Ammah, I'll fly you to Kidzania!

Last night I came home to my parents' house. There I met my nephew, my older brother's son: Gagah. He's the one that I always miss every time I went for travel.

I usually get the chance to meet Gagah on Friday. Gagah stays at my parents' every week days because both his mom and dad work. My mother prefer baby-sitting her grandsons on her own rather than letting them taken care by strangers. Every time he sees me, he will ask me to tell stories about the airplane.

He loves airplane. His dad once took him to Transportation Museum in Taman Mini and he was really excited. He choose to sit in the cockpit, not in the passenger cabin. When he told me about that experience, he said, "I will be a pilot," which amazed me so much because he didn't say, "I want to be a pilot."

And there we were last night. On his bedroom, he told me that his little uncle -my 10 years old brother- will go to Kidzania tomorrow. He told me this with so much envy, "You know, Ammah (Arabic, means auntie), they said that we can have jobs there! And we can get money from it!"
"Oh ya?" I said. "So what would you be when you get there? A pilot?" I asked.
"No!" he replied in instance.
"Why? I thought you wanted to be a pilot," I asked him again.
"I am a pilot!" he said in confidence. "And I'm going to go there by my airplane. So, I want to be something else there."
He paused for a while, drank his milk from the bottle.
"And you can come with me, Ammah!"

I burst into laugh. A big cheering laugh. Oh God, he's so special! He's 4 years old, and he's already becoming a pilot!

This morning we had breakfast together. Both of us had scrambled egg, and rice covered with soy sauce, not to forget a glass of sweet tea (I really ruined my diet with that menu!). After Gagah finished his meal, he grabbed his glass, put an amount of his tea to his mouth and began to shake it inside. I raised my eyebrows.
"Are you mad at me?" he asked.
"No." I replied.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?" he asked again.
"You know, your tea has sugar on it. And while you shook it inside your mouth, you spread the sugar to your teeth. Sugar is a delicious meal for the germs. If you don't brush your teeth, the germs will get fatter and fatter, and they'll make holes on your teeth."
"And I can't be a pilot if I have holes on my teeth! I go brush my teeth, Ammah!"

That time, I realized that he IS becoming what he wanted him to become. Yes my boy, please fly me everywhere you want!

Schools Kill Creativity!

These past four months, I have been inspired by various presentations brought in TED. One of my favorites is Sir Ken Robinson's. He talked about education.
As far as I remember, I didn't like school very much. The reasons that kept me going to school everyday were my school mates and the ride from home to school and back with my mother -on which I could have time to have a long conversation with her-. Somehow, I had pretty good grades on every subject i learned.

But not with my younger brother. He's 10, and he hates school. He will make up multi-various reasons for him not to go to school every morning. His grades are terrible. This worries me quite much since we're still living in the world where you can have a good education only and if only you can have good grades. Not to mention a good job with a good salary equals to a good life. I'm starting to feel an unjust in this case.

My brother is not a stupid. He is remarkable. Before he reached 1, he could point and name at least 10 colors. At the age of 1 year and 3 months, he could operate a saw and he can use hammer to nail the wood without being injured! He can spell his name and all of family members name at the age 3.5. He could do multiplication of two digits by one digit number without any tool at 5. He is genius! But sadly, those kind of things vanished, *puff!*, right after he entered elementary school.

What the hell is wrong in here?? Sir Ken Robinson explained it beautifully.

The presentation started with a word creativity. He said, every single presentations on that occasion (2006 TED Conference, Monterey, California) described various of human creativities, but every people who presented there had no idea on what's going on in terms of the future. There's where education plays its role. To answer the uncertainty of the future. And at the same spot, it needs creativity.

"Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status," said Sir Ken Robinson as his opening statement.

The key of creativity is dare to be wrong. If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. That's one thing that we can learn from children. Unfortunately, by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. As they grow up, they are dealing with the fact that mistakes are the worst thing they can make.

The national education system, everywhere, even until this moment, aims their outputs to become universities professors. As Sir Ken Robinson said, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up; and then we focus on their head; and slightly to one side. It is so pity to think that the outputs from our education system live in their head. Disembodied, as they use their body only to transport their head.

These children were us! We are the outputs of the system, and we now live inside our head! Isn't that creepy?

And do you want to know what the creepier thing than that? It's called the education inflation. It is the state that degrees aren't worth anything. People who have degree come home jobless, because the job which previously required a bachelor degree, now need a Ph.D.

That's why, we need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. We know three things about the intelligence:
1. It's DIVERSE. We think about the world in all the way we experienced what we think. There are at least 8 multiple intelligences: verbal, analytical, kinesthetic, rhythm, visual, interpresonal. intrapersonal, and natural.
2. It's DYNAMIC. Intelligence and creativity come from interactions of different disciplines. And it comes out from the connections between brain's compartments.
3. It's DISTINCT. Every person has a specific way of learning and knowing things.

In conclusion of his presentation, Sir Ken Robinson said that our education has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth for particular commodity and for the future, it won't service. The education should celebrate the diversity and richness of human capacity, the gift of human imagination. We have to see the creative capacities of others and involve their whole being.

Thanks to:
Sir Ken Robinson - for sharing this remarkable thought.
Budhita Kismadi - for sharing your passion and this link.
Tito Ikhsan Rozak - my lovely little brother, you're always my genius!
Karima Yolita - for editing this post

Help me to prepare for the writing test, please :)

I am planning to continue my study at the US. Therefore, I need to prepare myself for the GRE test. One of the sections of the test is Analytical Writing Section. On that section, there are two tasks, the first is to present the test-taker perspective on an issue, and the second is to analyze an argument.

Now, I would ask for your favor to overview my writing on every posts of this blog, so I can improve my English writing :)

Thanks in advance ;)

What if I have gone wrong?

I watch the Western sky
The sun is sinking
The geese are flying South
It sets me thinking

I did not miss you much
I did not suffer
What did not kill me
Just made me tougher

I feel the winter come
His icy sinews
Now in the fire light
The case continues

Another night in court
The same old trial
The same old questions asked
The same denial

The shadows closely run
Like jury members
I look for answers in
The fire's embers

Why was I missing then
That whole December
I give my usual line:
I don't remember

Another winter comes
His icy fingers creep
Into these bones of mine
These memories never sleep

And all these differences
A cloak I borrow
We kept our distances
Why should it follow I must have loved you

What is the force that binds the stars
I wore this mask to hide my scars
What is the power that pulls the tide
I never could find a place to hide

What moves the Earth around the sun
What could I do but run and run and run
Afraid to love, afraid to fail
A mast without a sail

The moon's a fingernail and slowly sinking
Another day begins and now I'm thinking
That this indifference was my invention
When everything I did sought your attention

You were my compass star
You were my measure
You were a pirate's map
A buried treasure

If this was all correct
The last thing I'd expect
The prosecution rests
It's time that I confess: I must have loved you

(Sting - A Ghost Story)

* * *

A question had been asked to me this morning, "What if you have gone wrong with your feeling?" "What if your feeling has covered every fact that you should discover about someone?"

I paused. Actually, that is the same question that I have been asking to myself lately. The feeling is there. It is really exist. But, should it be gone, it is my consequence to bear myself for the lost. I may will deny the lost, but I will not deny the love.

My Inspiration(s)

I have a strange habit from my teenage years. It is when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do before doing anything else is to look myself into the mirror and smile. I like to see my chubby sleepy face contracts against my tiny eyes. The smile always gives me inspiration for the rest of the day.

My other inspiration is -i know you will laugh reading this- Doraemon. Whenever I feel tired and need a bit cheered up, he always gives me strength to carry on, to see that a brighter future will always be there to be made.

It's a bizarre thing when someday some of my friends told me that I have a smile that so much look like Doraemon... What a self-centered person I am if that's true! Having my inspiration as.. myself?

Not my first English blog

Before this one, I actually already have a blog on which I continually wrote in English. Sadly, because of my foolishness, I was curious of what would happen if I clicked the 'Delete this blog' link, and I clicked it! Ehehe... Anyway, it was years ago.

And now on current year, the day before yesterday, my boss read my blog which is written in bahasa Indonesia. "Hey.. you write quite well!" she said. "You should start to write something like this in English, you know. It's very good to improve your writing skill by.. writing! You're planning to study abroad, right?"

Yes she's so right. So now, I'm beginning a new habit. To write in English! Any corrections or suggestions regarding my English are very welcome. I want to have 50.000 teachers, including YOU!