Archive for September, 2008
4 September 2008
All I really need to know…
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
I have been on the lookout for homeschooling stories from Asia, and was quite pleased when I came across this one. The article was first published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, titled “All I really Need to Know I Learned In Homeschool”.
At 19, Michael Joshua B. Gemina has accomplished a lot more than most kids his age—or adults twice his age even.
When he was 8, he learned to play the piano and started training in Aikido. The former allowed him to perform with the prestigious Philippine Research for Instrumental Soloists Children’s Orchestra, while the latter saw him become the youngest male black belt in Asia. He also took violin lessons under National Music Competitions for Young Artists winner Gina Medina and was 14 when he began playing the drums. Now a session artist for rock star Barbie Almalbis, Michael plays regularly for Victory Christian Fellowship Ministry in Alabang.
Did we mention that he’s also on a full scholarship at De La Salle University’s College of St. Benilde, where he graduates with a degree in music production come April 2009?
[Read the whole story here]
1 September 2008
Do schools kill creativity?
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Uncategorized.
If you have not visited the TED website before, please do. TED means Technology, Entertainment, Design - an annual conference that attempts to provoke and inspire by bringing together some of the world’s most influential thinkers and performers. There’s a lot that’s fascinating, and certainly, a lot more that won’t necessarily go down well with everyone. But there’s so much that are provocative in the best ways.
Here’s a talk by Sir Ken Robinson that’s simply titled, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Now with a title like this, you wonder if there’s something that might resonate with homeschoolers.
Sir Ken argues that we’re living in a world where our definition of intelligence has shifted, and where paper degrees do not mean as much as they used to. He tells his audience that intelligence is (a) diverse - multi-facetted and varied, (b) dynamic - interactive, and (c) distinct - creative (“Creativity is having original ideas that have value”). And creativity is sadly neglected in our schools today, to the detriment of society. Check out Sir Ken.