17/08/2026
To my Wonderlearn students: remembering Professor Jason Arday
I want to say something to you today about Professor Jason Arday, because whatever you may read in newspapers or online, there is something about his life that I hope we will not allow to be lost.
Jasonâs story was an extraordinary one of resilience. He did not speak until he was 11 and did not learn to read and write until he was 18. Yet he went on to become a teacher, an academic and ultimately the youngest Black professor ever appointed at Cambridge. But I donât think the most important thing he taught us was about qualifications, titles or achievement. It was about love, kindness, compassion, determination and believing in other people.
Jason once described our world as being desperately short of âkindness, love and empathyâ, and urged us to help other people whenever we can. Elsewhere, he spoke about living with âhumility, faith, hope and loveâ. That, to me, is the thread running through the life I want you to remember.
There are questions surrounding some of Jasonâs choices and claims, and those questions should not simply be ignored. Truth matters. Accountability matters. If mistakes were made, they deserve to be understood. But I also want you to learn something much harder and more important: this human being was bigger than the worst thing alleged about him.
Sometimes I think of Jasonâs journey as someone searching for a key to a door that was never really designed for him to enter. He faced obstacles that many of us will never fully understand, yet somehow he kept finding ways through. We may never know everything that happened or why particular decisions were made. But perhaps that should make us more curious, more thoughtful and more compassionate, rather than quicker to condemn.
And there is another lesson here. The pursuit of truth should never make us forget the humanity of the person whose truth we are examining. Scrutiny without compassion can become something very different from justice. We should always ask not only âAm I right?â but also âAm I being kind? Am I being fair? What might my words do to another human being?â
None of us gets through life without making mistakes or poor choices. You will make them. I have made them. What matters is that we take responsibility, learn, repair what we can and continue trying to put something good into the world.
So when you remember Professor Jason Arday, please remember the bright light too. Remember the boy who was told what he might never be able to do and who went on to open doors for others. Remember his resilience. Remember his belief in education. Remember his compassion. And remember that he wanted love to be something that travelled outwards from one human being to another.
Perhaps that is the thread we can pick up now.
And perhaps the best way we can honour him is simply to keep passing it on.
With love,
Wonderlearn
