Education

I was just watching House MD and this one scene where House was interviewing a possible candidate for a fellowship in his department was really striking.

He was interviewing this guy who had long hair, whose speech was peppered with dude, who was talking about how he'd work for House because he knew House was a non-conformist.

House looks at the guy and looks at Wilson and says "He's in a band!" and says "Dude, you're totally hired" and after the guy's eyes light up and says "Really?", House immediately says, "Absolutely not!"

Why? Because House says the guy had a tattoo. The interviewee is aghast because he thought that House would be the least person to frown upon non-conformity. To which House replies,

Nonconformity, right. I can't remember the last time I saw a 20-something kid with a tattoo of an Asian letter on his wrist. You are one wicked free thinker. You want to be a rebel? Stop being cool. Wear a pocket protector like he does and get a haircut. Like the Asian kids who don't leave the library for 20 hours stretches, they're the ones who don't care what you think.

Which is so true when you think about it. The real rebels are the kids who know the word regelation when asked by their physics teacher not the nth kid wearing the black shirt with the skulls on it. (Real story. This Chinese kid had all the male geeks swooning when she said the word, and I secretly hoped I were her.)

The really cool kid is the one squirming under a pink taffeta skirt which she was made to wear at the prom by her over-excited mom and grandmother, who goes home at 12 midnight on the dot while the other kids giggle in the background, and not the one who gives up her virginity because it's the prom's rite of passage and she can not be the odd one out.

The really cool kid is the one who knows literary theories and who in conversation alludes to Rilke like it's the most normal thing in the world, and not the one who knows the lyrics to the latest emo song because he downloaded it from the net.

The really cool kid is the one who budgets his 100 pesos (must include snacks and money for public transpo as well as the halo-halo along Marikina as he goes home) and not the kid who gets the newest gadget - ipod - psp - every week.

And I think I'm doing it right as a mom. My kid is one of the few kids I know who uses the word teeter-totter, and isn't that cool!

One of my biggest concerns when Paul was about to enter big school, was Filipino. His first language was English and other people in our house spoke with him in Waray. So we did wonder whether he would wing it having Filipino as a subject in school.

We were lucky enough to find out that that subject isn't taught till the second level of his big school (Prep). So we had a year to get him used to hearing us speak with him in Filipino.

Jippy the Jeepney is something that can help little ones learn their Pinoy. This video was conceptualized by moms with the help of different consultants from the fields of education and psychology.

Much research and thought was put into this. In fact, if you watch the video, you will notice that the background is "flat" and only the characters are 3D. Even in shows like Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, this can be observed. This is because children will not absorb much if there is too much animation.

Each episode has around 3-5 concepts so each is taught slowly, and lots of repetitions are made. We all know that children have short term memories so this is quite important.

My kids have watched the video several times, and they love Kulas!

To find out more, check out their website at Jippy the Jeepney. To buy the video, email jippythejeepney@yahoo.com or call 0917 8810211.

One day, I was surfing the web and chanced upon this.

And as I read it, I realize that there are some similarities in the Philippine setting; and it alarms me.

Here is the article by Tyler Cowen (who's an economics professor at George Mason University) taken from the Marginal Revolution blog.

Why don't American kids respect their parents more?

First, you are welcome to challenge the premise that there is in fact less respect for parents in the United States. But if it were true, what might be the possible mechanisms?

1. American parents have less time to discipline their kids, in part because women are more likely to work, wages are higher, and there is a general rush and hurry.

2. American culture is less closely tied to the entire notion of hierarchy and respect, whether or not kids are in the picture.

3. The American divorce rate is relatively high.

4. Balance is difficult, and a tipping point requires that someone be in charge. In America that is the kids, although the underlying reasons for this difference may be quite small.

5. America is saturated in mass media, and that culture encourages the independence of the child, most of all because children are prime viewers of TV and drivers of Nielsen ratings.

6. Americans are more mobile, and thus less likely to live near grandparents, support structures, and other mechanisms of norm enforcement.

7. It is simply a time trend. Americans are ahead of the rest of the world but everyone else is catching up. Give them time, it's just like how we will all come to resemble California someday.

8. "In America it depends on how parents behave and whether particular parents deserve to be treated with respect. Parents don't get respect automatically just because they are parents." I'm not going to tell you who said that one.

9. Some other notion of American exceptionalism.

Your views? Google appears to yield few answers to this question or even attempts at an answer...

How about you guys, what do you think?

Do you have kids who need to take the exam to big school this year? You guys might want to read this first... I attended a talk by Didi Manahan, a professor at the Ateneo and the directress of Explorations Preschool and Keys Gradeschool about traditional and progressive schools. I think it is important to realize that progressive schools are present nowadays because there is more and more proof that people learn differently. And just because one doesn't go to a traditional school, it doesn't mean that he/she is "intellectually challenged". As a quick overview, these are the basic differences between a traditional and a progressive school.