Excellent Sheep? Excellent Students?

I do not necessarily agree with this author's point view, data, or logic.

However if he is right, we need to something for our kids and our schools

Another Pivot We Did

It's question and answer site.
Another Quora, Stackoverflow?
No!


It's an online learning site.
Another Khan Academy, Moodle, Udacity, Udemy?
No!

Differences for Teachers

1. A teacher can protect her/his own clients from other teachers.
2. The teacher gets paid 80% for her/his effort. S/he can check her account balance any time.
3. The teacher can re-use her/his solutions with a few clicks. Eventually we will fully automate it with AI/Machine Learning.

Secure, Mobile-friendly!

One Proven Way to Build Confidence

True confidence comes from accepting your total and ever-present failure to be like anybody else, and from building your life from there.

1. Specialize. But don't specialize out of fear of competition. The competition will find its way into your home turf anyway.
   
2. Feel free to compare. It is both natural and good for learning.
   
3. Accept that you have already failed and that you will never do things the way the stars in your chosen field have done or are doing.

You don't play football like Maradona?

No problem.

Do you make that 10-meter pass today better than you did yesterday?

Will you make it better tomorrow?

You may not be a second Maradona, but you may make bigger contributions to football than the first and only Maradona!

Good luck!

One More Way Not to Build Confidence

Another common advice to build confidence goes, 'Stop comparing with others. Just work hard.' This advice is both impossible to follow and also harmful to do so.

Impossible

How can we stop comparing?

1. We do not live alone, in total isolation, in the universe.
2. We do not live in sensory deprivation chambers, with eyes seeing nothing, with ears hearing nothing, and so on.

Harmful

Why should we stop comparing? In matters of learning, comparison comes even before imitation and copycatting!

Say, I am a young swimmer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Thorpe , Phelps and other greats.

Say, I am a young golfer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player and other greats.

Say, I am a young footballer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Ronaldo (Brazil), Romario, Maradona and other greats.

There must be a better way. Let's see.

One Way Not to Build Confidence

Looking for your core competence, sticking to your strengths, staying true to your essence are commendable life strategies. But they will never build you true confidence. They encourage you to live inside a cocoon, to avoid real threats and real opportunities.

 Orcas cannot climb trees. Monkeys cannot fly. Eagles cannot swim.

So orcas should keep themselves to seas, monkeys to trees, and eagles to the sky?

1. So a budding poet should not study math because he will never be able to do math as well as his classmates? 
2. So a budding mathematician should not touch literature and arts because he will never do them as well as his classmates? 
3. So a promising engineer should never dabble in enterprise because he will never do business as well as her classmates?

All sound and sensible and sham and fake and lame!


If you avoid competition and comparison, the universe is never wide enough for you.


If you choose math out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous mathematicians in history?

If you choose poetry out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous poets in history?

If you choose business and enterprise out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous entrepreneurs in history?

There is a better way. See the next post.

How to Arouse Curiosity

Curiosity can do wonders in learning. But a few kids were not born curious. Then, how can we arouse curiosity in such students? A wonderful book called  'The Genius of Instinct: Reclaim Mother Nature's Tools for Enhancing Your Health, Happiness, Family, and Work' has some answers.

1. Fun : Everyone becomes curious about what they regard as fun.
2. Novelty : They may also become interested in new stuffs.
3. Collative attributes : This is about collation i.e. collecting, sorting, ordering, arranging things.

According to the author, "collative" techniques are particularly good for invoking  curiosity. In practical terms, it means

1. we show students that there are gaps  in their understanding and world view.
2. we show students that there are discords, contradictions, dissonance  in their understanding and world view.
3.  we dare them to imagine, visualize, mental-simulate some more possible worlds, rather than the one they are used to.

Entrepreneurship and Singapore, Richard Hartung

Richard Hartung  points out what to emphasize and what to de-emphasize in teaching Entrepreneurship to Singapore's youths in Today newspaper, of June 18, 2014.

What to Emphasize

Brainstorming
Creating ideas

Help students become entrepreneurs
Developing an entrepreneurial  spirit

Coming up with new ideas that solve problems
Guiding students to come up with and design solutions that work
Analyze, uncover people's real problems, and brainstorm solutions
Creatively meeting real needs

Overcoming difficulties
Creative intelligence

What to De-emphasize

Help students become  shopkeepers
Business skills needed for managing a company
Workplace skills
Just running a business better


Well, it's hard to say this better.

Successful Kids, Successful Students

According to a recent New Scientist magazine issue, successful kids or students share the following four characteristics.

They have a growth mindset, believing they can always improve themselves, acquire new skills, learn new capabilities and so on.

They have strong self-control muscles.

They have strong grit muscles. e.g. James Watson (a co-discoverer of DNA) once said, "When I was young, I knew I didn't have a good IQ, and still I wanted to do important things." He himself admitted that it was a matter of grit.

They have dreams.

How can we raise or teach kids so that they learn all these things?