How Do You Know What You Want To Be

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Regarding the speech given to students from British Columbia International School
at Stamford International University, Thailand
November 7, 2010


I was asked to give an "inspiring" speech to a group of high school students from British Columbia International School, who visited our campus last week. I was very nervous because there are plenty of things I can say but I don't know if it's going to be any inspiring at all. I tried to think back about my years in high school. What was it like? How did I feel? What were other problems in life besides the stories of puppy love and stupid break ups? Then, I remember...

I remember how a lot of my friends and I struggled. We did not struggle in high school, but we struggled during the time we were in high school thinking about our future: what we wanted to be and what we wanted to do. I thought I had the passion for one thing then found out it was not real. Then, I tried so many other things until I found my love for art. I fought with my dad since he wanted me to be an economist or a lawyer. I remember when my dad asked if I wanted to be an artist and I told him "I don't know" simply because I honestly still did not know what to do with art. All I knew was I love art and that it was the only thing I wanted to do.

After high school, I took a year off just to study for the Thai entrance exam although I was already accepted by a very famous art college in Pasadena. I wanted to get into Thai government university because I wanted to learn more about Thai society since I never had that chance growing up in an international school. I finally got accepted into the university I wanted.

4 years passed by, I graduated with an art degree.. still not knowing what I wanted to do. I tried hosting TV and radio shows. I tried producing TV shows. It was fun and all, but I knew something was missing. I became a journalist because my dad wanted me to. I hated the job. It dragged me to the dark sides of the world that I don't want to see ..at least, not all the time. Then, I opened a company with my sister selling sculptures of our original designs. It was very fun. But still, something was missing.

One day, one of my best friends asked me, "Earn, why don't you be a teacher? You'll be a great one." That's when it just CLICKED! That's how I decided to start my master in education and became an educator. And I love my job! I love teaching and I love being a teacher. I've found my passion.

So, that's what I told them because I know some of these high school students are struggling to find what they want to be or what they want to study. I told them that it's okay if they're lost because it's normal. It's just a phase in life. I mean for those already have set a goal, awesome. Go for it. For the rest who are still confused, they can just stop thinking about the future and focus on what they like or what they want now.

The funny thing is that most high school students are only about 15-18 years old. They are very young, yet they are pressured by their parents and the society to have to think about "what career they want to have" when they've been introduced to only a few profession, such as doctor, journalist, businessman, teacher, scientist, artist, lawyer, or something along those lines. How can they make any decisions when some of them don't even know there are jobs like commercial diver, logistic planner, fixer, etc. Most of all, some of them may still be confused about what they want to be because the job they will end up doing in the next ten years probably does not even exist today.

Fifteen years ago, who would imagine that creating social network websites like Facebook or Twitter can be a career. Ten years ago, no one ever heard of iPhone. Today, a friend of mine is opening a company to create applications just for iPhone and iPad.

So, I said, "Try different things. Ask yourself if you like math, science, art, or any other stuff outside school. Once you find what you like, just focus on that because most of the times things that you do better are things that you love to do."

I told them they still have plenty of time. The future is yet come and they still have such a long way to go. I want them to take their time to dream and to explore.

In the end, I said, "People define happiness differently. What's your definition? You have to find what makes YOU happy. That's how you can find your passion."

The World's Goals for Future with Education

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on August 26, 2010
Last edited on September 20, 2010


Many times, when people talk about education, they relate it to the matter of politics and economy, but mostly and most importantly to humanity. This is because education is the “most fundamental building blocks of human development” (The World Bank, 2010). It is a formative process of passing on the knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to the next. An impact of education is greatly. When given the opportunity to learn, people tend to contribute to the development of their lives. Once their lives are improved, people can then contribute to their communities and their countries, which finally affects in the betterment of this world. Therefore, it is essential to look at this matter on a global context because “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” Nelson Mandela (GCE, 2010).

Realizing that education is about the future, international groups who have been working on issues relating to humanities, such as UNESCO and Campaign for Global Education, seem to target at campaigning for improvement in education. They believe that education can be used as an instrument to end poverty and to improve human’s well being and that “every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves” (UN, 2010).

Because education is about improving lives, the number one goal right at this moment is to end hunger, which links to another most recognized goal in education that I found very exciting, the global primary education. This goal targets at ensuring that everyone will be able to complete the basic education of primary school. One of the biggest concerns when it comes to an issue of humanity is the literacy. When one can read, one has more choices in life. This means that it opens more doors for the poor to break out of their poverty. Another concern is about the well being. Schooling doesn’t only mean the opportunity to learn how to read and write, but also to learn about how to improve own life because it “helps children develop the skills they need to make themselves heard in the world and to make positive changes in their lives” (Oxfam, 2010). For example, children who have completed primary school are less than half to likely contract HIV as those who have not (UN, 2010).

Though the world recognizes the significance of education, the reality is not that simple. Logically, every single person in this world should have accessibility to schooling. However, 771 million adults worldwide are illiterate while 72 million children in the world’s poorest countries are still out of school (Oxfam, 2010). Clearly, this is why global primary education is one of the most targeted goals for many international NGO's.

Another problem that has been ongoing since we could probably remember is gender equality. Yes, even in education is no exception. Hence, women around the world, especially those in poorer countries, tend to have less power, money, and access to education and they are “more likely to live in poverty, simply because they are women” (ActionAid, 2010). It is true that the gaps between girls’ and boys’ enrollment have been closing, yet the issue of discrimination against women is still obvious (UNFPA, 2003).

Comparing to men, nearly twice as many women over age of 15 in least developed countries are illiterate while two-thirds of children who are out of school are girls (UN, 2010). The real challenge is probably to change the perception that women do not need education, simply because they do. Every human being, despite their race, gender and belief, deserves equal rights. Thus, this problem is still there. This is why it has been recognized and has become another goal for future with education, which is to reduce gender disparity and to empower women.

Another interesting Millennium Development Goal directly deals with the environmental problems. The topic of environmental sustainability has been widely discussed in recent years, probably due to the uncommon natural disasters that have occurred more frequently lately. This has raised serious awareness among people around the world as more people are being hurt and damages are being seen as the result of decades of exploitation of natural resources. Often, the people who get affected the most are those who are already vulnerable, which are the ones who depend on natural resources for their livelihood (UN, 2010).

Though this issue seems to be less related to humanity, as the others are directly about reaching out with education and health care, the issue of sustainable practice is actually about improvement and development of what we have, which eventually ties up the issue of well-being of the entire humans. Therefore, this problem is undeniably also about humanity, which is why it is recognized as one of the Millennium Development Goals. Hence, because “reducing poverty and achieving sustained development must be done in conjunction with a healthy planet” (UN, 2010), it is crucial that the future education integrates the principles of environmental sustainability into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

The interesting part is that all of these goals, including the rest in the Eight Millennium Development Goals, are set to be achieved within 2015 and this is already 2010! We only have 5 years left. Will we be able to accomplish?

Personally, I don't really care about what year these goals will accomplish as long as they do. However, the significance is how many countries agreed with these Millennium Goals, which means that the world (well, at least the authorities anyways) have promised to do something, and we are not even half way there. The question is do we really care about education? Do we really care about the future? Do we really care about other people? We know that we cannot leave this matter only to the authorities because we have and no progress has really been seen. So, maybe it's time that we should really step forward and take some actions?


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REFERENCES

ActionAid (2010). What we do: Ending Poverty. In ActionAid website. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100004/what_we_do.html

GCE: Global Campaign for Education (2010). In GCE Retrieved. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.campaignforeducation.org/

Oxfam (2010). Education. In Oxfam International. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/health-education/education

The World Bank (2010). Education. In The World Bank education. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://bit.ly/d5O5rq

UN: United Nations (2010). In End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign, the UN Millennium Campaign. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.endpoverty2015.org/

UNFPA: United Nations Population Funds (2003). State of World Population 2003. In UNFPA, United Nations Population Funds. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2003/swpmain.htm

Wikipedia (2010). Millennium Development Goals. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals

Culture and Education

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on February 12, 2010
Last edit on September 7, 2010

It’s undeniable that culture heavily affects the design of curriculum, which affects the education as a whole. In fact, a curriculum always emerges as a reflection of a culture. But when we say “culture” here, it doesn’t necessary refer to only culture of “Thailand” or “America”. The culture that affects a curriculum can be referred to culture of today, whether it’s culture of the school itself, the culture of that particular community that the school is located in, or the regional culture, in combination with the future culture that the community and the country want. Therefore, when looking at a curriculum, you can learn about the characters of people within that culture as well as how they think about themselves now and how they want the next generation to be like.

When talking about curriculum design, one thing needed to be brought up is the impact that a government has on its country's education. I must admit that I used to only think about education as in students, teachers, textbooks, and parents; and that is as far as I would go. However, as I get to know more and more about education, I cannot overlook the power of the authorities and how it greatly affects education of each country. This makes me somehow wonder what the true meaning of education is.

We always talk about how we educators are so important that we are the people who significantly affect the future of this world. We also talk about various educational philosophies – saying that what we believe will change the face of the world. But from history, we know for a fact that the curriculum is designed by the government. Somehow, the government, in a way, literally uses education as a tool for propagandization to pass on the belief in which government wants people to believe to the next generation. For example, even with scientific proof that Columbus was not the first to discover America, yet American teachers are still teaching that he was because they have to. That is how it's written in the textbook.

Another example, which I found truly interesting, probably because it's close to my background, is the history of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. When I was in primary school, I learned the history written by Thai, which refers to Laos as our sister or brother while Myanmar is our enemy because they burned down our old capital, Ayutthaya. When I visited Laos, it was the first time in my life to learn about the other side of the history, where Laos calls us the devil who burnt down their capital, Vientiene. Likewise, Myanmar chose to skip its some of its history, particularly on the part when they attacked Thailand and burned Ayutthaya down. So, it seems that each country has its own version of history depending on how they want the later generations to perceive the history. This is where the authorities play the biggest role in education.

With that being said, it is probably even more critical to rethink about our role as educators. Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that we do carry a big responsibility. What we do will eventually affect our world one way or another. However, in the system, we are one of the smallest bodies in education, yet we are the ones to directly practice the curriculum on our students. But even when we are the smaller bodies, is it possible for us to do something so that our students do not have to become the victim of propagandization? Are there any ways to hint students that there is another side of the truth? That I can’t really tell you but maybe Columbus did not discover America? That maybe Laotians don't love us as much as we thought they do?

I would say yes.

This is why we have also been talking about the new kind of education, where critical thinking is emphasized and where students are encouraged to become learning persons. For this very reason, we need to really pay attention in our instruction whether it helps students or not and in what way. It is exactly why teaching students how to think by and for themselves is even more essential than ever.

Our Oridinary Power

I'm just ordinary, and so are you! But we can do so much with this ordinary power of ours. We could create wars and distorted society, didn't we? So, why can't we use this power for the betterment of this world?

We can start with our most fundamental ability of LOVE!

You know how to do that, don't you?

Why is Finland's Education Number One?

The secret behind the success of Finnish Education is TRUST.

Time for Revolution - Not Reformation

New video from Sir Ken Robinson

Sometimes, education just comes naturally through life experience. But you do need a perspective to turn that experience into a life lesson.

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By Kalyakorn Naksompop
February 23, 2010

CONNECTING to and for STUDENTS

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on February 5, 2010

A professor of mine mentioned in his class that for some reasons, as students move on to high school level, they’re expected to be good at everything. I found this very true and could totally relate to what he said. One very interesting point was made about how each subject are taught separately and not connected to each other. It is very obvious that the curriculum for each subject area is usually designed to fit the content of that particular subject but not really to each other. Yet, high school students are expected to be good in all areas even when everyone knows that there’s no way people can be perfect. It’s only natural for a person to be expertise in one or two things, good in a few others, and has absolutely no ideas about the rest. Therefore, it would only make sense if the school helps its students by connecting each subject. Then, students who thought they are only capable of being artists can realize that they may have a tiny part of themselves that are too while students who are scientists can learn more about their musical side, and the mathematicians know that they too can be athletes.

One thing teachers must remember is nobody is perfect. It’s ok for students to be bad at some certain subjects that are not their fortes. In the end, a person doesn’t need to be good at everything to succeed, isn’t that true? Do we really think that Albert Einstein can compete with Michael Jordan in basketball? Or do we really think that Paul McCartney is an even better chef than Gordon Ramsay? Well, who knows? It may be true, but does anybody care if Einstein can bounce the ball or McCartney knows how to pan fry a duck? I don’t believe so because we only look at their best capabilities and we admire them for that.

Having this connection not only helps students in relating what they learn in different classes, but also helps them to understand how this knowledge relates to life outside of school. This is because students are then able to see that knowledge of one subject is not only about that subject, but is possible to be applied to other subject areas in school. Hopefully, as they practice this ability to connect often enough, students can as well learn to use this very same principal later in life.

Somehow, as we discussed about connecting and applying knowledge of one subject to another, I could feel that there’s a link between this idea and the theory about Multiple Intelligence by Howard Gardner. Gardner purposed that there are at least eight types of intelligences that he recognized, including 1) linguistic, 2) logical-mathematical, 3) spatial, 4) bodily-kinesthetic, 5) musical, 6) interpersonal, 7) intrapersonal, and 8) Naturalist. Although most of the books we found only talk about these 8 intelligences, I remember an interview with Vanessa Race, one of Howard Gardner’s students (who happened to become Thai celebrity for her knowledge on such subject) on Thai national TV a few years ago. Vanessa accentuated during the interview that her teacher said these are only 8 intelligences that he had recognized, but he suggested that there should be more areas of human’s intelligences since he strongly believed that humans are capable of so much more.

Having heard about this theory reminded me even more how a teacher should use various techniques in teaching a subject. We (educators) always talk about how different students have different learning styles. Is it possible that they have different learning styles because they have different types of intelligences? If so, is it right to stick to one style of teaching that encourages only linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligences? I don’t believe so. This is exactly why we should develop such curriculum that allows students with different intelligences to be able to learn at their bests. One way is to create a curriculum that connects each and every subject. Therefore, students know that they can apply the subject that they are good at to other subjects that are not their fields. Meaning, they can use their intelligences, which are not necessary linguistic or logical-mathematical, to learn in all areas.

After all, every student should have equal right to access their learning. How can we say that we provide every student equally if we only use curriculum that’s only suitable for students with certain types of intelligences. Isn’t it true?


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REFERENCES

Armstrong, T. ‘Multiple Intelligences.’ In Thomas ArmstrongRetrieved February 3, 2010 from http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

Race, V. (September 5, 2007). An interview by TV show ‘Ta Sawang’, broadcasted on ModernNine TV. In Wisdom Inside. Retrieved February 3, 2010 from http://th.wisdominside.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=377&Itemid=67

Smith, M. K. (2002, 2008). 'Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences'. In INFED: the encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved February 3, 2010 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

*Illustration from http://www.childfirst.com.cn/gifs/en_soundcurr05.gif

Creativity & Play

Another video about creativity that I found very interesting. It's a speech (with many valid points) by Tim Brown, CEO of the "innovation and design" firm IDEO. Well, enjoy!

WHY IS THAT?

It seems a little strange to think about the importance of emphasizing thinking ability in school and how this issue has been recognized widely among educators. In fact, there have been numerous studies dedicated to find ways to boost up this cognitive ability. Yet, throughout history we see many or most schools haven't been practicing enough methods that would encourage this ability in students. The strange thing is not the idea of understanding the importance of this matter, but is rather the fact that even when everyone seems to know, not enough people have put the ideas into action. Why is that?

What is even more strange is that it's not because we don't know how. Socrates, whom everyone respected as a great thinker from ancient Greek, recognized that a way to stimulate rational thinking is by using a form of inquiry and debate base on asking and answering questions. That was thousands of years ago. So, even before we see all these modern studies about how to increase the cognitive power, we might already have some ideas, but we chose not do it. Why is that?

Education in different places was formed for different purposes. However, the education system that we're now using world widely was designed in 19th century (Robinson, 2009) . Yes, it's about the time we first heard the word "industrialization". The schools back then were found in order to produce workers, not thinkers, to suit the changes in society, mainly for economic reasons. With such design, students were trained with skills to work, not to think as individual. But that was more than 100 years ago. Nonetheless, not enough people seem to be worried about the fact that our world has tremendously changed while our education system has paused since 1900s. Why is that?

Is it too difficult to stimulate rational thinking?

Does it require too much from the educators?

Or is it easier not having to change what has been existed for more than 100 years?

Or is it just easier to control people who cannot think?

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REFERENCES

Garlikov, R. The Socratic Method: Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling. In Richard Garlikov. Retrieved December 17, 2009 from http://www.garlikov.com/Soc_Meth.html

Phillips, C. (2003). Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: The Lutterworth Press.

Robinson, K. (2009). Transform Education? Yes, We Must. In The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 14, 2009 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sir-ken-robinson/transform-education-yes-w_b_157014.html

The Role of Socratic Questioning in Thinking, Teaching & Learning. In The Critical Thinking Community by Foundation for Critical Thinking. Retrieved December 17, 2009 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/the-role-socratic-questioning-ttl.cfm

A Thought on DISCOVERY LEARNING

How can students be engaged to lessons being taught in class? Isn’t that one of the most asked questions among educators? Many thinkers tend to believe that one way to do that is to engage students with active learning process. With this learning style, students are encouraged to learn through experience by building on their prior knowledge “to search for new information and relationship based on their interest". Such method, according to Jerome Bruner, is called "discovery learning".

What teacher can probably do, for example, is to assign a project that allows each individual to focus more on sub topic of their choice. The obvious positive side to this method is that students can each develop their learning process based on their learning style at their own pace. It allows each individual to find what's the best way to learn about what they want to learn. In other words, students are asked to do what they want to do. As a result, learning becomes more fun and motivation in classroom is highly promoted. Moreover, students can develop "self system" where they can practice to think and do things for themselves.

This is actually a very interesting method to suggest to teachers, especially today where students can be even more easily distracted from class with all the modern technology that we all know of. In some schools, each student brings a lap top to class. How can teacher know if each student is paying attention to class? It's not very easy, isn't it? Even if the teacher walks around the room to make sure students are doing what they're supposed to do, students can just easily switch the pages on their computer screen back and forth. Then, the solution is probably not the attempt to detect the not-to-do, but is perhaps the attempt to encourage the fun side of learning. Therefore, students can be motivated to learn from within. That's when their attentions to the lessons will come naturally.