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Transforming Learning Systems through Openness

Encounters with Life and Death
Personal reflections on a journey through manipulations and attachments

Introducing a new book by Neil Butcher

 

In Encounters with Life and Death, Neil takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through seminal experiences from his life, some professional and many deeply personal. He unpacks how they have shaped his views on what it means to be human and how he has used them to deepen his relationship with his own humanity. It is less a memoir than a reflection on what he believes really matters in our lives, as well as an exploration of how we and the societies in which live distance us from what we should find most important. 

 

His insights also draw on many years of travelling the world working in education, which have left him increasingly disillusioned by the effects of formal education systems on people globally. He shares how key events and experiences have shaped his own daily thoughts, habits, and practices, as well as his priorities for the second half of his life. In doing this, he explores how he hopes to reduce the unhealthy effects of those who seek to manipulate us and of his attachments to possessions and behaviours that do not serve him.

 

Encounters with Life and Death invites you to spark meaningful conversations about reshaping education to nurture authentic human connections. How can you empower yourselves and others to live more fulfilled lives? Join Neil in rethinking how to truly connect with what matters, exploring how we can reconfigure education systems to empower learners to find a deep connection with their own humanity and that of the people around them.

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Book Cover, Text Encounters with Life and Death, personal reflections on a journey through manipulations and attachments by Neil Butcher

Blogs

Being of Service and the Need for Self-Care
07 May 2024

Being of Service and the Need for Self-Care

In the latest post, Neil writes about the opportunity to work with Crisis Text Line and reflects on the concept of being of service to others, and how it requires self-care and self-awareness to avoid creation of unhealthy co-dependencies. Drawing on insights from his book ‘Encounters with Life and Death,’ he explores how true education transformation should begin with creating space for self-care and fostering working conditions that enable people to show up and be of genuine service every day.

Join Neil in this exploration of how prioritizing self-care is essential for providing meaningful service to others.

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The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence
30 April 2024

The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence

In his newest blog post entitled ‘The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence’, Neil proposes that we need to embrace and nurture our full human capability, which is distributed throughout our whole body, and rethink the purpose of education accordingly. He often likes to reflect on the diverse and integrated nature of human intelligence, and how it is often misunderstood or neglected by education systems. He recently drew inspiration from a science-fiction novel that proposes the quantum level of brain activity, and looked at some recent studies that explore this possibility. These illustrate the aspects of human intelligence that go beyond the conscious and rational mind, such as the sub-conscious, the gut microbiome, and the epigenetic memories.
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The Ghost Town of San Jose
25 April 2024

The Ghost Town of San Jose

The lyrics of the Specials reverberated through my mind as I went for my first exploratory run around San Jose, and not just because the hotel where I am staying feels like an extra from Ghostbusters. Described on its website as the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose is also one of the most expensive metro areas in the USA. But, having travelled extensively, I feel I can pick up the ‘energy’ of places quite quickly and what struck me forcefully since my arrival yesterday morning is the absence of humanity: shops in downtown San Jose boarded up; my hotel unable to find a vendor to restart its restaurant after the COVID-19 lockdowns; and a city showing physical signs of neglect everywhere. I have also seen how homelessness has become a reality for so many people in the richest country in the world.
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Neil Butcher

Neil Butcher

Neil was born and grew up in Johannesburg in South Africa during the final years of apartheid. He began a career in education after university studies and was privileged to work in an education NGO during South Africa’s transition to democracy and beyond. During this time, he founded Neil Butcher & Associates, where he still works today. He is privileged to have been able to travel extensively throughout the world during his career, an opportunity that has provided him unique opportunities to engage with many cultures and appreciate the extraordinary diversity of the world in which we live. 

Neil is passionate about helping governments, development partners, and educational institutions to reform education systems to enable people and societies to achieve their full human potential. Having worked in education in developing countries across the globe for over 30 years, Neil recognizes that there are no simple formulae for educational reform; each context is unique, as are the people who inhabit it. Thus, providing service to initiatives focused on education reform requires willingness to listen and understand what is most important, combined with a patient conviction that transformation, no matter how difficult it may seem, is possible.