What will my kids learn in your class?

Each time I get this question I feel like I’m caught in a deja vu loop. How do I answer this question honestly?

I think a lot of parents out there have a lot of presumptions about school and learning which simply just ain’t so. I came across this quote yesterday and it sums up some of the ideas I had in mind about how I’m actually going to answer this persistent question about what I teach, how I teach, etc.

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

~John F. Kennedy

Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge

Hi guys,

Just thought I’d share with you what we’ve got planned for this coming holidays. Every year we do something different and this year it’s going to be a focus on learning life lessons through introspection gleaned from literature. This was in a way inspired by the trajectory I’ve been on with regards to my views on what kids today need out of an education and that premise can be glimpsed in this article I wrote a few months ago. Check it out : Love Based Learning.

Nowadays we see two kinds of problems when it comes to developing “thinking people”. First, children are not exposed to great literature. Second, they’re left to their own devices to interpret the multi-faceted layers of what they’re reading. Being children with a limited worldview they often do not have the scaffolding to make the most out of the literature they are reading.

Today after class I discussed with my Teaching Assistant the premise of this year’s Holiday Program. She was so surprised and asked me where I get such ideas from! Well, here’s the story. One of the stories we are using, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, was something she’d seen on the silver screen years ago when it came out. Recently in the plane back to Malaysia from Switzerland (how come my TA gets to go for European tour and I don’t?) she watched the movie again. She then realized there were so many beautiful lessons about life woven into the story – things that she did not see were there at all when she was a 15 year old teen.

I think it’s worth mentioning that my TA had been my student since she was 15 and is almost completing the traditional 7-year learning curve. She realized at that point that it was because of the other things she had learned over the years in our classes that she was able to appreciate the insights that allowed her to understand the creative morals and lessons embedded in that story. I cannot say the same for most adults I meet.  A lot of people I come across cannot find deep meaning and lessons from the world around them. Our world does not lack answers to solve all its problems instantly; instead, we lack the CAPACITY to process and make sense out of things, to synthesize information and to apply them to our betterment.

We live in a fragmented, segregated world and the way our children have been schooled, in fact, the way WE have been schooled, is a big cause of this kind of piece-meal, myopic, narrow-minded, thinking that cannot dissolve the world’s problems – not even our own. Where do we begin to change?

We cannot attempt more lessons, more learning, more repetition, more hard work. We have been working harder, faster, more but we’re not necessarily getting anywhere. As Einstein put it,

“Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge.”

Perhaps that’s our clue.

Perhaps that’s where our children can start : with Imagination. And children being children one stroke of inspiration, one week of memories, can end up serving them as a guide for years to come. We know they’re not going to get this experience in school – we might as well try and create some context to give them a taste of living and learning in Imagination and Empathy.

Well, just thought I’d share my feelings about why I do what I do with you. If you’d like to participate just drop a comment. Oh, by the way, that poster’s just for show – that’s the printed out that goes out. Here’s the online version :

Have a great week ahead. And if you’d like, do join our facebook page for more updates like these or subscribe to my blog.

Best,

Sloane Mak

p/s I would be running (yes, this time, not hosting) another FREE talk for parents on the issue of language learning, future of education, etc. Date TBA. If you’re interested, send in questions you’d like answers to so we can include it in the presentation.

Markets are Conversations.

This is a great book. If you haven’t read it yet and you’re either a business or an advocacy group trying to engage people to create the change you want to see in this world – try it.

When one person talks and the rest of us listen, either attentively or with reticence, it’s called a Lecture. When that lecture insists on not only presenting facts and ideas but claims its points to be the absolute truth, it’s a sermon. You get my point.

What inspired me to write this post comes from my inexperienced experience observing how people who want to change education can or cannot use social media for their means and ends. I want to share some observations which might be useful to people who are new to this.

Another Crazy Idea.

It’s half past midnight and about 4 minutes before midnight another random, crazy idea of mine picked up momentum : organizing Malaysia’s, or perhaps, South-East Asia’s First Alternative Education (homeschooling, unschooling, deschooling) Convention. Why?

Why not!

Convention (meeting), a large gathering of people who share a common interest.

I was having a back-and-forth on facebook about – report cards.  Those weren’t the highlight of my primary school days but Canteen Day was.

Let’s play with our Imagination a little. [Yes, ee-mah-gee-na-sion!]

Let’s just imagine for a little while. Oblige me, will you ?

So, let’s say, instead of one localized school canteen day – let’s have a NATIONAL CANTEEN DAY for people who ditch school!  And why stop at food? Malaysians are famous for coming together when there’s food – all racial prejudices stop at the sight of Open House. Malaysians are not united in race, religion or politics. We are united in FOOD. Our motto might just be, “In Food We Trust.”

And when there’s a crowd you can always have a party. Let’s use this opportunity when Malaysians come united on one front (yes, food) to illuminate the masses on the alternatives to education.

We’re going to have by our homeschooling/unschooling/deschooling community:

• food stalls (yes, I think I’ve mentioned food 3 times already)
• stalls from parents who run home-businesses / hobbyists
• jumble sale (sale of used items like books, clothing, toys, etc)
• talks (by popular alternative education bloggers) – I have in mind : HomeschoolMalaysia’s Alicia Ling Horseley, Homeschool Home Frontier’s David BC Tan, Learning Beyond Schooling’s Chong Wai Leng  and at least a dozen others I don’t have their links off hand. (Readers : Please suggest speakers / writers you’d like to hear their thoughts / presentations on during the convention. Leave a comment with their info, why you would like them to speak (or on what topic) and links to their site. Thank you!)
• telematches
• Talent Time contests for our unschooled, homeschooled, deschooled kids
• cook-offs / bake-offs
• book sales by homeschooling authors / book signing, magazine subscriptions.
• relevant 3rd party vendors (non-homeschoolers, other businesses)
• NOT TO BE MISSED :

  Exhibition : Q & A : Let’s get those pesky questions on h/s and 21st Century Education answered once and for all.

i.e. ”Can I send my children to your homeschooling center?”

• Equally important exhibition : breastfeeding, animal welfare education, organic food (for special needs).

And like a Star Trek (or Star Wars) convention – everyone can come dressed in costumes. YES! Our unschooled, homeschooled, deschooled kids can dress up in ACTUAL SCHOOL UNIFORMS they have thrown out or borrowed from their relatives or bought from the Thrift Shop and have a chance to feel like how people normally think of them – out of this world! They can come dressed with badges with numbers on them and pins and school bags and trolleys. Yes, trolleys – the push cart type.

Trolleys.

I’m going to come dressed as Mrs. Trunchbull. I’d like to see a very tall, balding, middle-aged man come dressed as Roald Dahl and do a story-reading session.

Me>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Ms. Trunc

Focus. Focus. Focus. We’re going to try and give the world a glimpse of what the homeschooling/deschooling/unschooling  world looks like – i.e. NOT WEIRD! But our focus should be about bringing our networks together to meet face to face AND to have talks and workshops giving out information.

This is a completely rough draft – typed out in under 15 minutes. Let’s see where this goes!

Venue : PENANG ISLAND! (Great opportunity for the city-folk to come to Penang.) And we can also organize the matches at the beach on a 2nd day. (I’m thinking 3-day convention over a weekend.)

Ideas,input, contributions,  anyone? LOOKING FORWARD to hear what’s brewing in your imagination now!

(We) Dare to Dream!

A Manglish Argument On School.

Here is a response by Laurie A. Couture to CNN Article – What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents.

My version of it in Plain Manglish. Please note interpretation is mine as a reader. 

Many parents are shaking their heads at the audacity and insolence of the CNN article, What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parentsby Disney-and-Oprah-endorsed teacher, Ron Clark. His article is dangerous because it represents how the majority of traditional school teachers view children, parents and teachers’ roles as authorities over children’s lives. In my post, What Teachers Really Need to Hear From Parents, I challenge Ron Clark to consider the dehumanization of children and the undermining of the parent-child bond in the institution he represents.

That article is stupid. It makes students feel like we are only robots. It also makes parents feel like we are second-class citizens who don’t care about our children. 

Most parents in industrialized societies are conditioned by their own schooling to be obedient and unquestioning of their children’s schools and the so-called authorities therein. A frightening majority of parents are unaware that most everything that traditional school teachers do is developmentally inappropriate and even harmful for youth of all ages. However, a growing movement of parents are parenting through awareness, consciousness and connection to their children’s needs. Many of these parents are opting out of public and traditional schools are are seeking refuge for their children in child-centered and democratic schools or through homeschooling and unschooling. As a mother of an unschooling teen son, and based on the years of complaints I have heard from parents and their children about traditional schools, I have compiled a list of  concerns and presented them to teachers in the context of their own education:

Parents are already brain-washed. So they don’t know that teachers and schools do things that harm their children. They scratch head when their children are depressed, unhappy and jump off building, runaway, have bad habits.  Your parents don’t know that what your school teachers do to you is harmful for your intelligence, growth, happiness and future success. That is why they force you to go to school. 

However, more and more parents are becoming clever liao. (Like me!) So we take our children out of school and we detox them (unschooling) from the torture and harm that school does. Here’s a list of complaints : (You can scroll down to the end for the Plain English version.)

We know Industrial Schooling is inferior but what are our choices?

I’m going to imagine myself as a parent who knows that the miseducation my child is now getting from school and college is not really going to serve them in the future and in fact could be harmful for their development and self-esteem. I’m also going to imagine that I would not be able to afford private or international school. And even if I could I’m going to imagine that I realize the fact that private and international schools are not what they’re cut out to be – they’re perhaps only slightly less damaging on my child’s self-esteem but also completely unreliable for the ROI on their so-called “education”.

I’m going to imagine that I’m just an average parent in an average business / job with an average education. I come from an average neighborhood and I have average friends. I think like most average people do : I think I’m different but I know I’m the same as everyone else.

What are the options for such parents? I’m worried there’s none.

What a Parent Who Used To Be a Teacher Really Want to Say to Parents And Teachers.

I had a request from ********* to post the comments I had written on a fb comments thread on a CNN article What Teachers Really Want To Tell Parents.

In between the time it took for me to post this another article responding to it appeared here. 

The original responses I made on my fb comments thread on Sept 10 to the CNN article : What Teachers Really Want To Tell Parents  (as is) is in blue.  My expanded comments (for context) if necessary will be in Italics. 

I like the first line :

“I just cant deal with parents anymore; they’re killing us.”  

- Send the kids back to the parents.  

Why don’t they? A parent is almost as qualified if not better qualified to teach their own children than a school teacher is – for many, many reasons outside the context of this article. Don’t believe me? Think about it logically : Both teachers and parents went through the same K-12 education. All things being equal they studied the same content. Unless you’re trying to tell me for 12 years of their education their teachers had pre-selected an elite bunch of students to teach better to knowing one day this elite bunch will become the next generation of teachers. – I doubt it!

Slowing the Paper Chase.

There are many things I know squat about. Like Romantic Love. Like Goddess Housekeeping. Like how to stay married beyond the 7-year itch. Like how to travel on a shoestring budget.  Or how to make an omelet in a ziplock bag while travelling by van without a stove. Or simply color-coordinating my clothes. (My principle for getting dressed is : (1) Is it clean? (2) Does it fit? (3) The more colors the better.)

Let’s cut to the chase. This is a post that gives me one of those, “I Told You So” moments.

I don’t usually read Malaysia MSM (mainstream media) but today I decided to buy the papers. On page 35 of the Nation section of The Star I saw an article that got me excited to post about : Slowing the Paper Chase.

The article begins with :

IN THE face of a changed labour market, Singapore may have decided to keep the local university population from increasing beyond current levels. The more cautious approach to higher education emerged from private talks that a senior education ministry official had with a US diplomat several years ago, according to WikiLeaks.

Key words : several years ago.

The reason I was never cut out for English Literature.

Two roads diverged in an open wood.

I looked down one as far as I could

and said, “Fuck it, no way”.

and looked down the other as just as fair

and said, “What the heck. If I don’t know where I’m going I’ll be glad to end up anywhere.”

 

But seriously –  two roads diverged in an open wood

and I was never in doubt about the one I eventually took

and once I chose I never bothered to look

back on the decisions I’ve made and stood

by and held on with a wing and a prayer.

 

I had only one desire

that I would die before my fire

why do so many walk on the black and trodden

beaten and misshapened path of Conformity?

How can people die a little each day

instead of die to themselves everyday and be rebirthed with a new zest for living?

 

Two paths diverged in an open wood and it is so obvious which one I took.

I now smack with an overdose of self-assuredness tempting you to hit me with a book!

I feel now as though I’ve never been in doubt;

about the path I’ve chosen and how things have turned out.

 

Two roads diverged in an open wood

Forget conformity and its rules of play

I took the one less travelled

And that, my friend, has made all the effing difference today.

Education and the Significance of Life – Jiddu Krishnamurthi

You need to understand 2 things : What your Education is REALLY meant to do for you and secondly, what is the significance of life? Put these two together and ensure that each does not contradict the other.

Chapter 1 : Points 

Everywhere around the world the education system is the same – a mould creating clones.

Independent thinking is snuffed out – that is what conventional education does.

Once you conform you become mediocre.

With age, people’s minds become dull because of this : Fear. The urge to pursue Reward, Security, Comfort to smother discontent.

Fear ends spontaneity & blocks the understanding of life.

In seeking comfort we avoid conflict and this fear of the new kills our spirit for adventure.

Our entire upbringing and miseducation has made us afraid to be different and falsely respectful of authority and tradition.

When we yield to our environment our spirit dies down and our responsibilities become a lid on our lives.

There is violent revolt and Intelligent Revolt. Intelligent Revolt comes with self-knowledge and awareness of our own thoughts and feelings. How do we keep Intelligence highly awakened? By facing experiences as they come (Yes, Man!), accepting everything including contrasts.

Intelligence highly awakened is Intuition – the only true guide in life.

What is the significance of life? Our lives will be shallow and empty if the purpose is merely to get a job, be more efficient  & to have domination over others and if we are provided with the knowledge to become experts then we become a menace to society – contributing to the destruction and misery of the world.

Can we conceptualize a Higher and Wider significance of life? As long as education does not cultivate an integrated outlook on life it has very little significance.

Instead of awakening the Integrated Intelligence of the individual, our education, rather, our miseducation, is encouraging conformity and hinders a person from comprehending him/herself as a total process. We’re trying to solve the many problems of existence at different levels – and this shows our utter lack of comprehension of a total process.

The individual is made up of different entities – and education should integrate them. To separate and develop them is to create complexities and contradictions. Without integration life becomes a series of conflicts and sorrows.

We must distinguish between the personal and the accidental.

All of us have been trained by education and environment to seek personal gain and security, and to fight for ourselves. Though we cover it over with pleasant phrases, we have been educated for various professions within a system which is based on exploitation and acquisitive fear.

A mind that has merely been trained is the continuation of the past, and such a mind can never discover the new. That is why, to find out what is right education, we will have to inquire into the whole significance of living.

Love is more efficient than ambition in the aim of education.  Love breeds integration; efficiency alone breeds ruthlessness.

A person who is always thinking is without thought; Thoughtless. Because his thinking is confined to a pattern. To understand life is to understand ourselves.  And that is the Beginning and the End of Education.

Education is to help you see the significance of life as a whole – and you cannot approach the Whole through parts. When human beings are integrated they are Intelligent.  Intelligence is the ability to See. Education is to awaken this ability in oneself and in others.

The purpose of education is to create integrated men and women who are free of Fear; for only when human beings are free from Fear can there be enduring peace.

It is in the understanding of ourselves that all Fear comes to an end.

Education should not encourage individuals to conform or to be negatively harmonious with it.

When there is no self knowledge, self-expression becomes self-assertion, with all its aggressive and ambitious conflicts.

What is the good of learning if in the process of living we are destroying ourselves?  I think most of us are aware of this, but we do not know how to deal with it.

The individual is of first importance, not the system; and as long as the individual does not understand the total process of himself, no system, whether of the left or of the right, can bring order and peace to the world.

Question : 

1. What is meant by Integration of the self?

2. How much of yourself in relation to your Inner World and your Outer World, have you come to understand through these classes?