A Reflection on Education

We had a discussion on education once very early in the semester. I started the discussion rather skeptical of it all - I didn't really think I had a lot to contribute. I had good grades, I had fun in school and I took classes I either liked or had to take, that's all. But the discussion went really well and I appreciated all the different perspectives everyone else had to offer. A lot of people were frustrated because grades never really accurately reflected their learning  and others loved that they always had the opportunity to learn what they wanted.
I jotted some notes down in my notebook in response to the questions they asked to start the discussion and I'm gonna blog them down here.

My definition of education - gaining and sharing knowledge through one's own discoveries or thorugh the guidance of another mentor/teacher. Education is the accumulation of skills and tools useful for your daily life and future careers. But is education truly an enabler??
Do you only learn through education?
Is all learning considered to be education?
Is education a connection to the wealth of knowledge out there?

What's my educational experience been?
Traditional, public elementary, middle and high school. Private musical education but much of my education was at home and church - I taught myself math, english, reading comprehension and whatnot with workbooks and booklets. Summer camps I attended were supposed to be taught on a " college level"  and I got more learning-by-doing in a Civic Leadership Institute program.
Perhaps in my human rights class - the mock trials and the tabling really showed me a proactive education. I've found some educational spaces frustrating when they try to change the little things to make you think the content has become cooler or more meaningful. Things I don't find useful - calculus, some sciences, sociology (because of the teacher) and simply dull experiments.
When do you learn about things that matter?
Is formal education sometimes necessary? I meet a lot of people who like formal education, love to learn but don't want to see it as a means to a career.

Am I really oppressed about my education and do I feel angry about it?
Ooh I'm the man in the cave like Plato says....

Random thoughts:
Education is most valuable if you seek answers to your own questions - then you have the biggest investment in your education.

Education also depends a lot on what your parents want for you - I love my dad for proving that you do what is best for others, not what's best for you.

Is alternative education really alternative education?? It's scary because you have to find what you're really interested in without people telling you what to learn.

Alternative and traditional education doesn't have to be black and white. It could even limit the opportunities within alternative education to completely reject the traditional.

I'm not studying to be something. I'm studying to be someone.

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What do you think education means?
Have you felt ownership over your education?
How much do you think grades have mattered in your education?

side note.

also wtf. i haven't changed the background picture of this blog since the pre-orientation 3 MONTHS AGO.
tsk, how sad.
i'm such a slacker.

I suppose since I'm still talking about Unit 1 (which also happened about 3 months ago), I should add a picture relevant to such...

** now that I've added one, I give the credit to my friend Sara Stiehl because I forgot to bring my camera on the entire unit.
This picture was taken at a organic agriculture village called Ban Dong Dip.

More UFac-ing - A Peek into the Process

So i dug up some of my notes from my time as UFac for Unit 1 and since I get to decide what to blog about, I'm going to document some of the more boring (but important?) aspects of the experience.
Hopefully, if one were to read this, they would understand just a little bit more of how this worked. And when I look back, I could remember this too.

One of the first things that UFac-ing revealed to me was the huge importance of goals and planning. It was ridiculous how many things we micromanaged and microplanned - we planned how long it would take to plan an activity. Then we would make goals -goals for us, goals for the entire student group, goals for our planning process, and goals for each activity.

For example: Our goals for the student group were -
 1.Students understand the role of UFacs.        
2. Each student increases their understanding of agricultural issues.    
3. Maintain posimotihesion atmosphere in the group.  
4. Students build connections with homestay families, communities, etc.  
5. Students represent CIEE and American culture well.

Then we had our own UFac goals -
1. Maintain posimotihesion      
2. Create an honest and open space.
3. Improve facilitation skills.
4. Be thorough and efficient.
5. Deepen understanding of content.

Then we had our goals for each activity. Here are the goals for the Reading And Discussions (RAD) -
1. Students are engaged in sessions.
2. Students understand material
3. Students have equal opportunities for participation.
4. Students will be well-prepared for unit.

Then we had about 3 or 4 "how-tos" for every goal. Whee. Once we did that, then we would actually start the planning and make sure that everything follows the goals we set. It helped later on as well when we had to analyze the positives/negatives/necessary changes because we would decide how well we did on whether we achieved our goals.

This is probably why our planning sessions for 1.5-3hour long activities took at least 6 hours. We took things really seriously and thought everything out super-thoroughly. It really makes a difference when everything you do is intentional - to be able to explain your actions and anticipate the reactions and effects of your actions as well.
Of course, not all UFacs took this approach and it was probably for the best that they didn't - every UFac group had their own style of planning things. Some had a stronger internal process that never seemed to show any conflicts in front of the student group and some had stronger creativity to introduce new activities.
I have to admit, coming right out of Unit 1 into Unit 2 was a little difficult for me. Making the transition from unit facilitator to student group member was weird - I kept making comparisons with my unit and the second unit's facilitators - were we better? were they rejecting our ideas or building off of them? do they think we're overstepping our bounds if we try to help or oppose?
Either way, those thoughts weren't necessary to dwell on and it was part of the process of figuring out what the heck UFac-ing meant. We did have a different role within the student group but eventually we learned that it wasn't a box we were supposed to put each other into. We needed to have the same expectations and standards for each other as if we were always part of the student group so we had to challenge each other, push each other and voice our opinions. It was a long but fulfilling process - one I felt happy to be a part of.

Unit 1 Facilitator Time

I facilitated the first unit out of five - the Agriculture Unit. I chose to do the first unit because I wasn't particularly interested in any one topic and I wanted to get the facilitating responsibilities out of the way and really immerse myself into the rest of the semester.

There were five people in my facilitation group - Eileen, Kati, Julie and Sara Weber. I was already pretty close friends with Eileen and Kati - we had bonded quite a lot through our senses of humor during orientation, but I wasn't too close with Julie and Sara.
Before we started facilitating, I had no idea what we were doing, what we were supposed to do and what the group wanted us to do. We were going in quite literally blind. Two out of the four program facilitators were going to help us through the unit and they started by holding a meeting for us so we could share our strengths and  weaknesses. While the meeting was relatively useful in terms of accurately defining my own strengths and weaknesses, I have to admit that I found out a lot more through my actual experiences of working with my fellow uFacs.

I'm afraid I'm kind of falling asleep right now and I'm about to go on my last unit trip (Unit 5) tomorrow - so I'm having trouble remembering everything right now.
Ultimately, I just wanted to note how different it is to be facilitating and then to be a regular group member. When you're facilitating, you have to make sure your fellow students in the group are getting the most of the unit and the exchanges during our homestays. Before we go into the villages, we read our reading packets with several different articles so we know the global and national context before going to the villages. We as facilitators plan for the reading discussions and the briefings and what roles we would play. We spent a good amount of time trying to come up with creative activities and deeply engaging questions so the group would be excited or passionate about the unit all on an equal level. Then, with each exchange, we talk to villagers, NGOs, government officials, and community leaders - all on different days, different times. With at least four exchanges per unit, you have to be sure that each exchange is unique in the information it offers - it shouldn't get repetitive or dull.
Being a facilitator didn't mean that we were big "leaders" of the group. We were there to learn just as much as the student group and we were constantly group members just as we were unit facilitators, so it wasn't as if we were to separate ourselves from the group. That's why the term is "facilitator" and not "leader" - I value the difference now that I've been in both roles before and now I realize that what I thought was previously a leadership role was probably more a facilitator role.
For example, being a choreographer for FlipDis FunkDat might be considered a leadership role but I see it more as a facilitator role - a role in which I learned just as much as my group did. I think a leader is slightly separated from his/her group - they are there to teach or lead based on what they already know and the leadership skills they possess. But facilitating involves more group skills - skills that involve conflict resolution, honesty, teamwork and self-analysis - and I learned more about facilitation through working with the group than before. My role was very dependent on how the group was feeling or what direction the group was supposed to take, while taking into my account my own learning. So perhaps what I'm trying to say is that facilitation is more dependent on the group than leading.
I'll have to flesh that out later.
Nevertheless, it was eye-opening - I thought I would get sick of the word facilitation, but I see that the word's usage is very intentional and accurate in describing exactly how students fit into the program....
Now I wonder...

what else am I going to facilitate and will I continue to know the difference between leadership and facilitation in the future?

Open Your Mind

I'm a little too lazy right now to want to be thinking about the deeper things so here is my second newsletter submission that has some of my deeper thoughts in a cohesive piece. 
This blog is definitely going to be all over the place - the previously intended chronological order is in shambles. But not to worry, it'll still make sense and it'll all still be blogged about!

            During the Unit 2 homestay trip to forest communities, I found myself worn out from the thorough and content-heavy exchanges we tackled throughout the day. Every time I came back to my host mother’s house in Toong Lui Lai village, however, I discovered there was always something more to talk about, always something more to discuss. Whether we were half distracted by Thai soaps playing in the background or mindlessly chewing on leftover kao niao (sticky rice) after an amazing dinner, my peers and I would end up talking about things like politics, cultural differences, group process and religion. Nights when I expected to simply settle down on a full stomach instead became discussion-filled evenings that opened up whole new perspectives to me. Because the 3 other students staying in the house and I had such varying experiences and opinions, we often struggled to understand each other’s views.  I consider myself a conservative and religious individual, so sharing my personal opinion on subjects like Christianity and Buddhism amongst my liberal, agnostic peers wasn’t always easy. I became very much more aware of the words I said and the words I heard. One commend a pper made struck me in particular:  “I don’t know if I’m being close-minded or if I just have strong values…” she mused.   

We often hear the words “open-minded” or “close-minded” to describe a person when it comes to sensitive topics of fundamental differences. With that, there exists pressure to appear open-minded so one does not seem stubborn or intolerant. But I often struggled with whether that also pressured us to give up or silence our own values for the sake of demonstrating that we could be flexible or accepting of everyone else’s values if ours weren’t good enough or in the minority.  Because many of the students on this program have ardent values, like eating vegetarian and supporting organic agriculture, there were many times when different perspectives certainly challenged us to question the foundational strength and validity of our beliefs.

So far, my interactions with the people in this program have led me to this conclusion: there is a fundamental difference between having a strong set of values and being “close-minded”. One should never have to compromise strong values in order to appear open-minded because strong values incorporate acknowledgment, awareness and understanding of other points of view. Developing a set of strong values through an understanding of multiple perspectives is only achieved by trial by fire.  The process of challenging and being challenged by others refines and reinforces our values; it doesn’t close our mind to all else. I’ve come to appreciate the program more by discovering the foundation behind the values of my peers and I possess a newfound respect for them and how they interact with the development of my own. Here’s to kao niao and late-night conversation.