J. Simpson – författare

Warlpiri is a Pama-Nyungan language (Ngarrka group) spo- ken by over 3,000 people in Central Australia. Neighbour- ing languages (all Pama-Nyungan) include its closest relatives, Warlmanpa and Ngardily, to the north-east and west respec- tively, Warumungu (Warumungic) and the Arandic languages, Kaytetye and Alyawarr, to the east, the Western Desert lan- guages, Pintupi and Kukatja, to the south and west respectively, the Ngumbin language Jaru to the north-west, the Arandic lan- guage, Anmatyerre, to the south-east, and the Ngumbin lan- guages, Gurindji and Mudburra, to the north. Warlpiri country encompasses a huge area of semi-desert stretching west of Tennant Creek to the Western Australian border. For the Warlpiri, this country is filled with meaning. Jukurrpa (often translated as 'Dreaming') beings travel across it, creating and changing the landscape in their passing. Songs, dances, painting, stories and journeys celebrate the jukurrpa and the country. The Warlpiri language is also from the jukurrpa; it is the language spoken by the jukurrpa beings on their travels through Warlpiri country.

This work on the theory of education was first published in 1839. The five writers had been chosen as the winners in a competition for an essay on the 'Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society', organised by the Central Society of Education, founded in 1837 to promote state funding of education, at a time when the 'monitor' system, whereby older children taught younger ones, was seen as an effective (and money-saving) method. The journalist John Lalor (1814-56) won first prize with a wide-ranging consideration of all the aspects of education, comparing the status of teachers through history and across several countries, and championing their 'sacred mission'. The runners-up were the writer John A. Heraud, the Unitarian minister Edward Higginson, the lawyer and author James Simpson, and Mrs Sarah Porter, prolific writer on education and sister of the political economist David Ricardo.