28 December 2009

Another look at Winning

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; One From The Archives.

Now that you’ve put the Christmas rush behind you, here’s One From The Archives to help you with priorities for the new homeschooling year. I first wrote this piece titled ‘Winning While Losing’ back in 2003 (!) and looking at it right now, it’s a timely reminder that’s worth  another read.

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HOMESCHOOLERS ARE MAKING WAVES EVERYWHERE AREN’T THEY? Take the story of Aussie twins Katherine and Edward Alpert for instance. They finished high school with a grade point average of 97% while their mates were just ditching their Pokemon cards. Now, at the ripe old age of 12, both twins are scoring distinctions in their Bachelor of Arts degree programme. Parents Felicity and Garry are obviously proud of their kids’ achievements and admit to working long and hard to nurture their academic prowess.

Wait, there’s more. The highly motivated twins are also into cricket, and competing in an upcoming song and dance contest. And as homeschooling prodigy Katherine herself says, “Yes, there’s nothing that I think I can’t do.”

That’s the sort of thing that gets my goat: homeschooling achievers oozing self-confidence by the truckloads.

All these fantastic stories do something to you, don’t they? Sure, there’s a vicarious thrill reading them, and you relish the fact that yes, one day your kids are going to show ‘em too. Because they are homeschoolers, and because that’s what homeschoolers regularly do: they make the headlines (for the right reasons).

That’s when you wake up with a rude thud as posterior meets terra firma. So, why aren’t our kids in the news? They don’t spell right, they don’t get their sums correct, they have problems getting out of bed before 10 a.m. In the meantime, Mum’s tearing her hair out nagging them to quit horsing around and get some work done. Compared to Katherine or Edward’s brilliance, our kids might as well be chewing on pacifiers. Good on you, Felicity and Garry! Now, if only you could look our way and do something for our boys.

One of the hardest lessons about homeschooling is coming to terms with limitations ~ ours, and our kids. Some parents after reading about the amazing feats of super moms and dads (and their super-achieving brood) find their convictions skewered by a deepening sense of incompetence. Others, after another frustrating school day, ask if they have lost the plot or missed a vital formula in the Secrets to Successful Homeschooling.

Let’s face it: homeschooling families come in all shapes and sizes, wrapped mostly in a bundle of nerves. Although redeemed and born again, many parents remain as John Cheever puts it, “ransomed to their beginnings” and it shows. We go through life, with God’s help, undoing the knotty baggage of our past piece-by-piece, one day at a time. It’s as Paul declared when he wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on…toward the goal…” (Phi 3:12). Coming from a man who earlier shared about his weakness being perfected in God’s strength, his is a fitting word for a kiasu world obsessed with Number One.

Two months ago, our son Elliot had a brush with humiliating defeat. Having done extremely well in the preliminary round of a Spelling Bee organised by a leading retailer in KL we thought the tantalizing prize of a computer was certainly within his grasp. But 5 minutes into the finals a week after, in front of an audience of anxious parents and journalists, he slipped up horribly on the first word, and was immediately out of the game. Our resident Scrabble and Boggles champ made his way back to his seat holding back tears. Later when asked what he had learnt from that debacle, he attributed his loss to jitters and “over-confidence.”

Then came the family’s failure to make it to the summit of Mt Kinabalu at the end of last year. All gung-ho and raring to go, we were laid low one after the other by altitude sickness in the wee hours of the chilly morning and had to turn back.

Soon after, while sipping hot tea and nursing a bruised ego at the Laban Rata rest house 11,000 ft above sea level, I noticed our boys were in uncommonly good cheer. “Look at it this way Dad,” said Ethan, “we made it this far and it is no mean achievement, you know.” Well, that’s a positive way of looking at failure.

We are not all winners; not many of us will have great exploits to boast. Our children, bless them, may not be Katherines and Edwards. But by God’s grace, we are always more than what we began with.

By David BC Tan
Jan 22, 2003

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9 September 2009

Balakrishna’s love for Physics pays off

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooler Profile; Homeschooling Achievers.

[Malaysian homeschooler Balakrishna M. Pillai is 14-years old. But as he is apt to say, "Don't hold my age against me; judge me by my knowledge and skill." Indeed. This young man and a team of students he led was awarded first place in the international Global Challenge 2009 competition for students  in the Best Global Business Plan Category (see previous post). We're thrilled and pleased for Balakrishna and his parents! Recently HOMEFRONTIER caught up with this homeschooler-in-a-hurry and interviewed him via email]

1. Tell us, who is Balakrishna M. Pillai?
Homeschooled. Secured the New Zealand Certificate of Educational Achievement Levels 1 and 2, about 2 years ago. I am 40 credits away from getting Level 3.  Put off completing NCEA as I want to pursue an education in USA. Completed the SAT last year, my first public examination. I got full marks in SAT II Math and scored 30 marks shy of a full score in SAT II Physics.

I am by nature a very curious individual. I like to fiddle and take things apart and very often do not succeed in putting them back. Every button I see needs to be pushed and every switch flicked. It is no wonder my parents figured I would not survive school. I think perhaps they were more concerned for the teachers. Being homeschooled allows me to study areas which fascinate me. I am fascinated with Physics, more specifically theoretical Physics. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to attend a university. Unfortunately I am 14 years old and have got a fair bit of waiting to do. That is the most excruciating part.

2. Your parents Murali and Juliana Pillai have done a great job educating you at home. What’s it like to be an only child and a homeschooler?
I must say I have had a wonderful education. I choose what I want to learn and I never had to worry about exams until late last year. So I pretty much enjoyed the process of learning at my own pace. I much prefer this to going to school. The system would have sent me to the Tanjung Rambutan Institute for the Study of Mental Illnesses. I enjoy being an only child and I don’t think I am none the worse for wear for being an only child.

3. Could you tell us how you developed your passion for Physics?
When I see a mountain I admire its beauty. And then I stop and ask, “How do the sub-atomic particles that make up the atoms that make up the molecules that make up the rocks, snow, and ice that make up the mountain interact to make up the mountain?” I have, and have always had since I was a child, dozens of questions about the inner workings of the universe swimming around in my head. Studying Physics may bring me closer to answering these questions and satisfying my passion to find out how the universe works.

4. With all these questions swimming around in your head, do you have time for anything else besides Physics?
I am constantly working on physics problems, so there is no moment when I am not busy with physics. I like photography, painting, scuba diving, and going on nature walks and when I do these activities I am thinking about physics. I did too drag my parents up a mountain in New Zealand! I also occasionally walk through glass doors, usually resulting in a visit to the hospital.

5. Well, your passion for Physics paid off. You got more than just a crack at an international competition for students, the Global Challenge. How did that happen?
I was invited by a Malaysian student to participate in the competition. The competition is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics intensive program. It is open to high school students so generally students who are 15-19 years participate, but as you can see it is not a hard and fast rule.

The Global Challenge requires students to work in teams of 4 and invent a device that can reduce the effects of climate change. The team is then required to prepare a global business plan for that device. By so doing the participants are exposed to real life considerations like manufacturing, marketability and profitability of the product. The Business Plan has to prove that the device works, and that it is marketable, and can generate a profit.

6. Tell us about your submission. You must have put in a lot of work; what did you actually have to do?
There is a lot of reading and you must have a wide breadth of knowledge. Packaging the whole idea is also very challenging. I made my presentation differently and kept the reader pretty much in view. A lot of effort went into it and although I had a team I did everything from the conception of idea to writing the whole business plan. That was primarily because I had the luxury of time on my hands while the others were really hard pressed for time given their hectic schedules. So my first draft was pretty much the final work.

When Yu Yu, a returning participant in the Global Challenge invited me to participate in this challenge I was skeptical if I would enjoy it. I must confess while I am aware of the problem of global warming and climate change, like millions out there I cannot see myself doing anything which could solve the problem. In short, it is not top of my list of priorities. My passion is Physics and I could not see very much Physics in this competition.

7. You were ‘skeptical’ but you went on ahead anyway. And you picked up new experiences, learned new things, made new friends. How do you feel about that?
I said yes since I had nothing better to do anyway and now I am glad I did say yes. To say I learned new things would be an understatement. I am sure an expert reviewing the work done for the Global Challenge will find more holes in it than you would find in a piece of cheese but I sincerely feel it is a good start. For the first time I see the relevance in things like industrial analysis, market analysis, political and financial feasibility. I would not have given these areas any notice at all previously,  so all said and done, it was and continues to be an enlightening experience. It was good teaming up with young people from America.

I learned they are under as much pressure as youths who go to school in Malaysia. I enjoy talking with Ivan (my team mate). He is constantly advising me about college in USA and that is nice. I appreciate that and will always remember that. I enjoyed working with Yu Yu too and we had some fruitful face-to-face meetings in the early stages. While Ivan is chattier, I found Yu Yu more laconic and I still have difficulty understanding what she says. In the later stages there were some tense moments and differences of opinion between us and I dealt with them as best as I could.

8. Were your parents involved in any way?
I would like to thank my mother, who has sprouted several gray hairs due to this competition, even though she was not directly involved, and my father, who came up with several ideas for this competition (none of which were actually workable). What is important is both my parents are always there to lend support, encourage me and cheer me up when the chips were down.

9. That’s wonderful! Now, could you tell us a little about the idea behind your team project?
About my idea: In an average day, a human expands an enormous amount of energy going about his daily activities. Consider for a moment our daily activities such as walking, sitting, opening and closing doors and the like. Most of the energy expended on these tasks is wasted without us giving a moment‘s thought.

What if we could capture this energy and put it to good use? With this in mind the MEG was conceived. The MEG, an acronym for the Multipurpose Electric Generator is a device in the form of a tile that consists of a flat plastic plate with 5 magnets attached to its underside. A coil of wire is positioned directly under each magnet.

When pressure is exerted on the plate, the magnets are thrust into the coils, creating an electrical current in the coils through electromagnetic induction. This electricity is captured and stored, ready to be used in any application. It cannot be denied that the energy generated by the MEG is small. However, small amounts add up just like tiny drops make a mighty ocean. The versatile MEG can be placed in any location where pressure is frequently applied by humans. It can be placed on floors of homes in areas where there is the greatest activity or frequency of use, for example near toilets and staircases.

10. That won you first place in the business plan category. Congratulations! What was the award you won, and do you have anything to say about it?
It was an all-expense paid trip to Vermont to attend a week long summer program at the Governor’s Institute of Vermont, USA. Winning the competition was no big deal, but it is very nice to get a free trip. However, I did not like the summer program at the University of Vermont. It was more Engineering-based than Physics-based. I preferred my stint at MIT in Massachusetts which was a 6-week physics course on linear algebra and quantum mechanics.

11. Finally, what advice do you have – if any – for homeschoolers who have problems with subjects like science?
You must develop a passion for it and that passion comes from understanding it. I would say just learn and do not obsess with grades and being better than others.

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Balakrishna is presently offering his services as Physics tutor to anyone but he much prefers teens.  He is also selling away some of his Physics books and you can take a look at his booklist on our NOTICES (September) page. Email Balakrishna personally at balakrishnapillaim(at)gmail.com

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7 September 2009

14-year old makes Malaysian homeschoolers proud

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement; Homeschooling Achievers.

Few people knew,  the local media was silent, and the win was almost unheralded. But for 14-year old Balakrishna M Pillai, a precocious Malaysian homeschooler, it did not lessen the sweet taste of victory when he was announced a co-winner of the international Global Challenge Award in the Best Global Business Plan category.

Team leader Balakrishna and another student Ivan Duschatzky submitted a plan for a Multipurpose Electric Generator and won First Place  (Best Global Business Plan) in the competition when results were announced in June this year.

Homeschooling parents who often ask about science (or, the ‘hard sciences’) will be heartened to know that Bala’s parents Murali and Juliana are hardly scientifically inclined. Both Mom and Dad are lawyers by profession.

According to its website, the nonprofit, Global Challenge Award’s mission is to “Provide Students the Tools and Confidence to Solve Global Problems Together.” Founded by Craig DeLuca, of The Arno Group in close collaboration with with Domenico Grasso of University of Vermont, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences in 2005, the annual competition challenges students around the world to submit innovative and original ideas to solve global problems.

Award winners enjoy international travel, tuition at the Governor’s Institute on Engineering at the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences University of Vermont, and cash scholarships.

We hope to feature an interview with Bala in the near future, but meanwhile, the homeschooler is getting ready to move on. He’s put up his old physics/science books for sale (over 70 titles and magazines, all on our NOTICES September page); and he’s offering his services as a physics tutor. Bala completed the SAT last year – his very first public examination – and scored full marks in SAT II Maths and 30 marks short of a full score in SAT II Physics.

Why the tuition? Bala says he has to ‘kill time’ before he gets to a University in the US. “I see no reason why I cannot make money with my talents. I have a very expensive passion for traveling, not to mention college will cost a pretty sum too!” he adds.

Congratulations Balakrishna, and to your parents Murali and Juliana!

You can contact Balakrishna at balakrishnapillaim(at)gmail.com

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11 March 2006

Uni’s youngest PhD grad is a homeschooler

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers.

Melbourne University’s youngest-ever PhD graduate is a homeschooler

Achievers who are homeschoolers are not unusual and scores make the headlines every year. But when Melbourne Uni reported that its youngest ever PhD grad was a homeschooler who was born in Malaysia ( his family lived in New Zealand since he was three and later in Australia when he was 16), lots of people here sat up and took notice.

WHEN he was 10, while his peers swung from monkey bars and charged around with rugby balls, Yao-ban Chan sat year 12 exams in statistics and calculus. He scored 91 and 90.

It is such a mind-boggling accomplishment that it almost makes his latest achievement seem commonplace.

At 21, today he becomes the youngest-ever PhD graduate at Melbourne University.

“I always liked maths, I always found it fun,” Mr Chan said with trademark understatement from his office in the university’s mathematics department yesterday. Mr Chan, who was born in Malaysia and raised in New Zealand, was largely home-schooled by his mother Peck-Woon, a microbiologist, and father George, a director with Heinz.

(Read the rest here)

According to the 2001 Newsletter of the New Zealand Mathematical Society, Yao-ban was also an accomplished pianist who studied piano performance (passed LTCL last year) and was a regular accompanist and singer with his church choir. At home, he played computer games and table tennis. He also read extensively and wrote fantasy stories and had s put up two origami exhibitions and conducted a demonstration class.

Way to go Yao-ban!

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19 January 2006

Autistic Savant exhibits in NY

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Special Needs.

I had previously posted about 12-year-old Malaysian autistic savant Yeak Ping Lian so it was good to read that he’s in NY participating in an exhibition, Autistic Savant Artworks: Don’t ‘dis’ the Ability at the Henry Gregg Gallery in Brooklyn on Saturday. Ping Lian’s work is being shown together with 2 other well known autistic savant artists Richard Wawro of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Iranian-born Christophe Pillault of Olivet, France.

Autism educator and networker Dr Lawrence Becker of Creative Learning Environments, Austin, Texas, praised the trio saying they embodied the “quality and persistence of the human spirit.”

I was going to say that ‘persistence’ was also a quality that Ping Lian’s mom possessed in spades, because she believed in him enough to put her own interest second to her child’s. Ping Lian could never quite fit in conventional schools so his mother Sarah Lee had him homeschooled, supplemented by additional special needs tuition, and especially art.

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7 February 2005

Ping Lian comes into his own

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Special Needs.

Recently the Star (Metro) carried an encouraging story about 11-year old Yeak Ping Lian, Malaysia’s own autistic savant. Ping Lian is autistic and ADHD whose artistic talents have just come to light. He is homeschooled and has recently been added to the Savant Profiles of the Wisconsin Medical Society website of University of Wisconsin Medical School. That’s where internationally recognised expert on savant syndrome Dr Darold A Treffert is attached to.

Visit Ping Lian’s website and gallery here. I’ve been told by Pam of Calvary Life Ministries that the boy and his family attends Calvary Church. Read about Ping Lian and other extraordinary autistic savants at the terrific Wisconsin Medical Society website. More about Dr Treffert who advised on the Dustin Hoffman movie The Rain Man, here.

Ping Lian only started homeschooling when it became apparent that conventional schools couldn’t handle him. Tragically, authorities still insist that differently-abled kids stay in school under the new mandatory education act (compulsory for the first 6 years, since 2003) even when trained personnel and facilities aren’t readily available. But they’re beginning to relent – exemptions are now given to medically certified children to homeschool on application to the Ministry of Education. (Guess where that puts ‘normal’ kids who want to homeschool for no better reason than sheer conviction?)

I appreciate that not all parents may be able to cope with a special child (even if I believe parents do it better) nor do they want to homeschool, but present resources certainly do not inspire confidence. So, what to do?

0 

22 January 2003

Winning while Losing

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooling Achievers; Uncategorized.

Homeschoolers are making waves everywhere aren’t they? Take the story of Aussie twins Katherine and Edward Alpert for instance. They finished high school with a grade point average of 97% while their mates were just ditching their Pokemon cards. Now, at the ripe old age of 12, both twins are scoring distinctions in their Bachelor of Arts degree programme. Parents Felicity and Garry are obviously proud of their kids’ achievements and admit to working long and hard to nurture their academic prowess.

Wait, there’s more. The highly motivated twins are also into cricket, and competing in an upcoming song and dance contest. And as homeschooling prodigy Katherine herself says, “Yes, there’s nothing that I think I can’t do.”

That’s the sort of thing that gets my goat: homeschooling achievers oozing self-confidence by the truckloads.

All these fantastic stories do something to you, don’t they? Sure, there’s a vicarious thrill reading them, and you relish the fact that yes, one day your kids are going to show ‘em too. Because they are homeschoolers, and because that’s what homeschoolers regularly do: they make the headlines (for the right reasons).

That’s when you wake up with a rude thud as posterior meets terra firma. So, why aren’t our kids in the news? They don’t spell right, they don’t get their sums correct, they have problems getting out of bed before 10 a.m. In the meantime, Mum’s tearing her hair out nagging them to quit horsing around and get some work done. Compared to Katherine or Edward’s brilliance, our kids might as well be chewing on pacifiers. Good on you, Felicity and Garry! Now, if only you could look our way and do something for our boys.

One of the hardest lessons about homeschooling is coming to terms with limitations ~ ours, and our kids. Some parents after reading about the amazing feats of super moms and dads (and their super-achieving brood) find their convictions skewered by a deepening sense of incompetence. Others, after another frustrating school day, ask if they have lost the plot or missed a vital formula in the Secrets to Successful Homeschooling.

Let’s face it: homeschooling families come in all shapes and sizes, wrapped mostly in a bundle of nerves. Although redeemed and born again, many parents remain as John Cheever puts it, “ransomed to their beginnings” and it shows. We go through life, with God’s help, undoing the knotty baggage of our past piece-by-piece, one day at a time. It’s as Paul declared when he wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on…toward the goal…” (Phi 3:12). Coming from a man who earlier shared about his weakness being perfected in God’s strength, his is a fitting word for a kiasu world obsessed with Number One.

Two months ago, our son Elliot had a brush with humiliating defeat. Having done extremely well in the preliminary round of a Spelling Bee organised by a leading retailer in KL we thought the tantalizing prize of a computer was certainly within his grasp. But 5 minutes into the finals a week after, in front of an audience of anxious parents and journalists, he slipped up horribly on the first word, and was immediately out of the game. Our resident Scrabble and Boggles champ made his way back to his seat holding back tears. Later when asked what he had learnt from that debacle, he attributed his loss to jitters and “over-confidence.”

Then came the family’s failure to make it to the summit of Mt Kinabalu at the end of last year. All gung-ho and raring to go, we were laid low one after the other by altitude sickness in the wee hours of the chilly morning and had to turn back.

Soon after, while sipping hot tea and nursing a bruised ego in the 11,000 ft rest house at Laban Rata, I noticed our boys were in uncommonly good cheer. “Look at it this way Dad,” said Ethan, “we made it this far and it is no mean achievement, you know.” Well, that’s a positive way of looking at failure.

We are not all winners; not many of us will have great exploits to boast. Our children, bless them, may not be Katherines and Edwards. But by God’s grace, we are always more than what we began with.

By David BC Tan
Jan 22, 2003

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