How do you feel when you realise how much you took after your parents?

My dad used to be a teacher, then a headteacher, then a ‘super head’ and adviser. It was a great career, and he was quite passionate about it. These days he keeps himself to himself but is still doing well.

We just discovered a personal website he was working on, with articles for the Times Ed, amusing ‘endpieces’ for the head teachers’ union journal and a video of one of his typical TV appearances. I have to say, it provoked a lot of emotions for me. It must be from the early 90s, but it has a feel of the 80s or 70s about it. My dad’s trimmed beard and committed anger, Colin Welland talking about education civil servants calling for people to be ‘taught their place once again’.

And… I can see a lot of similarities! In the commitment in the passion, and even in the writing.

Makes you wonder how far it goes back — my grandad was a Minister in the United Reform Church (‘stand up, speak up, and shut up’ was his advice for public speaking); I have a hint of the flavour of his writing too.

Maybe they’re right, and the apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree.

What do you see in your parents that makes you go ‘ohhhh, I see why I do that’? How does it make you feel?

Dad’s website and his writing is still there — www.philjtaylor.com — and I’ve taken a copy for backup now.

I’ll do my mum’s side of the family one day; she’d be a little bit more mortified, but she was a Special Educational Needs adviser and trainer, and involved in many local organisations — it’s never hard to find a link, eh? :-)