This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

Today is Thursday the 4th of July, 2024 – and I have a problem.

We’re now (happily) into the school holidays, which rather limits the major education stories available for a bit of commentary or explanation.

You may have noticed that there’s also an election going on today. By the time you read this, most of us will have probably already voted, but for obvious reasons today’s newsletter has to steer clear of politics as far as possible, just in case.

So what to do instead?

I had a few ideas, most of them bad, and then it hit me – maybe I should just tell you a story.

So here goes.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Zanzibar on holiday. It’s somewhere I’d wanted to visit ever since I was a child and first realised that, like Timbuktu, it is in fact a real place.

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In many respects, Zanzibar is a legitimate paradise island. It is ringed by impossibly perfect beaches, surrounded by warm, clear, fish-filled waters, and covered in ridiculously lush and vibrant plant life. I saw monkeys having lunch outside my accommodation, and watched a pair of eastern golden weaver birds tend to a nest suspended from palm fronds above a swimming pool. We even........

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