KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 17): British educator, author, political commentator and contemporary historian Sir Anthony Seldon says schooling should be a magical experience place for young people. Sadly, he sees joy being squeezed out of school and students fearful of failing, making mistakes, disappointing their teachers and letting their parents down. Seldon, the interim head of Epsom College UK, champions all-round education, with children learning coping skills and to communicate, problem-solving and interacting with others — things employers look for but which educators tend to neglect.

Drawing from his own experience of loving school and teaching for decades, he talks about positive psychology to build resilience in the young, helping them to manage their emotions and bodies, and drawing out the “gift” that every child has in him to do good.

Art got in the way of dance after Calvin Chua Cheng Koon began working on his watercolour painting in the early 1980s. “I was into dancing in my younger days,” he says. Early last year, after watching Dua Space Dance Theatre perform, he was moved to pick up his brush and capture their fluid steps on canvas. This month, Chua, chairman of the Malaysian Watercolour Society, is holding his 13th solo exhibition titled Dance on Canvas at Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery in Jenjarom, Selangor. This show has the same energy as those featuring his River Series, depicting children at play outdoors. But it has a semi-abstract approach inspired by Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky’s Point and Line to Plane theory.

In 2003, Uniqlo brought out its HeatTech line, robust clothes cut from fabric made with micron-sized fibres that capture the energy of water molecules emitted from the body and convert them into warmth while retaining heat. The clothing apparel company then partnered Japanese fibre and textile manufacturer Toray Industries Inc to produce HeatTech. The partnership is 20 this year, and Options visits Toray’s Seta Plant in Otsu, the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, for a closeup look at how HeatTech is made, using four types of fibres.

Read all about these and more in the Dec 18, 2023 issue of Options, out with The Edge Malaysia weekly.

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