Journey of Knowledge
How an unexpected opportunity led to Tony visiting 700 schools
The Start of the Journey
The Maguskid Educational Foundation was founded by Tony Williams in 2022
The roots of the journey go back over 25 years
The Beginning
When Tony Williams’ first book, the humorous children’s novel, Fizz the Wildest Boy in the Universe was published in New Zealand in 1996, the publishers suggested Tony visit schools to promote it.
Tony also began visiting schools on behalf of literacy charities. The schools ranged from big city schools with hundreds of children, to tiny country schools. Tony travelled along highway and byway, sometimes a long drive down a gravel track, or a boat or plane ride to an island. At the end of every journey, Tony found smiling children.
The Laughter of Children
Tony made the children laugh and inspired them with empowering knowledge.
“Towards the end of one show, a young boy asked, ‘Do you want to play a game?’
From a child, this is the supreme compliment.
The whole school, 50 children and 3 teachers, trooped outside onto the sports field to play a form of football like the original played hundreds of years ago between whole villages, here with 25 players on each side, no particular rules and we played with two balls on the field at the same time.
I took my shoes and socks off, rolled up my trousers, the whistle blew and we ran around chasing the balls, laughing, squealing, shouting and screaming - marvelous, riotous fun.”
For 25 years Tony visited over 700 schools, speaking to over 100,000 children.
Below are some snapshots from that journey.
