Many times, when people talk about education, they relate it to the matter of politics and economy, but mostly and most importantly humanity. This is because education is the most fundamental building blocks of human development. 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.



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Thursday, November 4, 2010

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."
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THE SUN IS GREEN

If I say the sun is green, what would you say?

Of course, if you have seen the sun, you would probably think I'm crazy because the sun is supposed to be red or yellow. But if you really look at it, you would probably see the same thing I'm seeing. It's not the sun that is green, but it is my imagination that made it green. It is not the fact, it's just a thought.

However, that is not the way we run the classrooms, isn't it? It is obvious that the education now is developed out of knowledge of today. We we made assumptions of how education should be using researches and philosophies, not to forget about traditions of the education. Nonetheless, what we found today will become history as soon as the sun sets, which basically means that we developed the system of education based on history and beliefs. Yet, what we are doing as educators is to prepare our students for the future. The future that is yet to come. The future that even we are uncertain of. The future where what is right today maybe wrong then. Who knows, the sun may really turn green tomorrow.

Thus, the question is, what knowledge do we have to pass on to our students?

Brutally, the answer is probably no, we don’t actually have any of today knowledge that we are sure to be relevant 30 years from now. Then, what is our job? What is our role as educators, particularly as teachers? Is teacher a lecturer? Is teacher an instructor? Is teacher a facilitator? Well, if we don't have absolute right knowledge to teach, what can we lecture them about?

In this case, being a facilitator seems to be a little more appropriate for our job description. The key is probably to facilitate the learning for learning. In other words, we should equip our students with foundation for their life as a whole, where learning can continue throughout life in a self-directed manner. “The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people,” Ayn Rand. Our job is to facilitate students to develop their motivation in learning as well as their abilities to process the learning.

As mentioned above that the task is to implant the facility for learning, what is it that we have to do to facilitate the learning? Allow students to develop the personal growth, perhaps? Yes, there is the system where we still have to provide information and facts from text books, but do you think we should also leave some room for students to be themselves, express their thoughts and play with it a little bit? Meanwhile, they may have time to look back at themselves, learn about who they are, know what they want, and would eventually learn by themselves that learning is one way to achieve their goal.

As reading this, some people may start to nod their heads as educators around the world are also starting to appreciate the thought of educating the whole child. Not only we have to focus on literacy, we also need to focus on creativity, as Sir Ken Robinson said, "creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status." Unfortunately, though many schools and teachers are aware of this fact, the accentuation of creativity is yet not widely practiced. In 1999, a report on the importance of promoting creativity and culture in schools were sent to English government. A year later, a response made by the government, agreeing with the report. Today, "there has certainly been cultural activity in schools but even the strongest champions of creative and cultural education would have to admit that the report - called All Our Futures - has not dominated schools policy" (Baker, 2009). This is just one example of how the idea is already out there but has not been practiced.

Now, a much simpler example. We sure do provide enough time for students to practice on reading, writing, calculating and all those, but do we leave enough space for students to practice their creativity in classrooms? Do we have enough room for them to think and practice their imagination?

I remember an art class I had in kindergarten. The teacher taught me to paint the sun with red, water with blue, and mountains with green. I don’t remember if anyone asked why, but we were told it is what is it. This is the simplest example of how we are taught to be so limited in our imagination. A lot of times, education does not leave room for the learners to see what “it” can be because they were told what it is or what it should be even before they can start thinking about it. I was told the sun is red even before I could think about what color the sun could be. Once information is given by someone you believe to know more, in many cases, you just assume that it is the fact. No more questions needed to be raised, no more thinking needed to be processed because the answer is already there for you.

But even if I really thought the sun was green, do you think I would dare not to paint the sun red? The funny thing is we often hear someone says, "everyone is born creative." Isn't that true? Don't you agree that children are always creative? They always find ways to be so imaginative. Is it possible that because they "know less"? Since children know less, they see less boundaries when it comes to thinking or imagination. We were probably used to be as creative and as imaginative when we were smaller. Somehow, through education, we were put into, as Robinson said, right-or-wrong system and all the capability of being creative just seemed to fade away as we became someone who's afraid of being wrong. "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original" (Robinson, 2006). Nonetheless, that is how the education is until these days. We were told what is right and what is wrong. We were told the sun is red and the water is blue. What happens if you do the wrong things, you know that teacher can deduct your points and you would fail. And you if you keep on doing the wrong things, you would keep on failing and failing until you can become a failure. That is scary. It is always scary to be a failure. Then, it becomes a loop of not being able to think freely and be creative because you're afraid to fail. And what will happen to your creativity?

Well, if painting the sun green should make me be a failure, then I would always use red and only red.


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By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on December 6, 2009
(original article)

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