Yesterday afternoon, our Year 7 students
were treated to an enthralling talk by Matt Dickinson, a documentary film-maker
and author. He has worked extensively
for National Geographic Television, the Discovery Channel and the BBC and is
one of the very few film-makers to have filmed on the summit of Mount
Everest. Matt was ostensibly here to
talk about his book, Mortal Chaos, a
thrill-a-minute page turner based on the ‘butterfly effect’. This term describes how small changes to
seemingly unrelated things can affect large, complex systems. It comes from the
suggestion that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can cause
a hurricane in another part of the world!
Mortal Chaos links together
many seemingly unrelated events and people in a series of short, readable
chapters. This makes it very suitable for reluctant readers of both sexes.However, what we witnessed yesterday was much more than an author talking about a book. Matt is impressively experienced and well-travelled and has a large collection of pictures illustrating this. Taken in fantastic locations including the summit of Everest, on the Yukon River in Alaska and in the Moroccan desert, each picture had an enthralling story behind it. We saw an image of the simple but poignant memorial to fallen climbers on K2 and watched a moving clip of a climber finally reaching the summit of Everest after he had tried and failed on two previous expeditions.
Running all the way through Matt’s
presentation were three distinct themes. The first was the importance of reading
and how it opens up your horizons and enables you to dream. The second was about
developing the determination and skills to enable you to follow those dreams.
The final one was the importance of teamwork and supporting others. Interspersed
within these broad themes were many interesting snippets of information. These ranged from the scientific
(your blood thickens to cope with the lack of oxygen as you climb up a
mountain) to the sociological (you can encounter thieves and squatters even on
the slopes of Mount Everest)! Even though Matt’s talk was quite
different to what I was expecting, it was very enjoyable and informative. It was great for him to share his wealth of
experience and knowledge with our Year 7 students who displayed good
geographical knowledge and asked lots of intelligent questions!
Mrs Osafo
Mrs Osafo