Kong Fu Panda II

Took a break from CFA today to watch the 2nd installment of Kong Fu Panda. Sitting amid the five or six year olds, popcorn in hands, I can still remember the scenes from the 1st movie, be it funny, sad, or enlightening, Po has definitely found a place in everyone's heart.

The sequel definitely did not disappoint, and I think it's even better than 1st one. Why? It's more dramatic, funnier, and the character of Po is more fleshed out as he sets out to find his true identity. As children left the theater all tired from laughing and popcorn overdose, I guess the morale of the story is really for us, the big boys/girls to digest and capitalize.

The movie has a lot more to offer than just silly jokes, it's about kinship, friendship, camaraderie, and the ultimate theme of the movie, power of inner peace. I was literally wiping out tears and only to burst into laughter 10 seconds later. This is the kind of emotional roller-coaster the movie makers craftily designed, and it's almost scary to think that they got all your six senses at their disposal.

Kong Fu Panda may never win an Oscar, but it's no doubt a masterpiece of its own. Mindful viewers can definitely appreciate that every detail is carefully thought out and put into the right place, like an intricate machine. And linking back to the theme of education, maybe the goal for students today is not to ultimately win an Oscar, which is avidly coveted by everyone for superficial reason, but really is to make our own little blockbuster that is filled with passion and love. And nobody says it better than our main character, Po, after all, he never sets out to be the dragon warrior, he's just passionate about Kong Fu!

And at last, as master shi fu usually says, inner peace, inner peace... ... it's time for me to kick some CFA ass!

oops!

My bad, didn't finish the whole article before coming to a conclusion... the Paper Tiger turns out to be a pretty good article on how to break free of Asian stereotype. I stand corrected.

Paper Tiger

A friend shared this article called Paper Tigers on fb today. It's a series of writings by Asian American males, presumably in response to the controversy created by the Tiger Mom . Upon clicking through, you will see pictures of close-ups of Asian male faces, in defiance, tough looking. And this guy, Wesley Yang, really has some strong opinions about his "ancestry."

First of all, I am not an "ABC," although I can kinda relate to the feeling of "in between," I have no idea what the kind of ordeal ABC's are going through when it comes to cultural identity. However, I feel offended by his disdain toward the Asian culture, coming from someone obviously knows nothing about the deep heritage of his root. His frustration stems from the inconvenience of his Asian face, that inhibited him from achieving what he has in mind, cuz ppl think he is a quiet and timid Asian guy with no personality but loads of perfect grades. Plz, get over yourself, find a better excuse if you must whine about your insecurity. If deep down, you are so non-Asian, prove it with your action, not with your face... ...

Another disconnect from Yang's rant also comes from the different contexts. Growing up in China, I never entertained the idea of culture identity. We are all a big happy family of Chinese people, some are aggressive, some are timid, but none can be representative of whole culture... not until I came to America, when the Asian culture is juxtaposed with others, especially the American culture, did I realize that we are indeed more cautious and less outspoken than the Americans. But, I am more speaking from the perspective of immigrants. We are not speaking our mother tongue, and we do live in a foreign country. Then I wonder why the American born and educated Asians will still exhibit the similar traits? Is it largely due to the upbringing of the first generation immigrant parents? But what about the 2nd or 3rd generations, why would the "Asian traits" persist if they can not help the Asian americans survive in the western world? Or are there hidden treasures in this very culture that helped this ethic group planted their root and started life on a new continent? People like Yang would blame the racists and other ABC's who projected such image onto him. But hey, isn't this some kind of self-fulfilling prophesy?

At last, I want to leave you with the thought that, Asians are capable of taking over the world, and we are doing this right now, as long as we don't put limit on our own abilities and play victims of our own insecurities. Paper tiger or real tiger, you know it the best yourself.

Learning much from college?

A study calls into question the rigor of undergraduate education in America, and the article sparked 100+ comments on whether the American colleges are falling behind the rest of the world, as with its elementary schools and high schools.

The study claimed that a big chunk of the undergrads surveyed show no improvement in their critial thinking, complex reasonsing and writing by their sophomore year. Statistics aside, I do feel I didn't get much out of my own college experience, except for something to show on my resume. Of course, the college experience depends on what you make of it. But I do agree that the universities are responsible for beefing up the curriculum and really put students' best interest in their front and center agenda.

With the advancement of technology and the increasing competition for jobs and resources, the future trend of education will inevitably move toward self-generated learnings. Students will have to take ownership of their own development, instead of relying on third parties looking after their interests. That's how this article ties back to the "Tiger Mom" controversy. Maybe parents are responsible to impart the sense of self-displine to their children at an early age. And maybe parents should take a bigger role in their kids' life, when the young and restless don't know better how to manage their time and think ahead... ...

Reading list...

Too many good reads, too little time, here is a round-up of my to-read list in edu world:

1. LA Times on Value-Added Analysis
2. UC Berkeley Professor's review of "Measure of Effective Learning"
3. Master Teacher's Class Always in Sessions in Chelsea High
4. Debate over Effective Learning
5. Tenure issue

Chinese mothers

Well, it's all over the news, Amy Chua's controversial book on the superiority of Chinese way of education. Since there is no way to avoid it in education blog-sphere, I might just give my two cents on this.

Being the only child growing up in a traditional Chinese family, I have to say that Amy's account is overly exaggerating. Or, we have to analyze each family case by case. In my scenario, my Mom was never the "Tiger Mom" who always demanded top performance. Although, there is certain expectation that I should strive for the best I could be, she never yelled at me if I get an A-, instead of A. But on the other hand, I still got the pressure from my peers who always got the perfect score on everything, maybe their Moms are more in line with Amy Chua? Who knows...

Going back to the Chinese v. Western way of education, there has long been a debate over how to merge the two extreme ways of educating kids. Chinese parents are overly protective and demanding, who discourage young kids to think on their own and thus produce the so-called excellent mediocrity: Chinese children tend to grow up with the perfect scores, but with very low self esteem and lack of character of their own. On the other hand, westerners are too lenient in a way that eventually causes irresponsible acts in youth such as drug use and premarital sex. So is there a middle ground here? Is there a perfect way to educate our kids so that the parents know when to let them go and when to rein them in?

I think this is a very important topic that should not be taken lightly. Therefore, I am planning to use this site to record my study on this matter, and hopefully will have a more clarified answer for you soon!

A new era for edu?

Titled "Is Google-fication of education underway? Among tables and 3D TV at CES, one-size-fits-all education is facing a digital death knell." The Jan 7, 2011 article on Fortune revealed the trend of increasing partnership between schools and online learning companies, claiming that virtual classroom not only ensures access of eduction to students, it also helps deliver better results.

Having long been a skeptic of online education, I just don't think anything could replace the intimate setting of a classroom: the personal attention from teachers, and the teamwork environment with fellow classmates. But it's not like the online education can't provide all that. Teachers can still provide support remotely, and peer discussions can take place virtually via online chatting. Then what else is holding me back, when the whole world is seemingly moving toward virtual-ity?

Going back to the article, the author argues that by having students taking classes online, valuable data such as correction rate of practices, improvement over certain subject, or even a student's best time to study are all captured and can be utilized to improve the quality of education. Similar to Google's model, the e-learning companies can use the captured data to continue improve their program. But, isn't it the student's job to identify his or her own weakness and work hard to improve that? If we all rely on a computer server to do all the work for us, what is point of learning in the first place? and will that student ever learn to study on his own without some sort of software feeding information to his/her brain?

Maybe I am just old school, but I still feel that one should never rid education of the personal element. Even if the whole world is going virtual, and people will never need to leave their homes for anything, I would still hope that education will be an exception, because haste does make waste, especially with learning...