It's Official!

In the mail yesterday, we received official confirmation from the Ministry of Education that Ethan is exempted from compulsory education.

We're all going on a learning adventure!!!

Noel

'You can lead a horse to water and make it drink, if you give it salt'

(Dedicated to my friend Lance Fogle and his Pastor)

We've all heard the proverb 'You can lead a horse to water and but you can't make it drink' and we've probably agreed wholeheartedly. At work, you and I have probably seen co-workers like the proverbial horse. When I teach and train, I encounter participants who are like the said equine. So for as long as I can remember, I've never questioned the proverb.

Until I met Lance in June when he shared this blog entry's title with me, which was something he had heard from his pastor. What a paradigm shift and an epiphany, that statement was for me! I had never fully questioned why the horse didn't want to drink. I had assumed, now incorrectly, that the horse was as stubborn as it's close relative, the mule. I had not thought that maybe the water was foul-tasting. Or maybe the horse wasn't thirsty enough.

As educators in the largest possible sense, we probably think that with our training, intellect, know-how etc, why shouldn't/wouldn't anyone not want to listen or learn from us? Yet by thinking this way, we have removed ourselves from the most important position in the learning process - standing in the learner's shoes.

Maybe our learners at home and in school don't want to learn because the material has not been contextualised enough. Perhaps the material has been 'fouled-up', overcomplicated to such an extent that the learner can no longer see its value or relevance to him.

Maybe our learners are not 'thirsty' enough. That is, they have not come to the position when they have a real need to learn the material. Perhaps we have not aroused the learner's innate curiosity enough. Perhaps we have not created sufficient security for the learner to step out from his comfort zone and say 'I don't know about this. Can you tell me more?'. Perhaps we have not given enough 'salt' or motivation for the learner to be 'thirsty' again, to seek out the 'fount' of knowledge for himself.

Lance's words gave me a new way to look at what I need to bring to the learning process, not just for the people that I train, but also for myself. Am I modelling the very same behaviours that I expect them to have?

So Lance, thank you for sharing that insight. You probably didn't know how much it spoke to me.

Noel Tan
(*All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers)

Does it matter if you are first or last, if you are not in the race? Aka why can't primary school education be more like post-graduate education?

Just the other day, I read a paraphrase of today's blog entry title in an online parenting forum . The comment made by the contributor was in relation to the academic paper chase in schools. It struck a chord with me instantly.

It came at a time when we are considering home-schooling as an option for our eldest. The wife and I have been revisiting the idea, primarily due to a pressing need to realign his learning journey on several fronts - his learning style, temperament and his learning difficulties, in relation to our own beliefs and assumptions about education and development.

The wife and I went through the school system in our time and got through those years with our degrees, with a fair amount of success, I would think. I mean, I have 2 post-graduate degrees and am now in the 2nd year of my doctoral research.

However, I note that my most eventful learning was in these recent years, when learning was truly discovery, in pursuit of answers to questions that I was genuinely interested in. The individual journey has been fulfilling because it revealed the innate creativity and problem-solving resources that I could harness. I guess a deeper, more fundamental reason would be that I am no longer under the pressure of being compared or measured. If I'm only racing against myself, then it becomes a competition of an even purer form - wrestling against my own limits, struggling against habits that hinder - in order to achieve a result worthy of myself.

It's important to clarify that competition is not inherently bad. In appropriate settings and when processed properly, academic competition and testing can yield positive benefits. In my case, I've discovered how my son, is increasingly turned-off from learning because of the emphasis on results or teaching to the test. This flies in the face of recent research into social and emotional learning, multiple intelligences, learning styles and brain-based learning.

Our conversations with the eldest inevitably focuses on the homework that he has, deadlines, to stop dreaming and focus on completing his work etc. I would much rather like the conversation to be about what he has enjoyed learning and how what he's learned can connect with other things in the world. In a perfect world, we would be having that same conversation with him and he would also be able to thrive in a competitive, exam-centred environment. Since that is not something that is foreseeable, the next best solution would be to place him in a context which allows him to re-discover the joy of learning. How that will transpire will depend on our considerations over the next few weeks.

I think the deeper question here is not about protecting the child per se from the harsh realities of life. Rather, it has to do with preserving an essential attitude that is at the centre of our existence as human beings - a healthy curiosity and a love for learning. Otherwise, I might end up having a child who is well-schooled, but not at all educated.

Noel Tan

(*All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

Dealing with School Pressure: Which School of Thought do you belong to?

As a parent of a school-going 7-year-old in the pressure-cooker environment that is the Singapore education system, as well as a family life educator, I've discovered that there are different schools of thought, when it comes to dealing with school pressure.

'Swim' school

Parents who belong here believe truly that 'Life is tough' and hence, school is the the induction into life. How does the learner deal with pressure? The simple message is 'Hard luck, kiddo. deal with it, because I dealt with it'.

'Live-the-moment' school

If life gives you lemons, parents who belong here are likely to say 'Make lemonade'. They accept that schooling is tough and competitive, but they emphasise to their learners to look beyond the negative and enjoy the ride.

'Cram' school

Given the exam-centric nature of the system, parents over here tell the learners to 'Forget about the Fun, and Focus on the Facts'. Learners are seen to have coped with the pressure by getting extra doses of brain work at tuition centres and other enrichment courses.

'The-road-less-travelled' school

How to cope with pressure? Parents in this school of thought believe that there IS an out-of-the-box way: be it homeschooling, boarding school overseas including the option of emigration. 'Pressure? What, pressure? (..when you have an alternative, that is)'

Simplistic, though, these labels may be, they are useful for helping us see the messages that we transmit, consciously or otherwise, to our children when they face pressure from school. They also bring out the underlying assumptions about pressure and schooling experiences as well as their respective educational outcomes.

Is there one best approach? I doubt it; the effectiveness of any approach will rest greatly on the child, how well his parents understand him and their relationship together.

Noel Tan

(*All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers)

Parents and 'Personal Bests' - Motivating for student achievement

It is well-documented that a supportive home environment is essential for student achievement. However, parents need to go beyond asking their children how school was or if they had finished their homework to fully flesh out such an environment. Specific behavioural actions and interventions are more effective in helping raise their child's achievement level in school.

One useful way that parents can spur their child's achievement is through the use of 'personal bests' or 'pb's'. A borrowed term from the world of sport, 'pb's' are targets that are incremental in nature, building on the student's current performance level, while taking into account his potential.

4 Ways to use PBs

Building Shared Perspectives between Parent and Child
Instead of setting unrealistic targets that do not take into account the child's abilities, parent and child can benefit from the shared perspectives that take place through the negotiation of attainable scores in school.

Building Goal-setting skills in the Child

Furthermore, the parent can use 'pb's' to help build goal-setting skills in the child, in helping the latter understand how the future is affected by present actions.

PBs as the basis of rewards and incentives

Achievement can happen only through a blend of parental support and accountability. Through the use of 'pb's', the child's performance can also be linked to rewards and incentives. Where these rewards are yet to be made systematic, parents can use the child's 'pb's' as a start-point for this process.

Motivation for achievement

As the child attains appropriate scores, his progress is thus supported through extrinsic forms of motivations, while the parent should continue to guide him to see that the achievement of his goals and 'personal bests' is the best form of satisfaction in the long run.

Personal Experience

Ethan was in the top 30% of his whole cohort in Primary One this year, but Brenda and I have seen that introducing the concept of pb's to him takes the discussion of his performance to a different level altogether. The discourse is certainly more constructive as it does not focus on the rat-race aspects such as the competition with his classmates.

Noel Tan

(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)