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.

Do Chinese schools kill creativity double time?

I’ve posted some videos and an article here and there surrounding the theme of Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Conference keynote – “Do Schools Kill Creativity.”

With regards to that, I think Chinese schools kill creativity on overdrive, triple-time and with a C-word sense of duty.

Doing more and being better at killing creativity.

First, there’s tons more meaningless, repetitive, drill work in Chinese schools. I cannot believe my eyes that students copy word for word (words they don’t understand, sometimes) off a textbook.

Why School is Bad for you

I’ve now crossed the threshold from the Innovator’s Dilemma to being able to confidently be like the flight attendant that gestures and says, “This way please to the exit……stay calm but hurry up.”

Hey, nothing to worry about. It’s just the Plane of Education System crashing. No need to hurry. Take your time. They’ve still got fuel (government spending) even though both engines are out. There aren’t going to be enough parachutes for everyone but that’s OK….stay buckled in your seat, like how schools have taught you to just sit down and be a good little boy or girl.

I’m filing this under Thomas Frey’s Future of Education because I plan to bring everything I am coming across which supports the ideas outlined in his paper under one theme.

I hope I have convinced you to get your copy and make at least 5 other people get it too! (I have 2 at least count.) And if you do, please tell me about it so we can share the experience together.

Here are excerpts taken from Ken Robinson’s THE ELEMENT – HOW FINDING YOUR PASSION CHANGES EVERYTHING. Picture for illustration only.

Trust – 2

TRUST – 2 (Following my blog Trust.)
Reading the Speed of Trust made me reflect deeply into everyday aspects of trust in our daily life. For instance, in a family with low trust, conflicts arise because one person accuses another of something; one blames another for their grievances. They feel like strangers living in the same house. In a high trust family, one person will not accuse another even if something goes wrong. Instead they will empathize and forgive the mistake or work together to find a solution. What kind of environment did you grow up in? What type of environment are you re-creating now as an adult?

How technology can weed out incompetent teachers.

One dream I’ve always had as a child was the ability to access information and exchange thoughts, opinions and insight with virtually anyone in the world. I wrote notes and letters to writers of a book or article, to tell them what I think and what else they should do. Of course, I never posted them because I wouldn’t know where to post them to.  Either way, they weren’t likely to take anything a kid from Malaysia would have to say.

But the internet changed everything.