since I wrote a blog post so time I did. I am writing an autobiography at the moment, just for the fun of it. It has taken me back to the days my mum used to tell me to “go and play with the traffic”. Seriously this is one of the things she said; of course these were the days before political correctness.

Despite the fact that I had, and did not want, curly hair she would warn me that ‘If you don’t eat your crusts, your hair won’t curl’. I used to hide the crusts in my pocket. She found them once and I had a three-day lecture on starving people in Africa. I have grown up to like crusty bread, so it did not do me too much harm. We were always told that if we didn’t eat our carrots we wouldn’t be able to see in the dark. Thankfully, these days, we have light bulbs and electricity! Why does my mind jump from crusts to carrots? In France children are told that carrots give you curly hair.

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson. You find the present tense and the past perfect. I realize that nostalgia is a device that removes the ruts and the potholes from Memory Lane but this morning, while writing a book on new technology, I started to reminisce on my childhood. Maybe it was as a result of things in my dreams last night. I woke up laughing at a Monty Python sketch in my head “when I was a child we had it tough”. But before we move on, what about nostalgia about sleep itself? When I was a child I used to think that when you slept, you stopped breathing. I would pretend to be asleep when ever my parents came into my room, and hold my breath. I would end up gasping for breath, reveling that I was awake.

About time I wrote a blog about Bongo LLP. Who we are and how we work. Lots of people talk about Web2.0 and how working practices are changing, kids have written about it in IT exam papers for years, well welcome to the future. Bongo LLP is certainly not a normal company; we have no staff and no management structure, no managers to complain about. We are a group of very creative people living worldwide who realise that working together using Web2.0 we can do great things. Above all we want to make a difference. We want to make learning fun. We are a virtual company doing deals in our pajamas. and in bed with our lappies.

Just another day. Flight from Luton to Bezier – just a short trip one and a half hours. But stressed, rushed, snow storm, delays, tiredness – all at once. I’m working on my lappie, drafting emails, organising files, clearing space, making a to-do list. All good stuff. Two young lovers sit next to me, “get a room” I think to myself.

The feedback on Amazon.co.uk for Slim the Ogre has been terrific. We have six glowing reviews, with readers appreciating the story itself, the fantastic illustrations, and the various messages about getting along with others, the importance of a good diet, and how it’s okay to be different. There is now a Facebook page for SlimRead the Rest…

I read so much about literacy. As I am dyslexic maybe I really don’t understand what I read, but this is my attempt to take control. To understand. Science tells us that bumblebees cant fly. Bodies too big, wings to small. Scientific fact. And at school it was a fact that a dyslexic, autistic, awkward young man would never be any good at literacy. When I was young I always had to wear clean underwear to go out of the house. My mother said it was because I might have an accident. I thought at the time that medical people checked your underwear before treating you. It took many years for me to discover the truth. It was about her pride. In a similar way after many years I feel competent to write about literacy. Or at least to give my dyslexic, autistic understanding of its definition.

I have to smile when I read articles such as the Guardian article today by Jeevan Vasagar, quoting a thinktank report stating that “The most successful schools ignore government advice and set their own standards for effective teaching” “the best schools foster an expectation and culture of perpetual improvement.” It’s a bit like saying that if you keep breathing you will live longer. It is not governments that make successful education its kids, parents and teachers, and yes I did deliberately put them in this order.

If I told you that Slim the Vegetarian Ogre Story-builder has been released, would you have the slightest idea what I was talking about? If I hadn’t written it, I’m not sure I would, so I thought it might be an idea to clear the fog and tell you about it.

A story-builder is a software or other type of technology designed to help children (in this case) write their own stories. Slim the Ogre is the first of its kind in that it uses a specially designed software to guide children through the whole process of story-writing.

You can read more about the process here.

Teachers of course, after all they are paid to do it. They are the experts aren’t they? After all, schools were set up to educate. I have read many reports of wonderful teachers who have achieved this and that. So a short blog this week as it’s the teacher who REALLY educates the child.

One definition for education thus educate is to train, discipline (a person, a class of persons, a particular mental or physical faculty or organ), so as to develop some special aptitude, taste, or disposition. This is what teachers do isn’t it? Before schools no one learnt anything?

A couple of years ago at the Education show I picked up a book of kids stories. They were excellent but all written by young people from either private schools or very high flying schools. I remember thinking why can’t ALL kids have their very own stories printed in book. It has taken two years of hard work based upon research of people like Vladimir Propp’s theories contending that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their most basic plot components, Slim is the result of all this effort.