Monday, August 12, 2013

Education Philosophy

Introduction
The idea of freedom and equality for all is an aspiration, a goal. To achieve a goal, someone should keep learning different new things. Therefore, learning in general is like a passion to him and education is the best way to achieve his goal, but education outcomes was measure by family, school and society, they are links in a chain,  if any one of them is missing, and then the integrity of the entire chain is comprised.
Into the Wild is a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It is a book about a young man named Chris McCandless gave his education and went into Alaska wildness. Some reader admired the boy because he did what most people want to do but never had the brave to do it, and his passion for living by his principals, for simplicity and purity, is attractive and admirable. But if he is not from a rich family, he didn’t get good education and read so many books, would he still be interested in the wildness? It’s hard to say. Others fulminated he was an idiot and self-fish because he brought so much pain for his family who loved him, but the reason he “escaped” from his family and left for Alaska wildness was from the contradictions in the relationships between he and his parents. He once complained to his sister Carine that his parent wanted to buy him respect, he couldn’t pardon the mistakes his father once made, and he never confronted his parents what he knew instead of making a secret of his dark knowledge. When the conflicts came to surface, he left for his adventure, during his two-year adventure, his intelligence and knowledge made a deep impression for his acquaintances, at the same time, he learned a lot from his experiences, and finally he wrote down “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”. He found his true self and his identity, but unfortunately he stayed in the old bus 142 in Alaska wildness forever. I like this book because Krakuaer’s attitude to Chris is neutral, he left it to the reader to form his or her own opinion of Chris McCandless. I personally praise the spirit of Chris’s following dream. In addition, it reminds me of the importance of passion and education in one’s life.

Three Sources of Growth and Development
Education play a vital role in one’s growth and development, and the growth and development of an individual depends on the individual's impacting life experiences which comes from three main sources:  the individual's family, school and social environment. These three sources are connected like links on a chain. If any one of these links is missing, then the integrity of the entire chain is disrupted.  Thus, the growth and development of the individual is disrupted.  So for one to grow and develop properly, each of these three links/sources needs to be present.  

Family education is the foundation of one’s development 
      Personal family experiences has the most impact on one’s development and the specific amount of familial impact depends on the amount of familial involvement. Family involvement can help with kid’s school success, while without family involvement, it’s hard for a kid to be success. “The most adequate predictor of student success in school is not family income or social status but the extent to which a student's family is involved.” ~Henderson and Berta, A New Wave of Evidence Family is most definitely the root of one's self development since family is one's earliest source of self-identification and understanding of priorities and morality.  Thus, if one is lacking family presence, whether it be physical or emotional, then his/hers development and fundamental understanding of self and what's right and wrong is compromised.  

  Generally, early on, children worship their parents, because they view parents as their authorities.  They view their parents as the ones who "knows what's best," their teachers and protectors.  So ultimately parents are the ones who embed in their child's minds what's fundamentally right/wrong.  However, this doesn't mean that the child will not learn and development independently from their parents.  “He brooded at length over what he perceived to be his father’s shortcoming, the hypocrisy of his parent’s lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional love.”(64) This shows that parent’s behavior highly impacts a child’s morality in life.  Chris thought his father put such value on honesty and integrity for him, he had lost respect for his father. From the book Into the Wild, the reader can know Chris isolated himself from his family because he dislike both the materialism lifestyle of his parents and his father's double and duplicitous life. “…Chris would fixate on his father’s own…denounce as a sanctimonious hypocrite.”(122) Chris held a deep contempt for his father as he learned the particulars of Walt's divorce from his first wife, which involved an affair between them while dating Chris's mother. And after graduated from college, he rebelled and left his family without saying goodbye. That is, the words and the deeds from parents make a great impact on kids, for parents, it’s necessary to realize this and set up a good role model.

     Children unconditionally love and look up to their parents.   Many kids even view their parents as their most reliable and best friends.   Thus, of course parents highly impact their children’s development and success!  However, if the parents have a lot of conflicting views on morality and quarrel frequently, the children may grow up feeling lost and confused about what's right and wrong which in turn cause their personality and behavior to gradually turn to odd. “…as Chris’s resentment of his parents hardened, his sense of outrage over injustice in the world at a large grew.”(123) this quote shows that Chris was unsatisfied with what his parents’ effect on the society.   Family is the living haven of a child, it plays a decisive role in the formation of child's personality and habits. The closeness between parents determines the extent of a family harmony.  In harmonious families, the parents have a harmonious relationship and their children grows well. Conversely, it is difficult for a child to grow well in a family which is full of gunpowder. “In the moments of anger, one or the other often threatened divorces.” “…we learned to count on each other when Mom and Dad weren’t getting along.”(107)  Apparently, the unharmonious relationship between parents hurt Chris and his siblings badly.  So in order to protect child, parents should not quarrel in front of their children. If you have a conflict, you should try to compromise or handle it in a way that minimally impacts the kids.
  
      Communication also play an important role in a family education, parents should spend more time with child and try to find out what they are interested in and help them to achieve their goals, instead of overprotecting or over-authorizing. To try to provide a better life for their children, Chris’s parents spent a majority of their time working and little time with their children when they were young.  To a certain extent, they neglect communicating with their child causing their children to not know how to communicate with them. Chris ever told Carine that his parents made his “entire childhood seem like a fiction”. But he never confronted his parents about his feelings, “He chose instead to make a secret of his dark knowledge and express his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal.”(123) Also, Walt McCandless want to influence and parent Chris, but Chris craved independence and detests authority especially arbitrary authority, “Chris just didn’t like being told what to do. I think he would have been unhappy with any parents; he had trouble with the whole idea of parents.”(115) without proper communication, conflicts between son and parents make a deep influence in kid’s growth. It’s clear that communication among families is necessary for a kid’s education, family education play a decisive role in a child's growth.

School education is a key stage of education.
     In almost all societies, receiving scholastic education is vital and necessary if one wants to achieve "success". School education prepares you for a higher level of education.  It is a launching pad for one’s goals and actions for his future. School education provides you with more opportunities not matter what your age, homeland, class, race or religion.  I totally agree with what Bellie McCandless said “if you want to make a difference in the world… Go to college, get a law degree, and then you’ll be able to have a real impact.”(114) Different people have different passions. If you want to make a difference, you need to find your niche.  Education helps you understand yourself better.  It helps you realize your strengths and weakness, your potential and qualities as a human being. A person should follow their passion.  Getting an education to fulfill oneself should be the first step to success. Scholastic education is the most beneficial and the fastest progress education.  Not all dreams can be turned into reality.  However, one must always at least attempt to realize them.  “But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.” (96) This shows that people admire those who work hard to try to follow their dreams.  I think people should try to find their value in life through school even if it fails. My passion is education and learn about other culture, other ideas and other people. I, just like many immigrants, go to college to try to learn English, professional skills and about the American culture.  We try to learn these things to increase our opportunities in this country. 

     You should obtain academic education from school because it will bring you many opportunities in life.  One can receive academic education from parents also, but parents have limited academic knowledge.  Thus, kids need professional academic educators such as school teachers. They can act as secondary guides (parents being the primary guides) to a child's success. In his speech “Growing roses in Concrete”, Jeff Duncan-Andrade ever said “…to add some additional resources down into concrete through the cracks…we’ve been able to grow more roses than before”, it suggests that if our educators show more compassion and love to students, and let them know we need them and love them, it would inspire them to make progress so that they can confidently walk the pathway to success. But we should realize that, to help students find and follow their passion, the teachers themselves should have passion because “one person’s passion can flourish into and become other people’s passions.” School education requires passion, without passion, there is nothing exciting in a classroom, while with passion, students’ emotion will be affected and teaching activities can be vivid, thus enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning. 
      Secondly, schools have a grading system which helps children figure out their strengths and weaknesses. Schools teach kids a variety of subjects such as astronomy, geography and natural science.  Many schools also teaches kids extracurricular skills (e.g., how to play an instrument, sports, art, etc.) and discipline.  Ultimately, schools help mold kids into skillful citizens who can contribute to the society.  Just as Andrade once said “…when roses come back to the concrete, they create rose garden”. Children are the future of ours, we are not only going to grow a rose, we should create a beautiful garden, and the resources in a school is like water, sun and rich soil. 
     Thirdly, schools provides a positive atmosphere. As we know, a kid can learn different others consciously or unconsciously by comparing his/herself with others. No one likes to be a loser, and school can make someone feel more confident in life just as what Chris once said“...how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong”.  With confidence and passion in mind, kids will not hesitate to try best to make him perfect, then they can follow their dreams, they can succeed in the future. School education is very important, everyone should go to school and learn.

Social education is the extension of family education and school education. 
     Social education is the collection of education from the society which includes knowledge, experience, skills and communication. Students can benefit a lot from society that can't be taught by books. George Santayana ever said “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” That is, learning subjects in school is not enough, one can learn how to live life by knowing what to say when acting a certain way in certain situations, so he also needs to go into the society to learn more. According to the book Into the Wild, Chris graduated from college with honors, but eventually he found that “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189) through his two-year adventure. It is clear that Chris was able to learn a lot from his friends as he travelled around, he met many friends, he helped people and people helped him, and he learned to love and he did. He was succeed in persuading an 80-year old man climbing up to the top of hill and the man was so happy what he did. And then he can realize “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”(57) It shows that people can learn a lot from social experience which make their life vivid and more beautiful. As mentioned previously, students can benefit a lot from society that can't be taught by books, the knowledge and experience from social environment can promote one’s growth and development, and he can be more perfect.
     But social education is widespread, it affects students’ thinking for both multifaceted and lifelong. All phenomenon in our society will affect students in different extend, if the kids have high analysis abilities, they will never see things black and white. But if they can’t, negative social phenomenon such as domestic emotional crisis, the market economy infection, safety integrity, adverse cultural factors and so on, may pose hazards to kids. One of Chris friends said “Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”(18) This presents Chris was confused by the abnormal phenomenal in the world instead the beautiful side of society, he can’t understand the inequality among people, therefore, he tried to go to wildness and find solution. In the similar situations, if we should actively guide kids to give feedback to different social information, they can enhance their capabilities of analysis and resilience in the midst and constantly social environment instead of going to the extreme. 

     . The development of a person is dependent on the lessons learned from a combination of education gained from their family, school and society.  Generally, family can have a positive influence on how well their children do in school, the longer families involved in their children’s education, the more likely their children will be successful in school; and society too have a positive impact on school effectiveness. In order to meet the need of modern science and technology, but also to fully develop one's intelligence and potential, one not only needs education at school, moreover, should go deep into the large social classroom, experience different social roles, learn social norms, expand social interaction and develop modern qualities. If one’s family, school and society work together, then one’s growth is maximized.  As mentioned previously, these three sources are connected like links on a chain. If any one of these links is missing, then the integrity of the entire chain is disrupted. This quote expresses this concept “Reading to a child in the preschool years has a ripple effect that positively impacts the child, the family, the schools and society as a whole through increased economic development, reduced special education, and reduced criminal justice cost.” ~Closing the Achievement Gap in American Business. A child doesn’t only learn from their school, he also learns from their family and social environment.  Therefore, we should realize the importance of three sources of one’s growth, we should correctly handle the relationships between them. School should work for community, and community should participate in education.

      Overall, we must realize the importance of education because it is essential to one’s development.  Generally, children’s education begins at home, they learn and obtain formal education at school, and they also acquire knowledge from even an acquaintance. That is to say, a child's development is affected by education from home, school and community.  If any ones of these component of education is ignored, adverse consequences would result. If we want a child to have comprehensive and healthy development, we must establish the overall concept of education and make sure the integration of school, family and society. 



Thursday, August 8, 2013

Critiquing yourself

Why do you need to critique yourself? 
Critiquing yourself can save you from wasting your time, it’s just as saving part of your life. Critiquing yourself is self-reflection and self-improvement. Critiquing yourself can make you more aware of your weakness, and you begin to take things seriously and take matters into your own hands, you may develop your potential rapidly. Critiquing yourself can make you find your identity and your passion, it can bring you to success!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Focusing The Lasers

Many students come to Chabot College for different reasons. They can be categorized as visitors, wanderers, explores, seekers and dreamers. All of them are seeking the chances of education. With the education,one can have chance for a better career or better life in the future.
DREAM

Who am I?
When I first came to Chabot College, I was just a wanderer. I had no idea about my major, I just wanted to take some classes and got a degree so that I can get a good job. But after taking some classes, I would like to categorize myself as a dreamer. The teachers here at Chabot College are really great, they help me a lot, they help me with the accounting, communicating, etc. Now I have the idea about what I want to do, but I still have not a real plan for getting started on my dream.Why I am saying that because there are several reasons, mostly because of the reality issues. Here I am not going to talk too much. I hope my dream can be turned into reality.

Monday, July 29, 2013

What is success?

                                                        
Success is an old topic, however, each person’s understanding of success is different. Success is relative, everyone has his own criteria for success. Some people think that success is money, houses and cars. Some people think that success is something you want to do and do well. Some even deny the existence of success, he believes that there is no success in the world, only endless pursuit.
   Success is a kind of feeling that is a positive, confident feeling and a sense of satisfaction after achieving the goal. Anyway, different people have different definitions of success. I think success is a combination of things---health, happiness, material prosperity, love of family and friends, wisdom, influence and fulfillment. The only way to reach a successful one, first, people need to learn how to pay for something that ordinary people cannot do.  I am a women, so I think my success is to “be myself” ---I can do my own thing what I want, I can do the thing that make people happy ; my husband love me and the family, and I also can help my husband to achieve his dream ; I can let family be harmony and happiness, without family disputes. My children can get a good education and play their strengths; at night, I can have a drink what I like and I can enjoy the night and see passers-by 
quietly . I personally agree that success is “knowledge + passion + confidence + hard-work.”
   Many people ask me why you are still in college and how you can focus on your education. I want to say if you have these in mind and act it, success is waiting for you.

1. Believe the power of Knowledge.  “It’s never too late to learn”. Knowledge plays an important role in someone’s success. To achieve a goal; someone should keep learning different new things. We have great chances to learn and learn in American. Many of my friends and my relatives are so confusing why I quit my former job which is many people want and come to American and start a new one. I told them that I want to get more chances to fulfill myself and more chances for my son’s future because the United States has the world’s top teaching resources. That is, if you can study in American, you have more opportunities to find the true yourself. Now I was studying at Chabot College, I am learning something new, I am adapting to a new culture, I am so happy I can study here. And I know getting education is the first step to my success because I can learn much more knowledge and I believe the power of the knowledge, I will not be left behind by the society.


2. Make your goal. I realize that no matter what you think and what you do or the way you communicate to others can make people see opportunities, and these opportunities can lead to a close to your goal. I have heard many stories about successful people, goals had been in their mind for many years before they achieved their goal, they know what they need, they also know how to do it, and however, they need the time and hard-work to achieve their goal. This is not my personal theory, this has been proved in Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, this book deals with how to get rich and how the philosophy can be used to help people succeed in all lines of work and to do or be almost anything they want. Anyone who want to be a successful person, he or she has to set a goal and work hard. “It is important in life not to be strong, but to feel strong and to measure yourself at least once. If you want something in life, reach out and grab it.” I think this quote represents Christopher McCandless had a strong feeling in finding himself; he has already made decision to achieve his goal of life no matter what will happen. He is kind of dedication and admirable. My goal in Chabot is getting my first AS degree in America, with help of the great and intelligence professors, I almost get it. 

3. Trust yourself.   Life always leaves us some huge, bad setback; therefore, it is very easy for us to give up our faith. We can give up faith on a lot of things, but never give up faith on ourselves; you need to believe yourself, because you can get everything you want. In the book Into the Wild Christopher McCandless wrote down “Don´t hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did.” (58) This quote shows Chris tried to encourage an old man to move out, eventually, he succeeded. Yes, he is right. Sometimes a person doesn't need to have too much hesitation to do what he or she loves, instead of trusting himself--- I can do it. If you have such a mindset, and success is just a matter of time, you will be very happy what you did. Actually, at the beginning at Chabot College, I was so scared and shy, I seldom talked to my colleagues because my limited English and culture differences, I ever wanted to withdraw, but after two quizzes, I found I have abilities to get good grade as native-Americans. Then I have confidence to continue my study and work hard, so I got good grade for each semester.

4. Try and never give up.    No cross, no crown. Most successful people have encountered a lot of the frustration and failure that you cannot imagine. Do you know the person who created Coca-Cola just wanted to give his company a name and he had failed 17 times? But the company now has billions in assets because he insisted believing himself and never gives up even after 17 times failure. Another example about the successful athletes, do you know the training stories behind them, if they give up because once failure, can they see the bright day? Of course not. “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”(57)I think this quote represents Chris’s attitude to the adventure of life, he might not know if he will have a successful life, but he will not be satisfied with each his adventure, he want to get more out of life, and he likes to try new things endlessly. That is, if you want to be successful, you must have the spirit of perseverance. You have to learn from each failure, you need to treat it as a successful experience rather than treat it as evidence of your incompetence. You may change the methods for your success, but never give up. No matter it will be successful, you should try, no try, no result. In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer writes down “But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.”(96) Yes, I agree that. Although Chris McCandless is death, he tried. If he didn't have the passion to find new lifestyle or he never acts it out, he would not succeed in finding himself. He would not understand the real happiness in life is “Happiness only real when shared.”(189)

Success is also a process, and the road to success is not always smooth; to be successful, someone need to have a certain ability, wisdom, opportunity and time , all these can be the barriers to a success. Maybe, it’s not easy to grasp an opportunity, or it comes fast and go fast, so when the opportunity came, you should be ready. I think language is the greatest barrier to my success in America; of course, I also need opportunity to prove myself. I don’t know whether I can be successful in the future, but I will keep on learning and improving myself through my study or work. I will look for opportunity; I believe if I am ready I can grasp it.


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

"Into the Wild"

   Every one wants to live a picture perfect life, but what is the life everyone in the pursuit of?  Material or spiritual, freedom or constraint, escape or face, stick or change... , embracing the true meaning of life might be one of the hardest things for most people. For those people who don’t want to have any drama in their life, they will never be able to embrace the true meaning of life unless they push for the things they want in life. I admire someone who strives for their own ideal life and the true identity, but I don’t mean that I am in favor of the behavior of someone who pursue of his dream blindly, regardless of the expense of others. I think Into The Wild is a book which is worthy reading because this book praise the spirit rather than the behavior.

 Into The Wild is a book about a young man named Chris McCandless, who is from a well-to-do background in Washington D.C. Area, Chris McCandless always had privileges that few can claim. In April of 1992 he hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. he did what many people wanted to do but never had the brave to do.  His means are to leave the material lifestyle and become at one with nature. McCandless’s passion for living by his principals, for simplicity and purity, is attractive and admirable.

      Maybe, because of the disappointment or hurt too deep, some people often use relentless, contemptuous tone to describe a so-called see-through thing, and then leave for freedom with the rebellious attitude, in disguise"Escape". But the things never disappear because of "escape". Although you stay away from modern civilization and its accompanying social evils, pressure, hypocrisy, you still need to live the nascent primitive life for surviving in deep Alaska wildness. "Modern" and "primitive", wherever you run, what you need to face is still to survive. From the book, our readers can learn that Chris had a bad relationship with his parents. Chris was privileged and wanted to get away from his privileged and dysfunctional family and an easy life where everything was handed to him. And the reader can also know both Chris and Walt McCandless are strong-willed and independence, Walt McCandless wanted to influence and parent Chris, but Chris craved independence, and Chris specially detested arbitrary authority, when he found his father was not perfect, he rebelled by leaving without saying goodbye. Chris’s sister received a letter from him saying that, “…I’m going to completely knock them out of my life. I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live. I’ll be through with them once and for all, forever” (Krakauer 64). This quote shows that he was so mad at his parents, that he had once said his parents couldn't buy his respect. He didn't want to go through life having everything given to him from his parents. And then he cut off all communicating with his family and left for Alaska, actually he was escaping the reality and tried to look for the nature in Alaska wildness. But no matter how angry he is, he should not neglect the love from the family, he can’t punish the family in that way.The nature is also savage and cruel though it is beautiful. The nature deprive his life. In the end of his life, he recalled the hug with his parents happily and resumed his name at birth, all these proved that he couldn't still separate from the civilization society .Escaping is not the right way to follow one's passion. If he could realize what the true himself he was a little earlier, if he could learn to forgive, learn to love, it would not cause such great pain to the family who love him. To somewhat extent, McCandless was foolish and selfish.

I like this book, the book focus on the results from the investigation, I think everybody should read it,especially for those who just enter the society and feel unsatisfied by modern life and society or want to emulate the action like Chris. Chris McCandless finally found the true himself, he found what he needed  in his life, but no matter how strongly he wanted to go back to his parents, and he never came out of the Alaska bush. He is wisdom and well-education but eventually his “ignorance killed him”. It is a tragedy.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Jeff Duncan-Andrade - Growing Roses in concrete

Living one's life as half full is the first step to create a better society. If someone can stop dwelling on what they don't have and focus on what they do have, they can see that there are people in their lives that are willing to give them a better life. To do that someone have to be reminded of their dark history in order to see a brighter future.
Duncan-Andrade is an amazing speaker, his speech is an inspiration to many audience, but how can they see a brighter future? I think  these question should be considered:

  1. what is the first step to create a society in which education is the main priority?
  2.  How can society continue cultivating it's "growing roses in a garden"? 
  3. Who is also affected as a result of the lack of education?

Friday, July 19, 2013

Passion , Education and Privilege

     

Underdogs: Friendship Collegiate Academy is a short video about a school of underprivileged high school students who work hard and play football. They may not have the best equipment or the best environment, but they have the passion to play football. Each of the players' story is filled with sorrow and despair, but their football team is their one bright spot that they can always count on to be their for them. They are all "roses in concrete." From their passion of football and their strong team bonds, they not only conquer the football field, they also prevail in the classroom. Their passion for the game and their hard work in the field was what made it possible for them to have a better future and education.