“Nothing is more practical than finding God,

That is, finding love in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

What seizes your imagination will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings,

What you will do with your evenings,

How you spend your weekends,

What you read,

Who you know,

What breaks your heart,

And what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ

This is a quote from a Theology class in college, which truly pulled at my heart strings, not because I was longing to be in love romantically, but because I was in constant search of what I could be passionate about.

I have many general interests, most of which would only last for a few months, and then I get bored and move to another skill. I was preparing for any lucrative career, at that point I wasn’t sure which one, so I thought it best to just prepare for all. I had various interests in the sciences, arts, food, and everything in between. I like children, animals, humans, and objects as well. Some, I liked more than others, but there was never anything that stood out so much that it would shake me to the core.

And so, I let life lead me to where I was destined to. If you believe in religion, yes, I did allow God to move me to my path. If you don’t believe in religion, then the situation I was brought in was just a consequence of multiple coincidences.

I found myself working in the special education sector as a SPED teacher during one summer, then for a short stint, I was clocking in day in and day out at a highly computerized and impersonal corporate job. Following this was an application to be an English teacher abroad, and then more work in the Human Resources and Training field because of my Psychology background. I then I took the licensure for Psychometricians, began selling tests on the side, then ultimately suffered a major heartbreak of not being able to leave for the teaching career abroad, due to various Political turmoil that plagued the Philippines at that time.

Finally, I landed on this teaching job at a local private school. They needed someone with at least some background with kids and an insatiable thirst for the Culinary Arts. They phoned me, and for some odd reason, dropping everything on my plate and moving to a completely different industry had made so much sense to me, and caused me undeniable joy that I had begun thinking that maybe I have just found what I was truly passionate about.

When I enrolled in these two classes for the semester (EDS103 and EDS111), I already had about 2 and half years of teaching experience, a psychology degree, and meager workshops here and there. My sole reference when deciding what kind of teacher I would be, my strategies and personal style is just my previous experience as a student. I would continually ask myself: “If I were my student in the class I was teaching, can I consider myself learning enough? Does this meet my expectations?” Although this practice is a good way for self-evaluation, I have realized in this course, that this simply evaluating with no theoretical basis is not enough.

There were so many course activities that helped me realize how complex learning is for different individuals. There were modules after modules of how to specialize in teaching and absorbing information that by the time I was through, all I could think was “What did I get myself into?”

Just recently, our school had given us an orientation on the Philippine law protecting children’s rights called the Child Protection Policy. As it unfolded in the presentation, I almost wanted to quit from teaching as I was terrified of the responsibilities being placed on my shoulders. It seems that although I have no ill intentions toward my students, behaving in my own unique way could simply be misinterpreted, and I could end up in trial, or worse, in jail.

There is such a weight of responsibility and duty accompanying this career as teachers are considered second parents. Some would even go so far as to say that teachers may mold students with their words, actions, and behavior—and they are not wrong. In many studies abroad, students are found to be more susceptible to the influences of the teacher, particularly in their choice of career (Bergmark et al, 2018), their belief in their own self-efficacy (Kanadli, 2017), and confidence accompanied with lifelong learning (Loads, 2007).

But what is really expected of us teachers? There is no document or job description that could really fulfill everything that is expected of us. We must be parents, advisers, mentors, coaches, lecturers, story-tellers, educators, motivators examiners, trainers, pastors, and at the same time, we must be good learners, listeners, be kind at all times, unique, technological savvy, and be able to relate to children well enough to be considered friends too(Demirkasimonglu, 2010; Guerriero, 2012). It’s such a tall order for a simple human being, and at the end of it all, is it really worth it?

Is it worth it to be part of something bigger? Something that will impact future societies? Is it worth it to spend days and nights worrying about other people’s children, making sure that they grow up in accepting environments and that they do not proceed to live in hate? Teachers have various reasons for entering this profession, and the most common reason is based on a selfless inclination. Teachers want the best for the students, and when they see these students grow, it makes all the hard work absolutely worth it (Dundar, 2014; Thorpe, 2014).

So, the question remains for me, will I continue in this profession despite of it all?

By fulfilling the requirements of this semester and enrolling in my next 6 units, I do believe that I shall continue in this profession, not despite of it all, but because of it all.

References:

• Bergmark, U., Lundstrom, S., Manderstedt, L., & Palo, A. 2018. Why become a teacher? Student teachers’ perceptions of the teaching profession and motives for career choice. European Journal of Teacher Education. 3(43). 266-281.
• Dundar, S. 2014. Reasons for choosing the teaching profession and beliefs about teaching: A study with elementary school teacher candidates. College Student Journal. 3(48). 445-460.
• Kanadli, S. 2017. Prospective teachers’ professional self-efficacy beliefs in terms of their perceived autonomy, support, and attitudes towards the teaching profession: A mixed methods study. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice. 5(17). 1847-1871.Bergmark, U., Lundstrom, S., Manderstedt, L., & Palo, A. 2018. Why become a teacher? Student teachers’ perceptions of the teaching profession and motives for career choice. European Journal of Teacher Education. 3(43). 266-281.
• Loads, D. 2007. Effective learning adviser’s perceptions of their role in supporting lifelong learning. Teaching in Higher Education. 2(12). 235-245. doi:10.1080/13562510701192016.
• Thorpe, R. 2014. Sustaining the teaching profession. New England Journal of Public Policy. 1(26). 1-16.Bergmark, U., Lundstrom, S., Manderstedt, L., & Palo, A. 2018. Why become a teacher? Student teachers’ perceptions of the teaching profession and motives for career choice. European Journal of Teacher Education. 3(43). 266-281.
• Dundar, S. 2014. Reasons for choosing the teaching profession and beliefs about teaching: A study with elementary school teacher candidates. College Student Journal. 3(48). 445-460.
• Kanadli, S. 2017. Prospective teachers’ professional self-efficacy beliefs in terms of their perceived autonomy, support, and attitudes towards the teaching profession: A mixed methods study. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice. 5(17). 1847-1871.Bergmark, U., Lundstrom, S., Manderstedt, L., & Palo, A. 2018. Why become a teacher? Student teachers’ perceptions of the teaching profession and motives for career choice. European Journal of Teacher Education. 3(43). 266-281.
• Loads, D. 2007. Effective learning adviser’s perceptions of their role in supporting lifelong learning. Teaching in Higher Education. 2(12). 235-245. doi:10.1080/13562510701192016.

Theoretically, my plans are very student-centered, so I can therefore say that, maybe, I am partial to the constructivist theories when planning my lessons. However, plans are different from its implementation, and sadly, what looked like a beautiful garden of learning in my head, turned out to be an open land waiting for tilling in its application.

My choice of subject is very hands-on in nature, as TLE or Technology and Livelihood Education is focused on learning life-skills and task accomplishment. Even as this seems to be an easy way to incorporate constructivist ideas, time is the number one enemy of a constructivist teacher, followed by the strict implementation of a standardized education.

Every lesson plan must start from a standard, it cannot be just thought of from imagination, pure theoretical musings and just based on whims and wants of the teacher. There is a government body that dictates what an age group must learn, and these decisions come from a complicated study of what works for brain development and preparation for higher learning. In this case, making a completely constructivist learning program can be illegal, and has absolutely no place in formal education.

Home schooling can have a bit more flexibility, but their tests would still be based on a standardized process, in which case, the constructivist ideals of the teacher can do more harm than good when the student struggles to pass this exam. This method can be likened to parenthood, or the Hippies version of education where life is rolled out the way it’s supposed to be—“stress-free, carefree, and just free.” When all this is said and done, it seems like a utopic world, but we do not live in utopia, our present is in reality, and our children will have no future if we cling to this unrealistic ideals.

How then would we be able to balance this for the benefit of the students? How do we allow them to be free and yet prepare them for these standardized tests? Is the burden upon us teachers then to be able to facilitate activities with the standard goal in mind? Is it even possible to predict what exact learning they may achieve from immersions? Are these activities even a just equivalent to real-life situations with no manipulation from us facilitators? Would learnings and meanings be the same?

The questions are endless.

But the thirst for understanding, growth and development does start here.

And maybe, for now, we can be content with just asking the right questions so that we get to that balance we so long for.

When I entered teaching, the school already had an established Culinary Arts program that was inclined to being one of the exploratory Technology and Livelihood Education subjects. Its curriculum would allow students to learn basic skills and develop interests in the Culinary Arts, but its focus still remains for home use instead of a viable choice for a profitable career.

My goal as a teacher of the Culinary Arts subject was to transform the subject from just being a Cooking or Baking course into a real introductory course of the professional Culinary Arts program. To do this, the curriculum was transformed to include all the basic skills in increasing difficulty, and the content was packed with integrated subjects to increase learning. Unfortunately, the time allotted for the subject was not changed, and the increase in the information included in the program proved to be difficult.  

As the new teacher, I sought to give my students a good foundation first and employed the theory of scaffolding. I would discuss the background of the dish, its cultural heritage, origins, and modern applications. Afterwards, I proceed to do a live demonstration where their other subjects such as science, math and history are integrated into the procedure here and there.

In order to save precious time, I would teach by quickly going through a script, almost as if memorized, just to get all the information out and hope for the best. I quickly learned that this technique, although efficient in time, is quite ineffective.

I have made a few changes to my technique, but I cannot yet confidently say that I have achieved the optimal level of learning. This module in constructivism has allowed me to think of a few new ways on how I can improve on this. Moving forward, I may opt to utilize the power of questioning more so that the answers will not just be fed to them, instead, the students will be actively participating in a problem-solving perspective and find the answers themselves. My role as a teacher is to facilitate their learning through demonstration, but to enrich their learning, the questions should be provoking enough to trigger memories which they can share in class and build upon.

In the spirit of making the class more relevant, I’ve also decided to relate the class to social issues and their personal lives as well. Recently, I’ve related the skill of cooking without using normal measuring tools to the “big one” scare. I told them how they could cook rice and other edible items without using traditional cookware, and I think they really appreciated this learning.It is my hope that I could allow my students to think critically through my subject as I teach them life skills. The preparation is much harder, and the process is difficult, but I think in the end, the results can be more promising that I could ever have imagined.

Growing up, many of us go through painful experiences that we do not wish to recall; lest it be a source of unease or reopening of childhood traumas. Most of us would bury the memories far into our minds, never processing it, refusing to acknowledge its existence to the point that we do not merely consciously “forget” but we in turn, have come to repress these memories.

Repression can take dangerous turns especially when left unchecked. Repression means that there is a ticking time bomb inside of you waiting to combust at any moment. In some people, it is not a huge outburst, but small increments of it disguising itself in various forms. These lead us to what Psychology calls defense mechanisms, and sometimes these defensiveness can hurt the people we love.

Our mind does repress painful memories in an attempt to control our emotions and allow us for continuing survival. But the beauty of being human is being able to control our thoughts and reflect on ourselves and our direction. We can conquer these attempts of repression by having the courage to open the box and share these memories with ourselves, and possibly others as well.

I’ve opened this box a few years back at the urging of a caring professor who had seen through my façade of fake smiles and rambunctious laughter. In my eyes, he said, was a deep unsettling pain that longs to come out.

After multiple urgings and personality tests that revealed some past experiences that were left unprocessed, I was finally able to share it to him, then eventually to a whole room of people who I didn’t know. At first, I was dubious to how it could possibly help my situation, but in the end, I’ve felt the weight lifted off my shoulders. I was able to share it, I was able to reframe the memory as it was transformed with the addition of new ones.

As I shared it, people in the class offered encouraging words. People empathized and told me their stories. They offered support, more than I could have ever imagined. Slowly, the memories became less painful, and I came to accept that these things are merely part of life, and that I was not alone.

With this module on memory, many might talk about academic learning, but I shall focus on memories which are near and dear to us all. Our personal, episodic memories, which make up who we are today. If you are going through something, if you are still in denial and refuse to share. Know that it’s alright. These things take time. The only support I can offer you is the same quote my professor gave me, and my only hope is that you find the same freedom that I have found after facing my demons and skeletons in the closet.

“You must not convince yourself that you cannot complain about your problems to other people just because they might have bigger problems than you. It is not a contest. People have their own lives to worry about, so just worry about yours. There will always be a bigger problem than yours, and a bigger problem than theirs. But even if yours is the smallest, it is in no way insignificant.”

Exactly 3 months and 9 years ago, I graduated from an exclusive private and sectarian (meaning catholic religious) school for women, and in celebration, I threw my worn-out pink planner in the air, in place of my missing graduation hat (as we didn’t have one), and screamed in absolute jubilee: “I am free! It’s over!”

What could I have been lamenting upon my graduation, I wondered? Was it the tiresome days of high school where we dragged our feet to school after lacking in hours of sleep, or was it the dream of facing another clique of fresh-faced girls who believed that they were the monarchs of the school?

In hindsight, I would hypothesize that maybe it was merely the combination of the feelings of escape from an environment that served both as a home and prison, as well as experiencing an anxiety of change, coupled with the unmistakable hormones of teenage spirit.

We spend more hours in school than we do in our own homes, which is why teachers, unappreciated as they are, bear the brunt and responsibility of rearing us as well as educating us even if they are not related to us by blood.

As we now tackle Social Learning Theory in my education classes, I am faced with a reality that most of the modelling and mentoring might have been taken from my school more than my own home.

It is quite a significant choice for parents to pick a school for their children to grow into. Taking the tuition fees aside, the parents would choose a school by weighing out and balancing prestige, quality of education, reputation, and values to be learned, while thinking of the ideal adult they want their child to become. After we graduate, we do become less of our parents and more of what the school molded us to be.

Growing up, my school instilled in us the graces of a young lady, and as an exclusive school for girls, we were taught skills that were decidedly feminine in nature. All our teachers were female, and there was even a point at high school where more than 50% of the girls had the same haircut.

It sometimes felt like a prison because the rules and procedures were too rigid. We had to be in a uniform, behave a certain way, stay inside a couple of hours, stay out a couple of hours, do tasks and do not complain—a cycle which repeats every single day for 13 years.

But it was a home, a home with new parents yearly. Parents who taught us different things, coddled us and disciplined us, and we had hundreds of siblings who we fight with, share stories with, eat with, and collaborate with.

We learned and adapted not from the lessons being taught, but more on the subtle cues coming from the practice of the teachers we admire. There was an English teacher whose accent we emulated for fun, and as such, we didn’t even notice that her hand gestures and her way of walking found their way into our own behaviors.

Our classmates, even as most of them seem to be love and hate relationships, were the major sources of influence.  When one classmate gets socially rewarded from being funny, we learn from her humor, and soon after, everyone is laughing at essentially the same joke. The same way as when a classmate becomes socially excluded after being a teacher’s pet, everyone makes sure to avoid going to a teacher any more than is necessary.

This is probably one of the reasons why teenagers all over the world are experiencing the same sort of dilemma with and in school. It is someplace we came to love and feel comfortable in, but it is also a place we seek to escape from.

Children are very impressionable. No matter what the teenager says, and no matter how “adult” they feel during adolescence, science would say that we are children/minors up until our prefrontal cortex is fully formed, and we start using that instead of our amygdala for decision making. And according to science, we only reach this point after 21 years of age, and in some instances, even 23!

High school is the cusp of social learning, and sometimes it burns out the already hormonally-haywired brain of the teen. It is during this stage that we take in and process large amounts of data that causes us to continually change our own make-up so that we could blend in and please everyone.

Thinking about it this way, it does seem overwhelming for a teen, don’t you think?

The school was our home, and as teachers we must always remember what we went through when we were there as students. We will always be kept on our toes, because most of the time, it shall not be our words that would stick, but it is us that gets imprinted in these children as they evolve and grow.

Because of an EDS103 requirement to answer a worksheet on Models and Mentors in my life, I am posting this article as a response to that.

Here are my Role Models and Mentors and their Contributions

• My Mother – She taught me how to be strong despite of adversity, to be meek and humble despite achieving a lot, and to have faith that all will be well even when it doesn’t feel like it at times.
• My Psych101 teacher – He made me appreciate the things I can offer, and to be courageous to pursue the things that I desire.
• My College Best friend – She made me want to do more, achieve more, and be the first person to stand up for myself. She made me love myself (as cheesy as it sounds) and she made me appreciate myself and the hard work I put into relationships. She made me feel very much loved and cared for.
• My Supervisor – She allowed me to grow, and she supported in everything that I wanted to explore. She made me kinder to myself and she showed me that a leader can lead with grace and a benevolent heart.
• My Previous Boss – She was my mentor and she would push me to create quality work. She made me value efficiency and showed me how to do multi-tasking effectively. She was methodical and logical. She was articulate and everything she said were based on facts and cohesively tied at the end. When she facilitated sessions, participants are always wowed. I always look up to her and strive to be like her when I teach.

The type of role model I want to be for others (other learners)

The following are the characteristics and behaviors which I believe are most important for me to model to my students:

1. Kindness is strength, not a weakness most perceive it to be.
2. Resiliency – kids nowadays are much too prone to fatalism.
3. Persistence and Hardwork – most valuable things are achieved this way. There are no short cuts.
4. Being Courageous at taking risks – most surprises become your most treasured experiences that are both fun and filled with learnings.
5. Allow yourself to make mistakes – this is how you learn, the more mistakes you make, the more you can track your growth. And when you can track your growth, that can make anything more fulfilling.

How will I incorporate models and mentors in my profession as an educator?

The following section will now describe my systematic plan for bringing models and mentors into my students’ lives in one or more domains I plan to teach.

In order to become a mentor for my students in the classroom, I must first transition from being the dated teacher we all know – rambling incessantly for an hour while the students alternate from silently scribbling notes, doodling, or drooling. The new classroom with a dynamic mentor would engage the students mentally, physically and emotionally to solidify learning. Taking this course, I plan to use it to teach two domains: Culinary Arts and Psychology. They will be taught separately in high school, but if I also get accepted into a University, I will be teaching those two domains as a combined subject called Food Psychology.

For Culinary Arts, I have already devised a curriculum which hopefully allows for modelling and mentorship. For them to learn the basics of culinary arts from knife skills to appetizers, soups, salads, main course, and down to dessert, one must first see how it’s supposed to be done and then allowed freedom to do it on their own with close guidance. The format of each session will be as such but a culminating activity will allow for complete freedom by giving them a chance to choose their own dish and cuisine and must perform it in a competition-like format.

Each culinary session will be done in this succession:

1. A demonstration is done by the teacher and the finished product is tasted by the students
2. The students do a return demonstration under the time limit as the teacher goes around to guide them through the steps if necessary.
3. The output is submitted in front and a representative from each group will serve as the tester.
4. The tester has an evaluation sheet with him/her and will do the tasting on his/her own. After 3 minutes of evaluation, the tester would move on to the next plate (different group’s output) and evaluate it as well. This is done until all plates are evaluated.
5. The teacher will evaluate their work and will give them the necessary feedback.

For Psychology, I would first teach the subject in the different facets: General Psychology, Physiology, Developmental Psychology, Personality, Social Psychology (and a little of Organizational Psychology), Abnormal Psychology (and a little of statistics). There is an activity that encompasses all of these activities, which culminates on our last lesson Psychological Testing and Feedback.

Basically, the whole course would be revolving around the understanding of the self, which is what Psychology is really about.

1. For general psychology, it would be mostly input and examples for them to be introduced to the topic.
2. For physiology, it is trying out different triggers for their neurotransmitters and identifying which causes for which, and then jotting them down on their journals.
3. These journals will then include of their timeline to coincide with the learnings from developmental psychology.
4. These information would then be broadcasted and shared amongst their classmates for breaking down with the learnings from Psychology of Personality. During this time, the students would be free to dissect each other’s personalities and pinpoint where these quirks came from (using the knowledge from General psychology, Physiology and Developmental Psychology.) The teacher would then act as a facilitator to make sure that their discourse remains on track and purely for educational purposes.
5. After the activity, there would be a processing of the whole experience of divulging oneself with their peers, and thus connecting it with Social Psychology.
6. This would then translate to into making a short social experiment in relation to the stigmas of Abnormal Psychology, which would be analyzed using statistics.

And finally, psychological testing would be introduced to them by administering personality tests to them. After which, one-on-one interviews will be conducted to process them with the results and subsequently modelling how correct and ethical feedback is done.

Who will be my education mentor? What would my ideal education mentor be like?

Currently, as I am already practicing the profession while taking the necessary steps to become licensed, my education mentors are my supervisor from work and my parents.

My supervisor gives me feedback with all the teaching strategies, classroom management techniques, and lesson content that I am using in class. Her feedback is from her years of experience and from knowing the correct way of practicing the profession in the academe. She is calm, collected, and specific when giving feedback and is very patient of me. I find that her style of mentorship is very helpful for my growth and it is because of her that I have come to love the profession that I am in.

My parents helped me a lot when I was assigned as an adviser. As an adviser, I could feel the weight on my shoulders as I was my students’ second parent, a mother when away from home. But since I am single and have no real children of my own (except for my beloved pets), my parents helped me a lot in deciding what was best for the children in terms of disciplining and rewarding. They knew exactly how to approach difficult situations when dealing with quarreling children, or children who are seeking for attention. They also gave me advice on how to approach their parents respectively and give them timely feedback because as parents themselves, they could empathize with their plight very well.

When I was a child, having been brought up in a strictly Asian household, the importance was placed highly on scholarly achievement, and values centered around hard work and being conscientious with money. To drive this point, my parents have consistently had these in mind when implementing household rules that we, their children, had to adhere to despite repeated protests.

In order to be a good and responsible student, my mother would tutor us every night, going over our assignments and notebooks to make sure that were studiously taking down notes and participating in class. Our things need to be accounted for. ALWAYS. We had two pencils and one eraser and sharpener. When we get home from school, this has to remain as such, two pencils, one eraser and a sharpener. We can never lose these because we can’t ask for new ones as these were the assigned materials to us for the year.

Growing a little bit older, our predicament with the pencils became the said predicament with our pens. So much so that it became so ridiculous (in our eyes) that we would start randomly asking for the pens of our classmates so that we could have more than just two. We had a main pen and a spare. When one of those pens completely loses their ink, we turn them in so that my mom could replace us with a new one. If we drop the pen and the pen stops working (but there’s still some ink left—you can see it through the transparent casing of the pen), we would turn them over for repair. My mom would use a lighter and light the very tip to melt the stuck ink and force it to write again. We never got out of this cycle.

As for allowances, we didn’t have an allowance because we could bring whatever food we want from home. To encourage a thrifty nature and to understand the value of money, we would have 1 peso a day as an allowance (that’s 0.02 USD), which we would only be able to collect at the end of the school year. No, we did not have 365 pesos because we didn’t have 365 school days. You will have to subtract summer, holidays, and all the weekends, which was why you need to have an organized planner listing down all the dates that were school reporting days.

To encourage us doing well in school, my mom devised a way to positively reinforce scholarly achievement: getting perfect scores. For every 10/10 quiz, activity, or perfect test, we would get another peso. At this point, my dad wanted to be more lenient as he did not believe that a 9/10 and the effort of performing well shouldn’t be just as rewarded as getting the perfect score. The rule was still implemented however, and we would present these perfectly scored papers like a medal just to get a peso. If I have 5 of these perfect scores, I would be able to buy myself an iced-treat from the canteen.

But the rewarding schedule changed. My dad would sometimes clear out his desk from coins when I presented him with a perfect score. It didn’t matter what subject it was in. If it was as easy as spelling or as hard as a math quiz, a perfect score rewarded me with all the coins from his desk! Sometimes even amounting to 50 pesos! That already bought me flavored fries and ice cream!

At this point, I was even more motivated, but I have learned to watch out for that desk. I showed the perfect score to my mom, and on a separate occasion to my dad. This way I earned a peso from mom and whatever number of coins my dad had on the table—and I made sure to only show my paper to him when I could see many coins on his table. What a way to beat the variable ratio system!

Thinking about this in a teacher’s value-centered perspective would make us rethink these stringent systems. My mom enforced this with good intentions, but I as a curious and ingenious kid had found other ways to break the system and benefit myself. Soon, I was not only profiting from showing the same paper to two parents who would reward me separately, but as studies got harder and harder, I was more and more desperate to get those coins even if I didn’t deserve them. I would keep the papers and show them again when I would wager that they might have forgotten about them already.

This is the main difference of humans with animals. Animals can’t behave out of their natural instinct, whereas, we humans could and most probably would if the benefits are high.

Eventually, I learned how to make fake quizzes and check them with a red pen. I earned more and more but I wasn’t really achieving in school. In the end, I got caught and got punished for it—by the good ‘ol kneeling in beans while having books on top of my head.

But the lesson is this, sometimes we carefully plan out how to manipulate behavior, but however effective the law of effect might be, the learning theory of having multiple responses still comes to play. And sometimes, although we mean well, we might even push the child or the learner to do worse things that you could have imagined.

Don’t you worry though. Through Positive Punishment (although corporal punishment is in no means acceptable at present) I’ve learned my mistakes and went back to the direction of the values that my parents want to learn. On a positive note, I do now how to value money, and I never do lose my pens.

When I was writing my assignment, I thought that I had grasped the main idea of the readings and that I have captured what the facilitator wanted us to realize. Reading further and deeper into the forums and what my classmates have presented had given me a lot to think about.

Maybe having a concrete answer is not really the point of this, as our views would still vary even if we read the same readings. Maybe there wasn’t really a singular answer to the concept which was being discussed. Maybe, I was just too used to the idea that every lecture from a formal education course had one specific answer that all activities had to drive at.

Reflecting further into it had brought me this tremendous insight that perhaps the point of these stretched activities is to make the learner (me) understand that learning is not dictating what, when, who, or how. It is to figure out the purpose (why) and then forming the strategies (how) to teach it through experience.

Learning and Intelligence is all about that—experiencing it to learn from it. My classmates and I engaged in fruitful discourse and that’s how we learned, because we threw ideas back and forth, agreed and disagreed with each other until one has reached a certain level of understanding that was satisfactory.

It could be that this was the point of the activity; to show me, the learner, that this is how you form activities in the classroom for the student to reach an “aha” moment or insight. We simulate an experience to drill down the points, and we process these points through intellectual discourse—banter that had scientific basis as to prove why our belief is more grounded than the other. This way we get to the real “truth” of things.

As I was writing down my assignment, I was 99% sure that what I was going for was the correct answer. But then after reading my classmates’ work, I’ve realized that they may actually be correct too. The cognitive dissonance settled in as I was confused, wondering which among us really had the correct truth. After reading the 5^th assignment, I gradually began to realize that maybe these similarities and differences are what we are really searching for.

We have to take note of the differences because it points out the weaknesses of current theories, and we take note of the similarities because they lead us closer to the universal truth.

All in all; however, the point of this push and pull is just to accept that our differing views and beliefs are all truths that we as individuals hold to be valid, and as learners, we must accept all those truths however varying it may seem because it is this variety that we are able to gain more knowledge and step closer to discovering the real understanding of human phenomena.

No one would think to question our notions of intelligence. Growing up we are bombarded with clues as to its meaning and significance. Relatives would approach children and try different sorts of games with them, and when the child answers correctly such as doing the “align” where the child has to align her pointer finger to the adult’s pointer finger, the child would then be immediately proclaimed as smart or intelligent. These affirming words would be accompanied by cooing which becomes a positive reinforcement of this behavior that would subconsciously tell us that showcasing intelligence is a socially accepted behavior, and therefore, we keep doing this even until we are old.

Once the child enters formal schooling, the child is again tested for intelligence where passing a private school is now of utmost importance. Private schools are deemed to be picky with their students because if they pass the initial screening for Kinder, it automatically means that the child has the ability and aptitude to finish schooling in that distinguished school. The question remains, however, is this really a universal truth? Do all those who pass the school at Kinder, eventually come to pass all the levels and ultimately graduate from that school? We know from our learnings in the readings that intelligence is mostly fluid, it varies as the person develops and constantly learns through his or her experiences.

Yearly, the child will be forced through this scrutinization as he or she will be graded for his or her individual standing – academic and non-academic grades are the be-all and end-all of a student. “Did I perform well?” “I thought I performed to the best of my abilities, but my parents want me to do better.” “Are my classmates judging me?” “Will this be enough for high school?” “Will this be enough for college?” The list of questions go on and on just because of the underlying cultural understanding of intelligence—that is, your worth is in your intelligence.

College entrance exams cause this anxiety as well, yet its predictability isn’t 100%. While it is true that these results help narrow down the chances of student fall-out, students must always still be reminded that failing an entrance exam doesn’t necessarily indicate your failure in life. Failure in an entrance exam is just simply that—being unfit to join that specific institution, which therefore begs you to try again at another until you find your fit. Adopting this attitude would help the student when it comes to facing job opportunities because even though they will still be facing a battery of tests, the results only indicate just that—you just haven’t found your fit, this has nothing to do with your worth as a person.