Tag: Education

Thought acquisition

Chinese shoppers and students are coming. Here is the list of top 10 countries whose students are enrolling in the US.

http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Education/2010/11/87223/ The stats also shows Mexico at number 9 (CIVET’s countries predominantly present).

Rodeo Drive and Las Vegas aside, I want to play campus tour guide.

First, the weather. Deal with it. It is world apart from the rainy and dry seasons where you are from.

It ain’t cool to carry an umbrella to avoid the sun. Tanning is in….until you get skin cancer (watch out Desperate Housewives from Atlanta!).

Second, homesickness. Yes, you will miss your friends, and occasionally your families. You will miss the food as well.

Deal with it.

McDonald has stuck to its success formula, from milkshakes to McRibs. Go there not only to use the bathroom, but also to see the efficiency model, about which Jacques Ellul has termed “technique”  (RFID, containerization, supply chain and supersizing). The rise of McDonald was credited to a milkshake maker who could make multiple servings at one time.

Third, clash of cultures. This process will have to be confronted head on. As you changed, so will the larger society you  interact with. It’s called cultural reciprocity. Don’t bow your head here. It ain’t cool.

Learn the high fives.

Do lift weights. Students coming from Asia are too small, thus come across as weak. Pick up on the sports page, and glance at People magazine.

You will forever be a minority in a predominantly but ever-changing USA (often times, with internal conflict, culminated at the Civil War, but only tugged away during the Cold War, never fully resolved ).

Lucky you, since you will be moving about campus, where blue jeans and book bags  are your uniforms.

Everybody is here to learn, to thought-acquire and to grow.

It’s a homogeneous environment, although you can feel the difference between a senior and freshman (the former occasionally wear suit-and-tie to interview on campus).

You arrived here in the US both at a right time and a wrong time. Right time because globalization is finally materialized this way by your presence (and your parent’s purses). Wrong time because the US is experiencing a prolonged downturn. Hence, don’t take it personally that everyone seems to be subdued (involuntary austerity). We have yet shaken off the effect of Madoff-ization.

I see that you have chosen to major in Business and Engineering. Great. Among the global top 10 universities, 8 are located here in the US with Harvard at the top (BTW, both MIT and Harvard are presided by women).

I know you will be selective with your time, your major and the company you hang out with (connection). Develop your social skills, and forge connection since these are and will be your soft asset. Join a club, and volunteer to be in a leadership position ( I used to “man” a book table in between classes, and play guitar at lunch time in the International Student lounge. Just to expose myself to passer-by).

Those early activities led me to be a member of the media, an international relief worker and to finally pursue a career in multi-cultural marketing and sales. Even when you came up with the best invention, you still need to convince VCs to fund your project.

Learn soft skills. Ask around and see who would be willing to be your mentor. When I started college, I got dropped in cold (Operation Frequent Wind).

Clueless and without a role model. (A bunch of us, refugee students from Vietnam, grew long hair like James Taylor – Right, you’ve got a friend !).

If I have to leave you with a parting thought, it is this: focus on your intellectual development i.e. learning to learn. That is the one thing that cannot be taken away from you (have you heard of brain stripping if you defaulted on your student loan? They do that with auto repo and home foreclosure, but not learning).

And one more thing: when you finally repatriated, could you leave behind your drive-and-ambition playbook so  America can pick up on that. After Ted Turner of CNN, and a bunch of internet giants , the US doesn’t seem to encourage any more risk-taking ( banks don’t give out loans lately).

We had been number one before dropped down to number 11 in competitiveness. Still in denial.

While you have everything to gain, your presence here has everything to give. Thanks for coming. And don’t get lonely during the holidays. I wish I can have each of you over for eggnog and apple cider. And cranberry sauce too. See, I start living in the past, back to Pilgrim’s days. I need you to help me visualize the future. It will be a crowded one with 7 billion of us in all. At this rate, we will have to send our grand kids to study on Mars. Now, that will be a shock. Future shock.

Learner-in-Chief

If my memory serves me right, both First Ladies Bush, and their husbands read to school children

(Ex-President G W Bush was sitting at one of those school chairs when he first heard about 9/11.)

So it is hard for me to understand the uproar about President Obama’s Back-to-School speech.

How can one protest something one hasn’t read? He himself has been a student, so was his father, and his school-aged children.

My contention is that we should focus our energy and effort on : raising academic standard, shoring up the innovation spirit to revert brain drain (Yahoo with 40 million eye- balls off-shored its engineering and web design to Taiwan)

beefing up security at schools (no drugs or guns) and cranking up teacher’s recruitment from outside of the female helping profession pool (by default, this Recession has brought in more professionals from non-educational fields – braving the old adage “if you can’t do, then teach”).

Here is my rehearsed and undelivered speech. Go ahead and protest. But read it first.

Dear fellow students,

First of, I want to congratulate you for showing up.

The rule has always been, must be present to win.

Second, there are 1 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid currently are living on less than $1.00 a day, so consider yourselves fortunate. Food, clothing and shelter (not education) will always be their concerns, now until they die. Some will never learn what “primary source” or “a priori” is.

Know yourselves and your learning style: audio, visual or kinetic?

While the internet, Google search, Wikipedia help you obtain information,

it’s parents and teachers who help you with formation (by being your role models).

Develop academic intelligence, as well as social intelligence. Resist peer pressure and stand up to bullies. Might as well fight your battle earlier than later.

You will be exposed to conflicting viewpoints, and dogmas. It’s OK to be confused, because if you are not, you haven’t learned enough. Jealously guard your time and attention, two of your most precious commodities.

Determine early on what’s most important to you and stick to it.

( Beckham of the LA Galaxy said he had known early on that he would play pro soccer).

You will appreciate your parents much more when you have children of your own.

But for now, return their kindness by helping out with household chores.

Everyone is tired after a long day. A kiss on their cheek will melt away the exhaustion.

Again, the Golden Rule rules: get along with others, be sensitive to group’s need as much as your own, and devote yourselves to various subjects (so that later on, you have more career choices). America is changing just as the world is. And even within America, we have people coming from all over the world seeking new opportunities everyday.

Learn to listen, even if the speakers have a heavy accent. English level itself doesn’t necessarily reflect one’s intelligence. Read widely, “Netherlands”, “the House of Sand and Fog” – fiction and non-fiction.

(Mandarin is the most popular language, while French is still used in many international treaties. Spanish will be the new Quebec French of the US).

And learn to forgive yourselves as you forgive the adults who have failed you.

Even adults are caught in situations where the chain of command was broken down (Challenger) or they compartmentalized themselves i.e. the silo’s effect which missed the big Ponzi scheme right under their noses (SEC asks, what Madoff investigation?). Great men are great achievers, but they are not perfect. Read their biographies. Chances are you will find a lot of humanity on those pages. Have them learn life lessons for you, borrow their brilliance and avoid their pitfalls.

And last but not least, enjoy autumn foliage while it is still available. Sorry Aspen. Respect trees, which will still be here long after we are gone. And never forget to write nice notes to your teacher, who is your third parent.

My mother was an elementary teacher of 30 years. So I know what sacrifices she  made for her students, whom I envied while a child. And one little tip: always be mentally prepared for the next step. Rehearsing helps you act reflexively and effectively. You have more control over your immediate future that way.

By showing up at school you are already winners. By learning something new everyday, you will one day become what you have meant to be all along. No matter what the situation, don’t let yourselves down.

Goodnight, Good luck and God bless.

P.S. when it comes to learning, you are your own Learner-in-chief, not the President.

 

The New Low

Canadian University system has just introduced a new low grade (lower than F) for Academic Dishonesty (plagiarism or online essay service etc…).

At least, the University is catching on with high-tech trickery, and how these portable devices and outsourcing services can aid cheaters. TA’s will have to play cops, always vigilant and alert.

I suggest they install hidden cameras, thus fighting fire with fire, gadget with gadget.

And while at it, install some extra metal detectors in school. One cannot learn if one doesn’t feel safe.

(As of this edit, there was another school shooting whose perpetrator had been disciplined by school librarian).

Once the kids are going this route (short cut), they are slated to be future “madoffs”.

I sent a friend a link about “naughty in school, trouble in life” a social study in Britain.

And it is documented that people with penchant to get in trouble exhibit these traits very early in life.

That’s why we got transcript and track record. We got talent scouts but also talent screening (like Hollywood agents).

Natural selection.

Year ago, when they selected astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon, the committee worked through a pool of thousands.You got to have “the Right Stuff”.

Now , you have institutions that are “too big to fail”, and students who negotiated to have an “F” instead of “FD”.

Lesser of the two evils. Win-win negotiation.

When I graduated from HS with a Magnum Cum Laud, I remember coming home to my father who for the first time gave me some money to buy beers to treat my friends.Rite of passage.

I had my first “legalized” beer at the age of 18. Honestly.

It just the way it was back then: you pulled many all-nighters, then you were rewarded with beers and party in the comfort of  home.

“You touch drug, I will kill you.” Reward and punishment system was very clear back then.

Now, it’s “you touch that key pad, I will give you an FD”. The future is here. And some kids can’t wait to get caught.

That way, they feel at least some adults care enough to give them an “FD”. Go find some construction jobs. If they are hiring. This is a white-collar world, boy. We don’t get drafted, get our hands dirty or get caught, because we belong in Palm Beach Club. BTW, the Fool’s Gold plot was conceived in Boca Raton, not too far down the I-95. CDO’s and all.

Watch out for the “D” in any acronym least of which in a Canadian University transcript.