Through a Different Lens: Lessons from a Life in Education

In Through a Different Lens, Ger Graus, a global authority on education, especially in the areas of experience-based learning and human potential, gives us a unique and invaluable perspective on education, children, and schooling. His personal and professional reflections and thoughts remind us that we all need stories and personal narratives to help us understand and navigate today’s world, and that education can be a powerful force for change – “Whatever the question, education is always the answer”.

Through his own experiences, Ger Graus shows us that we must use education as a tool for bringing about this positive change. He implores the reader to feel empowered to share their own stories and experiences, with an understanding that “everybody is an educator.” In this professional autobiography he includes:

• The importance of early childhood, children’s contexts and social mobility
• The multi-dimensionality of childhood: one size never fits all
• The value of experience-based learning and the importance of heroes and sheroes
• Zero to 99: lifelong learning
• Innovation, purpose and measuring what we value
• The future of education and schooling

Throughout the narrative the author skilfully leaves us with his personal stories and lessons learned, anecdotes - sometimes sad, sometimes funny, including tales about his grandad, Bob Geldof and the Band Aid Trust, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Marcus Rashford and KidZania, to name a few, and most importantly, stories and observations about magical teachers, inspirational leaders, wonderful children and families, over forty-plus years and across forty-plus countries. This important book is an inspiring read for all those who teach, for parents and carers, for policy advisors and for anyone who cares deeply about the education of the world's children.

Ger Graus is a globally recognised figure in the field of education, once described as “Jean-Jacques Rousseau meets Willy Wonka”. Driven by his famous mantra that “Children can only aspire to what they know exists” he champions the causes of equity and social mobility, purpose and experience, creativity, and awe and wonder in children’s learning, so that each child becomes empowered to write their own narrative of the possible.