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Showing posts from July, 2017

How to train your brain

Back when we were in 6th Grade at Pasig Catholic College (PCC), our Science teacher Ms. Lara used to lug around these loose blackboards from one classroom to another. Listed in them are the topics or pointers for our Science class that she had filtered from the reference books. We would spend most of the 45-minute period copying them in our notebooks and we were also expected to memorize them. Afterwards, she would conduct an oral exam where she would randomly call each one of us to answer her questions. If we could not provide the right answer, we were to remain standing. We were young kids and our inherent fear of not being able to answer the questions became self-fulfilling. By the end of the period, everyone was standing.  What I just described is the typical method of instruction that Filipinos undergo while in school. It is widely assumed that this impedes creativity and prevents kids from learning because they cannot question the data and/or challenge the status quo. W