Look for things no one else catches

Yesterday, whilst playing a game of Articulate, my 6 year old described a comma as “something you need for an expanded noun phrase” Undoubtedly excellent grammatical knowledge, but a slightly telling sign too, of an education system that churns out little exam machines.

As a child of the 80s, when learning such things wasn’t part of the pedagogy, my knowledge of grammar is limited to the very basics. And so I would probably have described a comma as a full stop with a tail, or something that looks a bit like a tadpole. (But then again, I start sentences with and, so what do I know?)

Keep looking. Keep thinking differently. Keeping watching for the things that no one else catches x