a shakespeare mash

"To be or not to be is not the question but the answer!"

:- )

Personally, a timely reminder :- )

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

Alan Cohen

forming the Philippine nation

Being a 'tween' during the first EDSA prepared me to appreciate what's happening in the current media-presented political life of the Philippines.

I still remember my Araling Panglipunan teachers, Mr. Jordan and Ms. Beldas, asking us for news cut outs as assignment for our Current Events topic starting with THE snap elections up to that eventful day one February 25. And being part of the Special Education program of the government then, as one of the students in the acceleration class, the discussion is, let's just say - impassioned :- )

A danger with this ability to appreciate is that you will catch yourself being pushed to lean and to get comfortable with an emotion designed to be felt only for a short while - anger. And when the anger is stoked and one will conclude that things are moving slowly and anger becomes jaded. Numb. Detachment happens next.

I caught myself running up that ladder of inference yesterday and I awoke from the song of the mermaids :- )

There must be a better way of using time other than following angry old men :- )

But if there's a take away from the experience is this - I now see how men build a democratic nation.

Yes, the Philippines is espousing democratic values but we are still building the Philippine nation to become a democratic country. A country for the people, of the people and by the people.

If it is true, what the social scientists say, that it takes 40 years to build a nation then we are still half way there. Let's talk about what the Philippines is by 2026 and not be swept way by the rhetoric of lawyers who currently hogs the limelight. Because it seems that these lawyers are making most of their 15 minutes of fame so that the next client will pay them more :- )

"...why think like mere men?"

the new meaning of "5"

In the school where I teach, Mapua Institute of Technology, a grade of "5" means that the student failed to make the cut.

A failure.

I absolutely agree with putting meanings in one's experience. But my beef with the "5" is that almost all students wrongly associate this mark to themselves and not to the true culprit.

Let me be clear about this, if you happen to be a current student - failure is an event and never a person.

Ok?

Peace? :)

Now, I wrote about Khan Academy in the past. This is a website that shows mini-lectures on science, mathematics and economics to name a few. For someone in the Philippines, I use the site to complement the learning sessions I facilitate in the four corners of my classroom at Intramuros, Manila.

In one of the talks that Mr Khan gave, he was surprise to see data that supports a narrative that after having a hard time in a particular subject, students' learning curve always accelerates once the 'hump' was mastered. In the context of a school that espouses 10-week academic terms, this 'hump' could be seen in the transcript of records of students where a course was repeated more than twice.

But because of the foreboding and mistaken meaning students associate with a "5", the drive of the students to honestly go over the 'hump' fizzles and students more often than not, chooses to go over the 'hump' through the less than respectable ways of cheating, of OTs, of appeasing their professors and all other means necessary.

Though that may sound creative, innovative and noble, if you put in the hardworking parent angle. But in reality it is sad and not right. The student miss out on the acceleration of their learning curves when one honestly conquers the 'hump'.

And most student never experience this acceleration, this character-building, which is by the way, what they truly paid for in school, because to them a "5" means that they failed.

So, let's put an end to this limited meaning of a "5", strengthen the sensitive and fickle self-worth of students so that it will not be abused by wolves hiding in professors clothes and update what "5" truly means base from the findings of the Khan Academy experience.

From now on, a "5" means "Not yet. Maybe next term."

"... why think like mere men?"

dumb :)

Overheard, "It is better to ask a dumb question rather than making a dumb mistake!"

warning about doubt

"He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. Doubt has killed more splendid projects, shattered more ambitious schemes, strangled more effective geniuses, neutralized more superb efforts, blasted more fine intellects, thwarted more splendid ambitions than any other enemy of the human race."

James Allen, 1864-1912 British Author, Poet and Philosopher

Oh, September :)

I was born 25 September 1974. My wife, 17 September. We got married, 10 September 2010. And to some degree, my mind wander off to Christmas every time September arrives. Maybe it is because it is the first month that ends in "ber". September has a special pull in my heart.

This year, aside from celebrating our 1st year anniversary, a heavenly gift arrived.

You see, during the start of the year, I was asked to design and develop a learning session about Quality Management System, QMS. Being a seasoned TQM and Kaizen practitioner, this was up in my alley. So I went right to it with gusto and with an excitement only a little boy would know :)

I challenged myself to re-imagine QMS with the objective that it has to be presented in a way that will be fresh.

That journey led me to various body of knowledge that includes neurology and cognition. It also led me to the history of Japan as far back as Musashi Miyamoto :)

The QMS content is structurally done. It can be ran tomorrow if need be. But I still consider it a work in progress not because it was rushed to conclusion. Its just that I adhere to the thinking that one can never really arrive at things. One can only improve.

So, the QMS learning session is in its ver 1.0 state :)

But that's not the point why I am writing. The point is that that QMS learning session is yet to happen. For some strange and mysterious reason, the class was scheduled and duly advertised but it never had enough students to financially justify staging it.

So, it is what it is. I was a bit sad for awhile because I did spend serious time developing it and to see it still 'wrapped' is a downer so to speak.

But the days rolled on and the demands of life made the QMS debacle to be placed at the back burner until the Workshop on Material Flow Cost Accounting, ISO 14051, came and everything was 'right' again :)

This ISO 14051 workshop was to be held in Tokyo and in Osaka, Japan. To be facilitated by Japanese experts based from their decade long experience of implementing it in various manufacturing plants across industries in Japan.

And when I received, early September, that I was chosen to be one of the 18 'students' across Asia, everything came back and I understood why I need to brush up on my QMS literature earlier this year.

He wanted me to be prepared for something BIG :)

I was 'first in line' when the MFCA knowledge was being given to us. I ate a lot of it. I am full. Now, I need an expression for it and I can not stop thinking how to spread the word about ISO 14051.

I am humbled. I am thankful that He is getting bigger in my life as I am getting older.

Ano kaya ang ipapadala Niya sa amin next September? :)

"... why think like mere men?"

sign of our times :)

I stumbled upon this, "Google before you Tweet is the new think before you speak" :)