I did a fair amount of gazing out of windows at school. It would be nice if teachers could believe that “absent” pupils were busy constructing theories on the natural world, like Luke Howard who had his head in the clouds during Latin lessons. Science at the time was all about classifying collections, so it was hard for meteorologists to compete. Young Howard’s observations were to change all that (page 12). Doubtless his teachers were familiar with the proverb “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. The Bible has furnished our language with a wealth of such sayings. The primary project this week explores who wrote it (page 19). Joyce Arnold