Learning to own your space...

Read this article on Straits Times on 25 April 06... In the light that I do not have an online ST account, the excerpt below are all typed out word for word (I only choose the more salient parts, the whole article is kinda of long... haz) It should struck a chord in most of us...

" ... My son is 13, and at St Andrew's College in Christchurch, New Zealand. As part of the programme for new students, his tutorial group had its turn to spend five days at the school's own Castle Hill Outdoor Centre where the website says, "students can experience success or failure in a positive atmosphere".

... When my son returned home. he gushed:"I was the map man because others weren't keen. I volunteered. I only got lost once. We drank water straight from a stream. And we slept in a cave one night in the bush, under the stars. We were well away from the roads. Daddy, there were so many stars!"

The sense of wonder was clear; as, too, the fact the experience had made a deep impression on him.

And the question I was asked by some of my Singapore friends? "Was this an enrichment activity"

Which made me stop and think because "enrichment activity" is a phrase that has a certain flavour. It suggests something like a "bolt-on extra" or, even, a luxury. As if to say there is school and there is teaching, and then, if we have time, there may be enrichment. And when something is extra tehn, by definition, it does not carry the same value as what belongs in the mainstream. It is not the stuff of real life.

And so I ask, what counts in the process of learning? What makes a difference to a young person? How do you get someone to the point at which they see their own abilities in a different light - the point at which they 'see' someone bigger inside themselves; the point at which they get a better responsiblity for their own growth?

For one thing, it often does not happen in the classroom, and I say this having paid for many years to work in classrooms.

The activities that make a difference in people's lives seem to have certain common denominators to them. They involve the learner owning the moment, and having to make decisions and take on new responsiblities and take risks.

And the result of these activities is that the learner who returns to his 'everyday life' on a Monday morning is not the same person who left the previous week. He has grown.

... ... How can anyone appreciate anything like this if they have no internal 'vocubulary' of experiences to match it with; if they have never had to find the resources within themselves to face their own unexpected challenges? Others people can tell you what happened to them but, in order to understand, you have to have your own stock of moments you have lived through. You cannot appreciate what you cannot understand... "

Start accumulating your unique moments today... they are the essential ingredients to develop a wholesome being... They are the ones who will leverage on his/her strengths and work to improve his/her weaknesses... They will leave a legacy...