Seventh Heaven...July 13th 2006

BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY, England...JULY 13TH 2006

Today I graduate with my seventh degree, the culmination of nine years of research into the National Writing Project in the United States. This work has been conducted here at the Birmingham University School of Education and in the English department at Western Kentucky University USA.

The inspiration for this work and the one consistent tutor throughout my study is Mary Dillingham, my language arts professor when I was a student in New York.

Mary is the most gifted educator I have ever had the privilege to meet and a woman who inspires simply by her love for her subject and her natural talent as a teacher.

Today also marks my 'hat-trick' of degrees from Birmingham University, where I first began studying in 1997.

Graduation is more than a milestone, it is a new beginning...and an opportunity for you to look afresh at the world and all the many things you still have to encounter.

Without the gift of Mary Dillingham's teaching I would never have taken the journey that has led to today's achievement and for that I am eternally grateful.