Tag: Learning

Rough “road” to learning

 Please fasten your seat belts.

The road to learning is rough: one has to survive the transportation to and fro, bullies and academic pressures.

“it’s the same river, same ferry, and coconut trees along the banks, but, it’s different today. The difference is, …today, I am back to school” (paraphrasing a poem by Thanh Tinh)..

When their age, I got picked up by various adults in my household: father, brother, sitter and sister (my mom was a school teacher at another school, so she couldn’t have due to schedule conflict). They picked me up by VeloSolex and Mobylette. Twice my little foot got stuck in the back wheel (once I ended up in the emergency room).

Rough road to learning.

Seeing school children in An Giang getting ferried to school brought back some memories (last week, on PBS Newshour, on the subject of the Keystone pipeline,

one commentator even mentioned that current climate change was due to global increased energy consumption in countries like Vietnam and China etc… That prompted a rebuff from the environmentalist, who said “how much an average Vietnamese uses energy per day compared to the developed world”. We should chroma-key in above picture to make his point).

School could never equip us with survival instincts.

The best teachers can do is to create a sense of normalcy, habit-forming, and hopefully,

plant a desire for further learning.

Besides, they already got “tiger moms” at home who ensure conformity to village life.

Those are end-products based on century-old Mandarin system (to supply new blood to run the admin system).

Except now, we don’t face shortage of labor at all (fewer people are required to produce the same amount of agri and aqua products, fewer employees per factory/offfice square foot etc…No more “where is the white-out”.

Yet, children are risking their young lives to get to school across the river.

Quite a “distant” learning.

Could someone throw a safety jacket?

Here, people blog about  (wearing) “White after Labor Day“.

I just hope that one of those children will make it to the big city, and propel into the big league (statistical outcome of a large gene pool of 90 million). Perhaps through IT, or Math (one already won the most prestigious award).

One charity in the West was exposed for trying to build schools in Afghanistan while pocketing the rest.

He even wrote a book about it. PR man. Opportunist man. Spare a jacket?

I am sure these schoolchildren pick up on some survival skills during their one-hour commute (team work, social awareness etc..) before setting foot in the classroom.

And should one of them be drowned, (as already happened) I hope for the rest a quick move forward over survivor’s guilt.

Those scars take a long time to heal.

I know what I am writing about.

I still have the aching ankle ground by Mobylette to prove it.

It took place from a rough road back from school.

It’s the same road that I saw every day, but the difference was, that day, was the day I arrived home via the hospital. Rough “road” to learning, I tell you.

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.