What Education

So the question about education is a hot topic now, brewing somewhere just below the surface of other concerns like the economy and the environment. But in fact, it is the foundation in which all these factors were laid.

If the world is wrong today, so what happened in education for the last 10, 2- to 40 years that made it wrong? Is it getting increasingly wrong? Will the nest 10, 20, 30 years be even worse than where we already are? What about some of the mini revolutions that were so strongly advocated as the new order thinking, providing a great leadership future for the next generation, holistic education and all.

But what's the hit? And what's the miss?

Why is traditional schooling and exams irrelevant?

Lets be honest. How many of us did not agree that 90% of what we studied in school is no longer used in the working world, except for that rare group of people who actually went back to school and teach the exact same things to kids as a job?

Some of those 10% were expanded upon in college, and depending on what course you major in and what job you end up taking, many more were thrown away.

Simple fact that everybody knows.

So school subjects are useless?

Well, I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn about our bodies and how the heart pumps blood through our blood streams that runs through our bodies or how rain cloud is formed and why there is rainbows.

In fact, I'm all for science and knowledge gathering, if just to understand our world a bit more - which certainly helps for us to function a little better. Takes some of the fairy tales and guessing games away as we grow up, didn't it?

And who can deny the importance of literacy? If we are to gather more knowledge through reading, surely the mastery of its language is of foremost importance.

Well, of course we use math on a day-to-day basis. You count your money, you count your time. You count your people, you count your percentages, your probabilities... and that's probably as much as the average usage of maths on a day-to-day life. And that's math up to... lower secondary school.

So what are we missing out on?

Most of us who went through formal education would emerge through life to find ourselves barely prepared for certain things in life, things that we didn't know we didn't know, until we are face to face with situations which slams on our face, making us begin to question things like:

• Life and death, the spirit and the meaning of our existence
• Relationships and social skills
• Psychology, mental-emotional health
• Happiness and satisfaction in life
• Health care and medicine
• Management and leadership
• How money works, economy and finances
• How to survive in the modern world
• How to survive if you're thrown into the jungle
• How to survive a disaster/accident/outbreak
• Questioning, reasoning, critical thinking
• Curiosity and investigation
• Fun, play and humour
• Sex, marriage, childbirth, child-rearing
• Personality building
• Human rights, criminality and justice
• Love, conscience and compassion
• What we really want
• How to care for wildlife and the environment
• How to care for other people
• Culture, history, human nature and it's implications

While knowledge covering these subjects are occasionally touched on these in certain subjects, or you hear that very thoughtful teacher of yours speak about, to a school kid, it certainly isn't as important as finding "x", ripping their hair off memorising the 72 "moral values," which year did the Sultan sign the treatise with Britain, or which side to put the date in the formal letter.

A human or a photocopier?

How students are assessed and evaluated determines the outcome of an education. Whatever the desired outcome is, the students and teachers will work towards.

In the traditional sense, parents, teachers and the students themselves want more As. And in most education systems, having more As mean memorising tons of factual information, calculation formulas and rediculously, entire sentences of fact, word for word. Some even go to the extend of memorising entire essays, so that they could score a language subject!


Technically, what the exam system asks of is for a student to be a photocopier! That students spend most of their time memorising and using various techniques to remember whole text books.

Then why do we need a human brain when there is a text book?

The human brain is made to think. It is made to be capable of exceptional cognitive abilities; gathering multitude amounts of data that we don't even realise we are gathering, processing these information into personalised meaning, weighing its pros and cons and delivering its results to you, all in a split second...

Like why you would smile and make friends with this other person, why you would tell them your deepest darkest secrets, why a baby would keep crying until he is delivered to his mother.

Why you just have that gut feeling that this sales man is lying to you, or when you should switch lanes on the road.

Things like how to write a new story, how to create a new device, who to marry, how to solve the current economic crisis, how to save the world...are questions that have no answer in the textbook.

So why all the emphasis on what's on the textbook?

OK, I guess I have spoken enough and I will not prescribe what's best for the next generation/your child here.

But I do invite all of you to stop, think and reconsider, why we study what we study, or why the next generation should continue what we have done.

Feel free to share.

Why Dance Education?

During my time as a full time teacher, I was asked many times, "Why do we have to learn dance?" by my students. Some parents ask the same, even many teachers do. My subject was considered unimportant in school, especially when other than the International Baccalaureate students, they are not taking any formal examinations for it.

So why am I teaching it? Why is the school offering it? Why does all the students up to year 9 have to do it?

Well, at first, I even questioned myself. I did not grow up in a different environment from them. I went to government school, where language, math and science were given top priority. Subject like art (specifically visual arts), were looked down upon as unnecessary, an extra A for the gifted and that's about it. It was simply my love for the art form that caused me to take it seriously. But yet, it still appear very co-curricular and seemingly exists in the realm of leisure and entertainment.

Why? "I don't know."

"Because you are in this school and the school wants you to."

"Because you need to move and get some exercise."

"So that you can relax and take your mind off the books for awhile."



"Because you have a body..."

But really. "We all have a body, don't we?" as Sir Ken Robinson mentions in his speech in TED, which beautifully and humourously illustrates the importance of dance as an arts education.

So well, as long as we have a body, and we live in/with it until the day we die, shouldn't we learn more about it? Learn how to use it, take care of it, get creative and have fun with it? (in many more ways...)

And learning dance is more than just learning to use it athletically like in PE, but the benefits of learning dance includes those of learning music and visual arts.


From simple dance exercises, students learn to listen, pay attention to and respond to music, its beats and nuances.

In a creative dance or improvisation class, students learn to create and express their emotions through a healthy physical channel, and learn to develop a aesthetic considerations in the process. This kind of class is also very therapeutic.

And not to forget, it is also a fun way of getting to know your friends and yourself!

But one of my biggest reasons for loving and teaching dance was simply about connecting with the body, the anatomy, the movements, the sensations, and wonder.


So, as I often say, learning dance is not just about another subject in your time table. Learning dance is learning about yourself, your body, your emotions. It's your life...


So? Do you have other great answers to this?

The Mind and Body of Pain

Many people unknowingly live with joint pains in their lives. As they go about their day to day lives, as age increase, workload and responsibilities mounting, it is easy to ignore the body and the sensations that it is giving. It is not until a problem becomes too persistent and too painful to ignore that a problem in the body is addressed.

"No pain, no gain" is the mantra that has been taught to us, about the wisdom of working hard and persevering for long term benefits. However, in medical understanding, pain is attributed to a sickness or a problem. As a part of the human survival instinct, pain is designed to help humans or living things identify danger or harm. So how come we are contradicting ourselves?

According to The International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is defined as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".

While there are many causes for joint pains, including bone or muscle injury, and various other diseases such as rheumatism and arthritis, (an exhaustive list here) and may need medical treatment, some of the more common pains are simply caused by muscle tension and repetitive strain injury - strain caused by activities that we perform on a day-to-day basis, which may not appear harmful or injurious, bu causes damage in the long term.

Some of us experience pain that have no apparent causes or notable injuries when we seek the doctor, and there is little that a doctor can do. Yet, this kind of pain can be very persistent in our everyday activities, especially if you are an active person or needs to perform physical tasks on a regular basis. This kind of pain can stem from muscle tension, joint misalignment or even mental-emotional - such as stress, grief or anxiety, the type which experts call psychogenic pain.

In such cases, the best relief is to be able to alleviate tension through the practice of relaxation of the mind and body.

Breaking The Pain Pattern
  
As we continue to accept that constant pain and tension is necessary part of our lives, we will continue to breed behaviours and habits that will continue to give us pain - like how you would keep pressing onto that sore knee every time you walk up the stairs.

Eventually, such a pain will become unbearable and you would start to avoid using it all together, and put weight on the other side of your body. This in turn causes pelvic and spinal imbalance, which will create new pains in your hip joints and lower back.

See how this can continue developing into a pain pattern?



The Recovery Loop

We may not realise it, but we may constantly be putting unnecessary strain into little joint muscles to bear the burden of our body weight, muscles which are designed for light movements, whereas large muscles meant to carry the body weight lie dormant. But because we have been so desensitised from responding to our bodily pains, we continue to repeat the habit until the tissues becomes inflamed and sore.

Such as in the situation mentioned above, the tiny muscles in front of the knee cap were forced to bear the burden of pulling the body weight up, when you should really be lifting yourself forward using all the big muscles in your core, buttocks and thighs.
 
However, by learning that the load of your body weight is not meant to be supported by any one small muscle, but distributed across your body, you understand that the pain is not necessary at all, or can be significantly minimised at the very least. In the process, your body feels lighter, your movements easier and swifter, and at the same time, you are also working those areas that have been gathering fat - your tummy and buttocks - all at the same time.

The truth is that, your body knows exactly how to work and heal itself, if we allow them to. If you can learn to listen to your body more often, to be mindful of how it should really work, and allow its natural processes to take over, you will begin the cycle of healing and increased wellness.

Long-Term Pain vs. Short-Term Pain

So can you avoid pain altogether?

If you have participate in any sports lesson, the first thing you notice after your first class is how sore your muscles are. But this does not mean that you should stop the activity altogether. In fact, when you grew your first teeth, and your wisdom teeth, the process was painful too, at varying degrees. And when you get that wound falling from a bicycle, there were some pain and discomfort underneath that scab that you so badly want to scratch and poke.

The point is, pain is not entirely avoidable. We are meant to deal with pain at one time or another. However, the difference lies in dealing with long-term pain or short-term pain.

Identifying Injuries

1. Lazy habits - Most injuries that develop over time were the result of bad habits which I would label as laziness - habits such as slouching is a posture from the unwillingness to hold up the body using the core muscles, but letting the body "rest" which in actual fact, puts strains on particular small muscles.

2. Wrong technique - Perhaps, you may find that certain exercises you do don't seem to give you better results even if you have repeated it for several weeks or months regularly. But instead, you experience pain in the course of the activity, and the pain may have even increased even though you did you increase the intensity of your exercise. In this case, you should know that you might be using the wrong muscles to perform this activity, as if you have done it correctly, you should see improvement over time, and pain from unfamiliar muscle activity would cease.

Another good indication of technique is the area of pain. Pain in the muscles from overworking is much less of a problem compared to pain in the joint. As muscles are made of elastic tissues and have ample blood supply, it can stretch, and recover itself easily when experiencing microscopic tears (which is common in weight training). However, the joints are made up of tendons and ligaments, both which are non-stretchable. But when stretched or strained, they are slow to heal and generally does not go back to its original form.

Sharp pain is another indicator for wrong technique. Tears in tendons, ligaments, muscles and fascia. Other possibilities include pressing on nerves, which may also bring about sensations of numbness, giddiness or nausea.

3. Holding in tension - Muscles operate in 2 ways - contraction and extension. The alternation of this contraction and extension of muscles create movement in our joints. And naturally, we would think that holding a position means keeping the muscle contracted, and the sensation of contracted muscle seem to communicate strength, control and work. However, the contracted muscle is stiff, and if we attempt to stretch it, we would be fighting with our own body, causing tear and harm. Muscles are mean to be mobile and dynamic, to assist us in movements. If holding muscle contractions is a constant habit, you may have many sores and injuries in your body.

Also, if we are in a state of emotional stress, it is a natural response for our body to contract its muscles, to keep us in a state of vigilance. This state is tiring and it will not take long before the body is exhausted. To maintain endurance, become more flexible and minimise injury, the muscles need to work in a relaxed, extended manner. This not only appears graceful movement, it also helps one feel calm and light!

Change That Attitude

Training, stretching and your favourite activities need not be painful or injurious, if done the right way. Physical activities should be enjoyable, help you stay healthy, fit and most of all, happy!

So if you find yourself in the habit of hurting yourself, ask yourself again:

- Is this the right way to do it?
- Should this be so painful after so many times? If not, then what is the right way to do it?
- How can I use my whole body so that the load of my body weight is distributed across the large muscle groups?
- How would my healthy body do it?


If you are certain that the issue is physical, you can always ask your teacher or trainer for advice, or if you don't have one, attend classes from a teacher who can help you with these issues. Some teachers may dismiss pain and injury as common or part of the process, but a good teacher would be able to point you in the right directions. Otherwise, you may hire a specialised practitioner, counsellor or a coach who can help you specifically with forming movement and emotional habits.

Feel free to comment on if this article have helped you, or if you practiced other techniques that were really effective in helping you deal with pain healthily.


To find out more about how you can improve your life through , email movenphil@gmail.com.

The Child Who Defies

Children.
I have been dealing with children in my profession about 3 or so years ago,ever since I started teaching at an international school.

At the first glance, most children seem simple, shallow-minded, innocent. What care do they have in the world?

However, as every educator of children would, I soon faced with problems of misbehaviour. Distruption of the classroom, defiance of instructions, hurting others, destroying properties, all are but a few of very common behavioural problems within a classroom.

Having found myself in situations where I feel trapped in a classrooms full of destructive kids and just struggling to survive, I have certainly learned a thing or two about them.

I have learned that...

They are not monsters at all, they are just kids.
Kids whom you can talk to, listen to, chat with, share things in common with.
Kids with stories to tell - sad, joyful, funny, inspiring - yes, even the worst ones.

If they misbehave in your class, they probably have deeper problems outside of the classroom.
Some could be dealing with friend issues - like bullying, acceptance, self-esteem issues, among others - but most commonly problems at home.

Family problems affect younger children the most.
Among the dozens of students I've spoken to regarding distruptive behaviours in and outside of the classroom, many have problems within their families such as divorce or an absent parent (may be due to frequent travelling, tight working schedules or living with a guardian).

Problems such as divorce affect younger children the most. The sudden change in family dynamics, or the prospect of it can cause drastic changes in behaviour, causing them to be destructive or attention seeking.

Many kids are overly pressured these days.
Perhaps you might have seen an "unhappy child". This is not your kid who throws a tantrum in the mall when the parents won't buy that candy bar.
Unlike most kids, they hardly get excited over the little things that excite most children like a toy or a candy bar.
When they can barely hold up their heavy school bag, they are already too worried about their test results next week, going to one tuition after another, and taking multiple language lessons, music, art, ballet, taekwando, swimming, badminton, mental arithmatic, computer... and the list goes on and on. Some superkids.

Simply put, they were expected to achieve too much for too young an age.

Encouraging children to aim for excellence and develop skills and interests outside of the classroom is not a bad thing at all. Infact, it helps build a child to become a better person.

But the problem starts when parents make demands for them to perform, in ways that they couldn't, and as a result, withdraw love from them.

We as a society have become so associated with quantitative achievement, failing which may result in a scolding, nagging, corporal punishment, cold treatment, ostracising, shaming, etc. so much that it makes a child believe that they have to earn a parent's love, affection and attention. And that there is no such thing as an unconditional love. Yes, not even a parent's love.

What kind of person will that become? In my opinion, either one who lacks self-worth or is overly materialistic.

Kids that are the most problematic as the ones who need most of our love.
Their problematic behaviour is often a sign that they are lacking in love somewhere - could be at home, could be the school, could be their social circle.

But we as educators, the least we could to for them is to give as much love as we can to them. To see them as people, whom we want to understand and help, and not just mindless animals we need to try to control.

Many destructive behaviour are either imitations of behaviours they have witnessed in adults, an expression of the hurt, pain and anger they felt inflicted by others, or an outlet to release pent-up frustrations from pressures around them - an expression of their unmet needs.

Speak to them and empathise with them by learning their back story. You'd be surprised how mature they really are, how complex their emotions can be, how observant they are of the world, and how sensitive they are to the little things that matter - things that makes us all human.

Children are just children
They are people, just like you and me, only in a smaller body, and probably a more limited vocabulary.
But they are also here to learn, for they don't know.
They have hopes and dreams, ambition and disappointment.
They have the most desire to please, to love and be loved. Otherwise, they just want you to pay attention!
They may not be the way we want them to be, but they have to be allowed to be who they are.

Children need to be allowed to be children - to learn through play, to make mistakes, to be allowed to fail to learn, to find their natural strengths and talents, to love and be forgiving by being loved and being forgiven.

There is no one way to raise a child. Like they said, "Treat your children equally by treating them differently."

Each child is different and unique, and responds differently to different forms of upbringing. But one can only know what's best by giving your full love, attention and acceptance of who the child is and have the potential to be.

No one is perfect, but everyone is trying their best.
Everyone, young and old, including ones who seemed to be failing at what they do, really are trying their best. 
Every parent, every teacher, really are doing what they think is best for the children.

Just that sometimes, what we think is best may not be the best.

But we keep trying, we keep learning, asking, observing, hopefully, it's as close to perfect as we can get.  


So, what have you learned about children and people?

Mind or Body?

Like most people, I used to think that choreograping a dance is about converting the image in my mind to the physical world. When I was teaching myself dance as a kid, I would see movements in my head, probably something similar to what I've seen on TV and will try to perform it by myself. For the most part, it works ok. It's how most people do it anyway, when they want to create/imitate/learn a dance.

However, things changed when I first started class with my teacher, Ms. Mew. She taught me that dance doesn't come from the mind, it comes from the body. And you just have to let your body do it, and you would know how to dance.

In our classes, we worked mostly on improvisation, where each of us get to interpret the music given according to our style, with her guidance. Of course, as most people would, I just danced in the ways that I think dance should be. When I listen to music, I often had images in my head, and I will just try my best to imitate it, and hopefully learn how to execute more complex moves in the future, those jumps and spins and tumbles that I wouldn't dare to try now.


Letting the body do the dance

Many years passed since then. Now I've learned that the body really does very different, sophisticated things when you let it, that the key is to let go of control. Sometimes, we are so stubborn and egoistic of what we want, we just failed to listen - and in this case, listen to our body.

Personally, not only I've discovered that it dances very differently and develops completely unexpected movements, in flow with one another, I've also discovered that it gives you flexibility, alignment and healing, just as you let it. There is also a lesser tendency to feel incapable of performing what I think I "want" to do, than what I am really doing.


Being a choreographer

However, being a choreographer brings out a different set of circimstances. Very often, the choreography for a group of more than 2 dancers will involve some measure of mental visualisation.
 
In an improvised dance piece, I am able to choreograph using my dancers' bodies, directing them for the artistic outcome I would like to achieve.

However, choreographing for more structured dance steps require a closer blend of my own body movements and my imagination. But it is still much more helpful to be able to play with spacing and arrangements when there is an opportunity to work with the dancers present.


Dancing with mind or body?

So, do dance with your mind or your body?
Have you talked to your body and connect closely with your body?
Anything new you discovered about it lately?

A Good Philosophy

A good philosophy or principle, should be one which serves you well, and one which you can apply to multiple areas - be it a philosophy in dance, movements or in life.

I find that once I build a philosophy, situations in life will challenge it. The challenges mostly serve to strengthen or debunk my believes. In other areas, they caused me to question if I should continue pursuing an activity which appears not to be in-line with my principle or philosophy.

Why develop philosophies?

Because it is easier to navigate the complexities of life once you have a central belief system to be your guide, your core value, your compass. A strong belief system can guide you anywhere in life.

Just like how you can perform any dance well, with a well developed core.

And like in life, once you understand how movement aesthetics can be achieved, it is easy to learn and perform all kinds of dance gracefully - because all well-developed artforms would have eventually arrived at the same conclusion about its aesthetic philosophies,

A good teacher

A good teacher should be able to teach movement based on priciples; the origins of movement, how to use your core for support, how to genuiely look relaxed yet large on stage - and will not make you do multiple mis-aligned movements at a time.

A good dance technique should be sustainable; can be practiced for long periods and mutliple times without causing injuries (as long as your mind remains focused), keeping both performance aesthetics and your well-being in mind.

The catch

If you are a ballet dancer dancing on point, you may find that no amount of technique mastery can alleviate the pain of the pressure being put on your toes. However, the right technique should significantly minimise the pressure by effectively distributing the load throughout your body.

So

What philosophies have you developed about your dance and your movements?
Do you learn multiple types of dances? What philosophies or principles about movements that may have helped you navigate across the various genres?

My long hiatus...

The year of 2011 was an eventful year for me as a performer and as a person. It was the year I had pushed myself to take more dance courses and perform more publicly.

Short+Sweet 2011 - Her Story: A Conversation

I did the ASWARA Short Course, tango, attended workshops by Lee Swee Keong, Michael Xavier Voon, and others, created a few new works - The Time Traveller, The White Scarf, and Her Story: A Conversation. I performed at a few small events, took part in Short+Sweet, which is the most exhausting, did PenangPAC opening ceremony and Pebbles, both with Rivergrass.

Myself and Angeline in a moment of truth...

At the same time, I was also working hard on the school concert. Despite handling such a large team of performers, I knew I reallly wanted to polish the performance quality in my students, where I dug deep into each and everyone of my dancers to get the best of them onto the stage.

It was also the year that I felt I have grown the most, facing myself, my weaknesses and building up my strengths. I had realigned my body, my mind, and my emotions.

Needless to say, the year left me exhausted. My juice was sucked dry. But more than that, all that realignment has left me with a strange new me. I didn't know what to do or how to dance with this new me. I stopped all existing dance activities and decided to go back to basics. I took ballet classes. But then I stopped, and I went back to contemporary. All in all, I have not been able to create anything for myself since the beginning of the year.

I needed the time to reflect, to settle in to my new body, learn about it, to tell new stories about myself, my life - a happier one, definately.

After so many month, I'm beginning to get some glimpses of new possibilities. I am looking forward to more dances to come, reflecting a freshed, newer me!

So, what does your creativity mean to you? How have your growth changed the works you produced? How do you come back from a long dry spell? Feel free to share your thoughts...

Till then, happy creating!