Vision
Inspire
Think
Notice
Practical Knowledge
Solve problems
Its dawn alright and I am starting out a new article.
Its 10th October 2011, and as I write this piece . Its been about 54years since a concise book was written on purposeful education for Africa.
Its been long road down here, and I wish to take up the subject again, because nothing has changed much since the last 54years. In the previous years a professor of Sociology Dr. K.A Busia wrote a wonderful book on what education should be. Most of the problems he saw and seeked change still exist today in most part of Africa. The purpose of this piece of writing is not to talk about how bad the education system is now or to analyze how come most of these problems exist.
I believe I am not the position to make such investigations. I am a SSS leaver and I have but experienced only a third of the whole educational process in this country.
Someone might say then I dont have even a first hand experience of what the tertiary education is like to write an article to suggest a way forward. Well that will be very true. And I dont seek to contend with the fact.
Yet still, there is a saying that whatever is within is what reflects outward. On the grounds that I see what my friends and people in my community turn out when they graduate or even their attitude towards school, I believe there is still more to be done.
As I said earlier, I have no wish to talk about the issues in our educational system that plagues us all.This information is more or less redundant and stressing even makes it more so, because it doesn't help in anyway to change the current situation.
I wish to stress rather on a way forward. Mind you, my ideas may sound subjective at first. Probably because of the way I express myself and secondly because these ideas have no scientific backing. But I believe all the ideas I shall stipulate here are logical and when looked at carefully , is a feasible a way out. And secondly which idea at first is not subjective, all ideas are first subjective until affirmed and confirmed.
VISION:
It is a very simple fact that needs to be reckon with; you can't put up any structure without a blue print. You need a dream to achieve something, that sounded vague. A dream in sight is reality at bay.
We can say this in many different ways but truth is one, without a target you are aimless.
It is very impotant that before this country can go forward it needs a dream, a dream of what life in this country should be like for the average person and what it takes to get there.
Aristotle puts it this way:The state comes in existence for the sake of life; it exists for the sake of the "good life" and imparts it to its citizens".
Vision is very important and the onus falls on the opinion leaders of this country , to work with the people and find a way forward but its all talk in the air, to stress the point again, because little has been done so far with all the talk the professor did 54years ago.
In terms of having the "good life" and imparting it to the people in what small way can we begin to turn things around?
The first block of socialization or education is the family. Considering this fact essential efforts could begin from there.
The family needs to have an idea of the good life is and what it takes to get there. When children are growing up parents are supposed to tell their children what they are capable of becoming and the efforts required to become that. Children need to be aware of the boundless opportunities that is open to them, and the need for them to experiment with ideas pertaining to the development of first themselves and then their society. Children also need to understand that their efforts go a long way to help the development of their country and that their role in this country is to leave a mark, a positive mark.
The young should be imparted with these ideas and the best place for them to start is their community. First by being introduced to volunteer works, and telling them the onus falls on them to find practical solutions to the problems they see in their community. The young will only know a situation is a problem if it conflicts with the true dream they believe in.
The community should be an organized entity where role models set a pace for the young . It should be an environment where children are guided , where children are worked with to solve challenges. This is a sure grooming future leaders.
INSPIRE:
This word is a very essential part of human growth and development. What children end up becoming is because of what they are inspired by. Even at the point of death people are inspired to do the most never thought of things.
Somewhere in all of us, lies great potentials and it always it takes some form inspiration to bring out the power that lies within. I could possibly write a whole book on inspiration and how it determines what we all become in the end... great people become great because of the sort inspiration they had and so do average men.
The role of parents is to inspire their children, the role of the community is to inspire its members, the role of the society is to inspire the people and this they can do with a dream.
The individual is the experience of the society, whereas, the society is the expression of the individual.
The teacher's role and the role of the school is to introduce the student to information and knowledge that will inspire the student to do greater things.
THINK.
Edward De Bono, invented the think tank, lateral thinking and many others, I cant possibly mention here.
He said something quite remarkarble; " the art of thinking should be introduced as a subject in schools"
Great men think and in a nation where there are thinkers, is a nation that thrives.
To be continued.............
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Introduction page
I think and I think. How am I going to start this piece , to introduce this journal so you understand the idea behind it all.
I realize my words are not enough, and over the years I've probably not been able to build the lexicon necessary for me to express myself the way I wish to.
Therefore I am going to say it simply.
This is the time to think.
We've come to a stage in the development of this nation, where we are in need of men and women, who think. Men and women who will think . Who are enterprising enough, to cause a change. Men and women who will think and ask the questions that will open channels to greater advancement.
Advancement in business, art, technology, language and education. There is little we can do if we refuse to think in whatever area we find ourselves.
GEM an old professor in pyschology said it simply: The problem we have with the people in this country today, is that we dont think.
The reason we dont think is because we are ignorant( lack first hand experience at many things). But reading solves the problem in many ways. Pick up a book to read today and another to peruse tomorrow and the problem is solved.
We will have men and women who are capable of thinking. Who will be able to look at issues incisively.
First be curious, read everything you see, create a filter and learn to think.
Share Your Ideas because thats the best way to learn and grow.
The main purpose of this journal is to serve as a forum for students and all likes of people to express their views and opinions about their areas of concern.
Its a platform, where views can be exprssed with no restrictions.
Feel free to express yourself on any issues that are mind-buggling that you believe needs attention.
Further, any ideas, thesis in any area that you believe will or plays an eesential part to our society is allowed.
Free will, Free voices, Free thinkers; this is our code.
Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this . They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
For in every work of a genius we can recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
- Emerson.
This is where Your Opinion is noticed. This is where Your Opinion matters.
Free will, Free voices, Free thinkers.
I realize my words are not enough, and over the years I've probably not been able to build the lexicon necessary for me to express myself the way I wish to.
Therefore I am going to say it simply.
This is the time to think.
We've come to a stage in the development of this nation, where we are in need of men and women, who think. Men and women who will think . Who are enterprising enough, to cause a change. Men and women who will think and ask the questions that will open channels to greater advancement.
Advancement in business, art, technology, language and education. There is little we can do if we refuse to think in whatever area we find ourselves.
GEM an old professor in pyschology said it simply: The problem we have with the people in this country today, is that we dont think.
The reason we dont think is because we are ignorant( lack first hand experience at many things). But reading solves the problem in many ways. Pick up a book to read today and another to peruse tomorrow and the problem is solved.
We will have men and women who are capable of thinking. Who will be able to look at issues incisively.
First be curious, read everything you see, create a filter and learn to think.
Share Your Ideas because thats the best way to learn and grow.
The main purpose of this journal is to serve as a forum for students and all likes of people to express their views and opinions about their areas of concern.
Its a platform, where views can be exprssed with no restrictions.
Feel free to express yourself on any issues that are mind-buggling that you believe needs attention.
Further, any ideas, thesis in any area that you believe will or plays an eesential part to our society is allowed.
Free will, Free voices, Free thinkers; this is our code.
Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this . They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
For in every work of a genius we can recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
- Emerson.
This is where Your Opinion is noticed. This is where Your Opinion matters.
Free will, Free voices, Free thinkers.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
WHAT IS SCIENCE?
SCIENCE.
After years of studying science in the classes, from books, audio books, biographies of the legendary scientists, researches and my own pondering about our universe, I still found a question troubling my mind after a chat with a friend. This question kept me asking myself, “What is science?”…. It was a short chat with a friend who studies aerospace engineering in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
I asked him a question I later regretted. What makes you think you are reading science? He answered; because I’m reading aerospace engineering…he continued, listing things he could do with his knowledge in the field.My curiosity wasn’t satisfied, I felt I should ask more, so I asked--- What is science? This time it took him some few seconds to type, I kept counting the seconds; anxious to see what he says this time. He answered,” Science is everything!”
Though I continued typing as we talked, I was driven into a world far misty, nothing was clear. What is everything, what is nothing? We all use these words in our language, but how definite are these words. I lost the focus throughout the chat, the idea of space and time convicted me of curiosity, my mind couldn’t settle to see any clear picture; it was like being pulled into a world of fairies making you feel you are one.
I ended the chat with my friend wishing I could have confessed how immensely I was galvanized by our talk and the dimension of reality I just caught hold of. As I walked home I kept asking questions that were simple but difficult to find the answers.
If I say, everything about this girl is adorable. It could only be true if and only if at that particular place and time I know all that she is, excluding the thoughts of others about her. How do I know all about her; what joules of heat energy is loosing out of her body every second? How much radiation is she receiving and what micro organisms are interacting internally in her system?what is she thinking about in that moment? As I kept asking these questions I understood all I could know about her was only a thought dimension predetermined in my subconciousness, perhaps they could all be my responses towards her. I was not being scientific enough.To know her truly was to keep thoughts (judgments) aside and just observe her every fraction of a microsecond.
But this was more insane, every microsecond she becomes a new person with a different age, in a second her lungs filled with air, during the next second she pumps air out of her lungs, particular erythrocytes located at different points after every pulse, her senses keep changing attention to the environment as the environment changes conditions. The same happens to the rocks, plants, air molecules… every second sees a change in every constituent of this universe. If we say something is A in a moment, it cannot be A in the next moment.
If science is meant to be characterized mainly by observation, then science can never be everything due to our inability to give undivided attention to all aspects of a specimen in our experiments. Usually we focus on the part that answers our hypothesis, though sometimes we unexpectedly come across other observations leading to theories we never thought of. Science can therefore not be defined as everything! This is because all we know and our dimension of noticing is only how adept we have become in driving our senses towards the expected, yet we constitute only a part of nature---all we know is due to our response to nature (the universe) in which we constitute only a tiny part. Neither can we support our views by the assumption that we are the most complex and we are living organisms whereas others are non-living organisms. The idea of what makes a body living is what we have enumerated, still subject to the diameter of understanding of the world we find ourselves.
Science is a methodology of understanding the world around us, thus, as we have made it to be, but true observation and realization is accountable to experience. As one will say… the best lessons in life are not the ones told but the ones experienced. Our scientific analysis must therefore respect the fact that all conclusions we make are in a way our responses to the specimen, whether we are aware or not. The subject-object relationship is the reason for our result in all experiments. The questions we ask of nature leads us to what we know so far about nature. When we begin to ask different questions we will find a lot more we never could imagine. Science therefore can’t be everything since it never tapers to the pin-point; it disperses from the very point of our questioning to broader perspectives we can’t encompass in a single mind, erupting various fields from the same question that need to be specialized.
Science to me is a way of life. This way of life is beyond the superficial, it’s rather a question-answer chain of life with each fueling the growth of reality in this misty dimension. A question leads to an answer; the answer develops into suggestions which need to be examined, in that process engineering another question that may take decades to answer. Like the journey through quantum physics has bore the questions: what causes the force of gravity in the particle realm or reality; if there are any particles at all what state will they be; charged or neutral? Answers seem easy to find if we are guarded by the minds projections basing on earlier intellect... yet again though it is important building upon earlier knowing, programming the mind to forge understanding and explanation of the subject veils our sight as scientists from the clear picture.
Science needs no beautification; we have to observe what is, and not what is expected to be. We might feel disappointed realizing that most of our earlier knowledge was caged by just a single person’s perceptions, but that doesn’t get close to solving our problems. Einstein explained during his historic journey through the Theory of Special and General Relativity--- he illustrated something of importance about the way that we structure our perceptions is indicative of an inevitable trend toward the merger of physics and psychology. What has Einstein discovered that got him thinking this way? Einstein had a beginners mind; a mind that ponders with little or no much acknowledgement of the already believed; a mind that wonders if the opposite is true; a mind whose truth is in analysis, and not mere information.
If you read carefully you would realize I was just going round the topic scared of saying anything acclaiming to be science. Science is no more strictly viewed as what you must know, it’s now what do you know individually. Like Buddha saying that a man should find his own salvation, the truth in science is an individual adventure. Science is still made of pragmatic ways to solve problems in our diameter of the universe…for our solution becomes a problem to other members of the universe. This alone explains the fact that we are only viewing our part of the searched reality. This reality, this truth, we cannot find alone; the rocks, rivers, plants, animals etc know a great deal than we do. Do they?
What is science? What is science? What is science?
We can as scientist answer this question individually, yet be free to criticize my definition.
Science is the method of harmonizing with nature, to enable us understand her dance.
After years of studying science in the classes, from books, audio books, biographies of the legendary scientists, researches and my own pondering about our universe, I still found a question troubling my mind after a chat with a friend. This question kept me asking myself, “What is science?”…. It was a short chat with a friend who studies aerospace engineering in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
I asked him a question I later regretted. What makes you think you are reading science? He answered; because I’m reading aerospace engineering…he continued, listing things he could do with his knowledge in the field.My curiosity wasn’t satisfied, I felt I should ask more, so I asked--- What is science? This time it took him some few seconds to type, I kept counting the seconds; anxious to see what he says this time. He answered,” Science is everything!”
Though I continued typing as we talked, I was driven into a world far misty, nothing was clear. What is everything, what is nothing? We all use these words in our language, but how definite are these words. I lost the focus throughout the chat, the idea of space and time convicted me of curiosity, my mind couldn’t settle to see any clear picture; it was like being pulled into a world of fairies making you feel you are one.I ended the chat with my friend wishing I could have confessed how immensely I was galvanized by our talk and the dimension of reality I just caught hold of. As I walked home I kept asking questions that were simple but difficult to find the answers.
If I say, everything about this girl is adorable. It could only be true if and only if at that particular place and time I know all that she is, excluding the thoughts of others about her. How do I know all about her; what joules of heat energy is loosing out of her body every second? How much radiation is she receiving and what micro organisms are interacting internally in her system?what is she thinking about in that moment? As I kept asking these questions I understood all I could know about her was only a thought dimension predetermined in my subconciousness, perhaps they could all be my responses towards her. I was not being scientific enough.To know her truly was to keep thoughts (judgments) aside and just observe her every fraction of a microsecond.
But this was more insane, every microsecond she becomes a new person with a different age, in a second her lungs filled with air, during the next second she pumps air out of her lungs, particular erythrocytes located at different points after every pulse, her senses keep changing attention to the environment as the environment changes conditions. The same happens to the rocks, plants, air molecules… every second sees a change in every constituent of this universe. If we say something is A in a moment, it cannot be A in the next moment.
If science is meant to be characterized mainly by observation, then science can never be everything due to our inability to give undivided attention to all aspects of a specimen in our experiments. Usually we focus on the part that answers our hypothesis, though sometimes we unexpectedly come across other observations leading to theories we never thought of. Science can therefore not be defined as everything! This is because all we know and our dimension of noticing is only how adept we have become in driving our senses towards the expected, yet we constitute only a part of nature---all we know is due to our response to nature (the universe) in which we constitute only a tiny part. Neither can we support our views by the assumption that we are the most complex and we are living organisms whereas others are non-living organisms. The idea of what makes a body living is what we have enumerated, still subject to the diameter of understanding of the world we find ourselves.
Science to me is a way of life. This way of life is beyond the superficial, it’s rather a question-answer chain of life with each fueling the growth of reality in this misty dimension. A question leads to an answer; the answer develops into suggestions which need to be examined, in that process engineering another question that may take decades to answer. Like the journey through quantum physics has bore the questions: what causes the force of gravity in the particle realm or reality; if there are any particles at all what state will they be; charged or neutral? Answers seem easy to find if we are guarded by the minds projections basing on earlier intellect... yet again though it is important building upon earlier knowing, programming the mind to forge understanding and explanation of the subject veils our sight as scientists from the clear picture.
If you read carefully you would realize I was just going round the topic scared of saying anything acclaiming to be science. Science is no more strictly viewed as what you must know, it’s now what do you know individually. Like Buddha saying that a man should find his own salvation, the truth in science is an individual adventure. Science is still made of pragmatic ways to solve problems in our diameter of the universe…for our solution becomes a problem to other members of the universe. This alone explains the fact that we are only viewing our part of the searched reality. This reality, this truth, we cannot find alone; the rocks, rivers, plants, animals etc know a great deal than we do. Do they?
What is science? What is science? What is science?
We can as scientist answer this question individually, yet be free to criticize my definition.
Science is the method of harmonizing with nature, to enable us understand her dance.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A Student's Reflection
I remember from the very beginnings of my childhood; I have always dreamt of creating something, something new. I used to dream of making bicycle out of wood and riding out on the streets with something new and never seen.
I had many dreams and these thoughts and ideas came to me at the time when I was about 8 years.
The truth is these dreams of mine were achievable. I only needed someone who understood my dreams and could lead me to explore the possibilities of these dreams.
There are many children like me, whose dreams have faded away because there was no one to inspire them; No one to lead them on the path to exploring their dreams.
In a recent article, I read from eselfone blog the author spoke about what true education should be.
“Educate comes from the Latin word educare/educat: which means, to bring out or lead out. The closest word to this in English is educe. Educe meaning to bring out or lead out something latent or potential.”
This points out clearly, education is meant for a purpose. People should be educated with an intention in mind.
I am a high school graduate and there is nothing I have achieved with all the education I got( from all the information I was fed with).
High school was the place I dreamt of being while I was at home, after having completed Junior high.
At the beginning it was great, having the opportunity to meet different students from various schools.
But class wasn’t interactive enough; in class were all these potentials. These young lads who wanted to become engineers of all sorts. And all we were ever taught were laws in physics, theories in chemistry, formulas in mathematics, most of which we couldn’t apply in real life.
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