Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Breaking My Habit, Day+15: Does School Kill Creativity?


A quick update on my personal life: I've resigned from my position in KalGen, had a week break of any activity, then started my 6-week English preparation class in IALF, Kuningan. It's part of the Australian Development Scholarship scheme that I'm participating in, and this is the second week of my study there. So far it's been great experience, I think I'll write about it next time. 

So, back to the top, where does the quote came from?
It belongs to Sir Ken Robinson, an British prominent figure in education. Below is his TED talk video back in 2006. It's about 20 minutes, but it will definitely worth your time!



In the video, Ken Robinson argues about the importance of creativity, how our school system is killing it, and why it is important to change this.

Some other highlights from his talk:
- We stigmatize 'being wrong' to such extent that it hinders our creativity, especially when we become adult. 

- There are many sides to intelligence, but sadly the school system only recognizes one type and downplays the rest.

- At its current state, the 'real' output of our education system is college professors. There is nothing wrong with college professors, only that we mustn't forget that there are many other equally important jobs out there, the kind which had been neglected by our system.

He tells a bunch of good stories along the way, just watch it yourself!

"If a man speaks his mind in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" Sir Ken Robinson 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Breaking My Habit, Day+14: Test of Character

Ok, my whole habit has been officially destroyed with that trip to Lombok.. Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?


Abraham Lincoln, the great president of United States who abolish slavery (and vampires, apparently).

Reading this quote, it would be easy picturing man of powers (our leaders) who more often than not failed to meet our expectations of how a leaders should behave. The notion of leaders that fail to deliver are so abundant in our daily conversations, these kind of news become such a great reliever.

But pointing fingers are always easy, isn't it? Just as it is so easy for us to give advices to our friends but not to ourselves, it is also very easy to judge others but forget about ourselves. In this realization, let's ask our own, how did I fare when I'm in the position of power?

I'm pretty sure most of you will replied, 'I haven't got that much power, so how should I know?' Indeed, I also thought the same way, at first. So far, I've never been in position where I have great power, at least not large enough to affect my character.


It's ok, bottom dwellers
Eventually, I came to this realization. No matter what is our position in our company / family / organization, each and everyone of us have the ultimate say in terms of one thing: how we manage our time.

Time, just like money, is power. It's one of the few things in life where everybody got a fair share: every person, be it a king or peasant, has the same 24 hours each day, no more and no less.  
The question left is, how good have we been in using this power? 

I failed miserably in this test. No blog posts for weeks, low productivity at the office.. Well I'll stop before further embarrassing myself. 

As for you guys, please judge yourself, and let me know how it goes. I'll close with this quote from my Mom, just to make sure all of you can share my guilt ;)

Those who waste their time will in turn get wasted by their time - Norma Liesje Tanoko