Learning in the Age of Connection
It has been nearly a decade since Books & People first launched its Scan & Learn Series English Editing G3 title. Then, when we conducted workshops for teachers using our books, we had to explain to them how QR codes work and recommend QR code scanners for downloading. Fast forward to today, QR codes are […]
很么是教育？什么是好老师？
《出走是為了回家》 「教育」是什么？「好老師」又是什么？ 前几天在网上偶然点到了 刘安婷 在TedXTaipei的演说。她那 16分钟33秒，《擁抱世代從教育開始》的演讲，彻底地震动了我的心，也唤醒了我沉睡一阵子的热情。这年仅24岁的女孩对教育，对社会，对国家，以及对台湾弱势孩子的热忱，真的非常的有感染力。看完了那Ted演讲，让我对她充满了敬佩和好奇。也因为对她产生了好奇，我才会拾起了这本《出走是为了回家》。读完此书，这位 刘安婷 也让我陷入了好久的沉思，让我深深地反省了「教育」这两个字对我来说的意义何在。 第一次开始教书是在六年前。到今天，我都还没忘记第一次被叫「老师」的情景。这六年来，我的「教书历险记」带我从学生的家走到了教室，又从教室走进了感化院。「当老师」这件事让我很快乐。「教书」这件事也让我有很深的感触。我觉得这六年下来，我每天都过着很充实的生活。 最近的反省让我醒悟，原来常常挂在嘴边的「教书」一词是会误导人的 — 老师不是在教「书」，而是在教「人」。而在教「人」的过程中，站在讲台上的老师们不应该是发号司令的长官，而是应该充当领导人的角色，启发学生，让他们等够愿意达到更高的目标。而能够和学生们建立起有意义的长久关系才是教育的前提。真的，「教育之道無他，愛與榜樣而已」。 在从事教育工作的这几年也让我了解到，其实每个孩子们对学习的态度和他们的原生家庭有着密切的关系。教过了不同的学生，遇过了不少家长，我的心也因为一些孩子的破碎而破碎。德蕾莎 修女的祷告词道尽了破碎的意义：「神啊，请将我的心彻底地破碎，好让全世界涌进来。」（ “May God break my heart so completely, that the whole world falls in.”）。一颗因别人的心而破碎的心，是一颗能够同理的心。对，如果教育说穿了是一项用生命来影响生命的工作，那么做老师的，心一定要很柔软，心一定要能够同理其他的生命。「教育之道無他，愛與榜樣而已」这句话又在破碎之中更加具体化。 「学习同理」是我在少年感化院教书时学习到最深层的一项功课。在感化院教书也是至今，影响我最深的教学经验。「老师你为什么而来？」也是我常常被问的一个问题。这些误入歧途的孩子不时都会问我这个问题，因为他们似乎很难相信会有人为了他们而来，为了他们而教。他们的问题也曾经让我反省自己「为什么而教？」。而只有当老师能够说服自己「为什么而教」，他才能够有本事说服学生们「为什么而学」。「为什么而教？」问题的核心质问着我的核心，也质问着我的初心。人做过什么事情，可能会被遗忘，可是为了什么而做事情是不会被遗忘的。我的初衷很单纯 — 我只想发挥一点点的影响力，做能够影响下一代，建立下一代的工作。这份初衷在我创业初期，做教育出版时，支撑我跨过了最艰难的时期。在最黑暗的时候，「初衷」也像北极星一样引领着我。读完了刘安婷的书也让我意识到勤守初衷是件多么重要的事情。莫忘初衷也是件多么重要的事情。 「创业家」也好，「设计师」也好，我至今最钟爱的身份还是「老師」的身分。因为我的起心动念就是那些孩子们。那些新加坡的孩子们。 「你要保守你的心，胜过保守一切，因为一生的果效，由心发出。」 — 保守这一份初心，让我心灵在工作上很饱足，也很喜乐。 能夠捲起袖子，为自己的世代，和下一个世代尽一点微博之力，成为改变的起点，真的是一件让人雀跃的事。 And， #nowreading Salman Khan’s The One World School House.
The Substructures of Life
“Hard pressure sculpts great character.” It is often the depth of one’s life that determines the breadth of one’s work. But It is very true as well that it is life’s substructure — the foundation from which life is built upon — that is often neglected in favor of life’s superstructure. Character is life’s substructure, […]
Writing My Own Printf Funtion
Preface This essay is a documentation of my learning process. It details how I went about engineering my own ft_printf(). The task was to write a ft_printf() à la the original printf() in C The function has to handle the following conversions: cspdiuxX% I did not attempt the optional bonus assignments for this project. Process […]
42 Days in 42 Singapore
This essay was written after my first project submission. It is a reflection of my experience at 42 Singapore and my thoughts on the school’s pedagogy. 42 Singapore has continued to be an inspiring learning experience. My first C project for the Core Curriculum – Libft – was finally completed on 09 October 2023. I […]
A Decade. A New Mathematics title. A Thanksgiving.
Books & People turns 10 this year. What a ride it has been! I founded the company when I was 26. A decade and two children later, I am still on the mission to Craft Good Books That Build People. Right now, I am really overwhelmed with gratitude. It hasn’t been an easy decade, but […]
The Fox and The Hedgehog and The Comprehension Workbook
In his essay titled The Hedgehog and The Fox, British philosopher Isaiah Berlin posited that there are two types of thinkers: hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea; and foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences to come up with different ideas for different circumstances. Isaiah Berlin […]
26 Days After Piscine
This writing was originally a post on Linkedin For 26 days, I have been visiting the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) daily for intensive ‘swimming sessions’ at the piscine – french for swimming pool – to learn how to code, and it has been a truly inspiring learning experience. In those 26 days, I went […]
The Foundation and Orientation of a Startup Founder
Going with the flow from the inside out. The world we live in applauds the successful. In the startup world, the yardstick for success is focused on 6As: Affluence – What we have Associations – Who we know Abilities – What we can do Appearance – How we look online and offline Accomplishments – What […]
Worldviews are more than just mental models
Worldviews are more than just mental models Shane Parrish of Farnam Street defines mental models as such: “Mental models are how we understand the world. Not only do they shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see. Mental models are how we simplify complexity, why […]