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After completing six years of engineering studies (Electrical Engineering followed by a Masters in government planning systems), still unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, I decided to take a gap year traveling. Through this zig-zagging journey, I discovered my calling as a teacher, almost accidentally.



In fact, I remember the exact moment that I knew I wanted to teach. I was teaching English grammar to eager nine-year-olds in a little Rajasthani village between Udaipur and Jodhpur. The children were loving the game we were playing with pronouns and I felt like a choreographer of an improv theatre piece; my young students and I, serving as both actors and audience. I was in flow. I was a teacher.



My accommodation during my stay in the village was a spare room in my principal’s house. On his bookshelf, I discovered a book, already out of print at that point, called “School is Dead” by Everett Reimer. It is an eloquent polemic against the many problems of the school system. I sailed through the book with a passion and joy that few other books have given me, and I remember the moment upon completing the final page. I lifted the book in front of me and spoke to the room, “This book is going to change my life.”



And so it has. Even as I commenced my education as a teacher, I sustained the catalytic impulse that this book had on me. I began my adventure into teaching as an inquirer into the system of schooling itself, exploring the history of schools and innovations in schooling and educational trends around the world, much of which has been integrated into what is now Kairos.



A highlight on this journey has included a personally transformative workshop with Marshall Rosenberg, founder of the Centre for Non-Violent Communication, followed by my sustained involvement in the ManKind Project and associated Boys to Men Mentoring Network, providing education in emotional intelligence for adult men and teenage boys. Much of the tools we utilise in Kairos, and which inform our social and emotional curriculum, originate from these initiatives.



Becoming a father in 2016 has added an entirely new dimension to my teaching journey. The joy of witnessing the day-to-day unfolding of my children’s intelligences has been a continuous celebration of life. Simultaneously, I can now more easily comprehend and personally identify with the struggles of parenting which I’ve long witnessed in parents of my classes at a more arms-length distance. I believe in Kairos now more than ever, not merely in the professional sense as an educator, but also as a father and the school of choice for my own children.



Feel free to give me a call for a chat.