"Education is one thing no one can take away from you."

Before the pandemic all my French tuition lessons were in-person, either at the student’s home or office. This meant a lot of travel on the London underground, buses and trains to reach them. I didn’t mind – I listened to music, caught up with the Evening Standard crossword, and eavesdropped on other people’s conversations.

One such conversation occurred during the half-term holidays several years ago. A Dad was on the tube with his two daughters who both looked around 10 years of age or so, and he was keen to add educational value to their journey.

Dad: "So how tall is The Shard?"
Daughter 1 offered an answer. 
Dad says: "No, that's the architectural height of the Eiffel Tower. Try again."
Daughter 2 had a go. Dad said she was 32 metres short in her answer. I wondered whether to ask how long is a tube journey when your Dad keeps asking questions about tall buildings. 

Educational Dad kept going. He had found a web page on his phone that gave him the height of tall buildings around the world. He kept muttering words like 'Empire State Building' and some place in Dubai. The girls drifted off to their happy place. Dad was still asking people to guess the height of buildings. No one was listening to him. Except for me, and I couldn't write it down fast enough!

Learning can happen anywhere, anytime. Maybe some fellow commuters learnt a thing or two about tall buildings that day. Maybe those girls are now budding architects, enthused by their Dad’s passion for knowledge. I like to think so.