Neil Butcher's blog is a collection of musings on what openness really means for humanity around the world as we face challenges unlike any we have experienced in living memory. Rather than seeing challenges as a problem to be solved, Neil prefers to reflect on the opportunities they provide us for transformation and change, as we move to find our common humanity.
The blog posts are strongly influenced by the 30 years that Neil has spent working in education systems around the world, where he has witnessed firsthand how capable we all are of hanging onto old mental models and constructs long after they have stopped being helpful to us. He believes that current geopolitical, economic, and educational developments will make this increasingly difficult, constantly challenging us in ever-increasing waves to let go of what does not work for us as a species and find compassion in everything we do, first for ourselves and then for all other people.
I am not much of a mountain biker, but one thing I learned very early in my few outings on a mountain bike is that the more you focus on the rocks on your trail the more likely you are to crash into them. The alternative is not to ignore them, but to observe them and then identify the pathway around them – focusing your energy and attention on where you want to go rather than what you want to avoid.
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.