Thursday, April 19, 2007

On The Train, Mar 1, 2007

January and February are now behind us. I feel it is just like yesterday that we had our end of the year vacation. In a week it is going to be a school break again and my children are obviously expecting for us, the very least, to go somewhere near for a short vacation. The easiest and we are actually, to just drive down to PD for a weekend. The holidays even how short it is, is part and parcel of my children’s learning process. When I was growing up school breaks mean a long day of fishing, bird catching, tree climbing and playing whatever game in season. We were lucky even if we got to go back home to our kampong once a year. Of course I am not comparing the old and new for the sake of illustrating the obvious different in era. I am just merely sharing perspectives of life and in doing so to try to allude to the fact although forms and mechanisms are different. The ways we learn and absorb knowledge are almost the same. It is through exploring, discovery (you may want to say serendipity), and social interaction within a close-knit groups. When I was growing up we were territorial to the extend we created our own language. The girls with their ‘f’ language and us boys ‘reverse syllable’ language. So ‘kereta’ to the girls would be ‘keferefetafa’ and us ‘takere’. Hey, the girls are even using the same language now. One day I overheard my daughters were talking this way and I interjected to their utter surprised.

Again, my point, first, the way we learn is the same and what works before could work again given the right context.

Am I talking nonsense? Could be, LOL, after all I am on the train and got nothing else to do.

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