Author: Andy Uyboco

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Autonomy seems to be one of the key factors of happiness, according to Raj Raghunathan in “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?” The idea that you are free to make certain choices and decisions is emotionally satisfying, rather than having others make decisions for you and force you to follow what they want, instead of what you want.

One way that Finland grants autonomy to their students is by having an Independent Learning Week. Instead of having set lectures and lessons for that week, teachers simply assign certain tasks that must be done by the end of the week, and they give students large blocks of time to accomplish those tasks however and whenever they want, in no particular order.

Taking this idea a step further, students can co-plan a one-unit lesson with their teacher on a subject of their choice — for example: the use of solar energy — and design activities like quiz shows, having guest speakers, and so on, for this purpose. The main idea of this approach is that students are more likely to take interest and participate in the lesson as they were part of the decision-making process. There is ownership of the idea not just for the teacher but for the students as well.

The next factor is mastery, the feeling of competence in a specific area of study or discipline. Finnish schools focus on mastery by identifying the essentials of each subject matter and making sure the students become competent in those. A lot of traditional educators like loading up the curriculum with more and more material, thinking this will lead to more learning, which is often not the case.

Teachers focused on mastery should not be in a hurry to finish the entire book. Education is about how much the students learn, not about how much the teacher has taught. Finnish teachers take time to really ensure that their students have achieved competence, even going as far as letting students prove that they have learned the material — asking students open-ended questions and listening to their explanations.

Some teachers even have one-on-one sessions with students, telling them what grade they’re going to get and giving them a chance to respond, such that grades are not just a number teachers throw out, but it becomes a tool that both parties agree to use as a measure for the students’ competence at that point in time.

The final factor is having the correct mindset, and this applies more for the teachers than the students. Although of course, by principle of leadership, the students will naturally mirror what their teacher do and how they behave. The correct mindset is one of collaboration as compared to the current mindset of competition. Teachers in Finland are not so much into proving that they are “good” or “master” teachers, nor do they chase after degrees in order to flaunt these. In fact, this is what Walker writes about teachers in his school: “[They] were not just collaborating in the traditional sense…they were truly laboring together, sharing the burdens of teaching…helping each other track down resources they’d need for an upcoming lesson…discussing better ways to support needy students…analyzing the curriculum together…grading tests together…offering tech support to each other.”

Researchers Andy Hargreave and Dennis Shirley observe: “Teachers in Finland cooperate as a matter of habit, not just to complete assigned tasks…not just as an add-on when the workday is over…Cooperation is about how they create curriculum and how the work itself gets done.”

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles atwww.freethinking.me.

I met with a former student a few weeks ago who is now a school principal. After an exchange of ideas, we exchanged books about education. He had my copy of “The Sudbury Valley Experience” while I had his “Teach Like Finland.”

So what’s up with Finland and their educational system?

Well, Finland is notorious for having a “soft” or non-strict approach to education — short school days, lots of breaks, little to no homework and minimal standardized testing. Yet, it consistently performs well on a set of international tests called the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which measure critical thinking skills in reading, math and science. In fact, in the very first PISA results in 2001, Finland ranked number one.

Teach Like Finland was written by Timothy Walker, a former teacher in the American public school system who relocated to Finland and noticed the sharp differences in the teaching philosophies and methods. The key, as he observed, was that Finnish educators “seem to value happiness more than achievement. They make small simple decisions to promote joyful teaching and learning.”

Walker then breaks down the five ingredients of happiness: 1) well-being; 2) belonging; 3) autonomy; 4) mastery; and 5) mindset, then proceeds to discuss 33 strategies revolving around these in order to produce a “joyful classroom.”

I will not be discussing all 33 strategies. You can read the book yourself if you’re that interested. I will, however, be discussing a few that have struck me, and then I will try to relate what I have learned from the Finnish approach into my own studies on the Democratic school system in general and Sudbury Valley School in particular.

One way that Finnish schools promote well-being is to have a 15-minute break after every class. Imagine having recess every period. Oh that would be heaven for a lot of students here. Classes go for only 45 minutes, then there’s a fifteen minute break where students can do whatever they want before the next class begins.

This simple solution gives the brain a break and even has a scientific basis. Anthony Pellegreni, an educational psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota, conducted numerous studies showing that students were “more attentive after a break than before a break” and also that “children were less focused when the timing of the break was delayed — or in other words, when the lesson dragged on.”

To promote belonging, a lot of schools have a “Buddy Up” tradition where 6th grade students pair up with 1st grade student. The young kids now have some older buddies to look up to and talk to about this new environment called elementary school, and the older kids feel a sense of responsibility towards their juniors.

Paula Havu, a first grade teacher has this to say about the practice: “Those older students, when they are given responsibility, when they are trusted, when they get a little buddy to walk with them…they change. They don’t need to be tough. They don’t need to be cool. They need to take care of that little guy over there and be the role model.”

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles atwww.freethinking.me.

There is a recent story going around entitled “God Whispers” about a pilot who flew the last plane out of Palu, Indonesia before it was hit by an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, causing a devastating Tsunami that currently has a death toll of over a thousand people.

The pilot talks about feeling uneasy when he landed in Palu, about hearing “a voice in his heart” telling him to hurry. So he instructed his crew to take a short break, then requested permission from the control tower to leave 3 minutes earlier.

During takeoff, he sped up the plane and felt the plane swaying left and right before leaving the ground. He would learn later, upon arriving at his destination in Ujung Pandang, that an earthquake and tsunami had hit Palu and that he had taken off in the nick of time just when the ground began to shake. Many on the ground, including the official at the control tower who made sure they had taken off safely, had died. The death toll is still rising as of this writing as rescue teams scramble to look for survivors.

The article concludes with a reminder to take a lesson from the captain about how important it is to “hear the voice of God.”

While I am happy about the pilot being alive and able to fly the 140 passengers in his aircraft to safety right in the nick of time,  using this story to impart the religious message of learning to listen God’s voice seems rather insensitive to the relatives and loved ones of the many who perished or were injured in the disaster.

Were they unable to hear God’s whispers? Or did God even nudge them at all like he did to the pilot? Or were they somehow more deserving of death or suffering? These questions haunt those left in the wake of the destruction.

It’s like an incident a few years ago when a typhoon that was supposedly going to hit us suddenly veered north. You could see people cheering about how their prayers were answered, how mighty God’s hand was, and how loving…until the news came out that this other country had been badly hit and so many were injured or killed.

Imagine having a loved one on vacation in that country as a casualty, then hearing someone else praising God’s hand for swatting the hurricane out of the way.

Disasters are a time to come together and help each other, to realize our shared humanity, to comfort others in their grief. Yes, we can always express gratitude for being spared but let’s not use it as an object lesson for pontificating or exhorting others to be more “godly”.

To do so would be just plain insensitive.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles atwww.freethinking.me.

The word gratitude comes from the Latin gratus which means thankful or pleasing. A passage in the Bible talks about being thankful in all things. In modern times, various authors have used the catchphrase “an attitude of gratitude” as a key to success, greatness and happiness.

Gratitude also speaks of acceptance, of not fighting whatever comes one’s way, but taking it in stride while continuing to live one’s life. I recall a story of a zen master living in a village where he was respected and revered. People would go to him and sit with him and offer him food or drink, and he would heartily accept these and say, “Very well, thank you.”

Then one day there was a rumor that he had impregnated a young girl and the villagers lost trust in him. They greeted him with dagger looks and some even shouted and threw rotten vegetables at him. Amidst all these, he just said, “Very well, thank you.”

The young girl finally came out and accused him in public of forcing himself upon her. The villagers were enraged and drove the master out,  pelting him with sticks and stones. As he left the village, he turned around and said, “Very well, thank you,” and went to live in the nearby woods.

The girl finally delivered the baby, and was stricken by conscience, because she had falsely accused the master. In truth it was the village chief’s son who was the infant’s father, but they conspired to blame the old man for fear of the chief’s wrath. The girl confessed, and the villagers went to the woods to ask forgiveness from the old master and beg him to come live with them again.

The old man simply said, “Very well, thank you,” and went back to live in the village.

Having just celebrated my 45th year of existence, I look back and find so many things for which I am grateful:

For a dad who worked hard to provide me with material comfort and a great education; who was stern in chipping off my rough edges, yet reasonable enough to allow me enough freedom to spread my wings;

For a mom who talks tough but has a great heart, and always ready to give a box of pomelos;

For siblings each with their own quirks, but always caring in their own special way;

For the endless stream of dogs my mom collected, and whom I grew up loving and crying over when they passed on, and for the two that I now have, who still adore me though I call them stupid and crazy;

For the shelves full of books that were my greatest sources of ideas and imagination, for great authors who welcomed me into their worlds and universes;

For great teachers who inspired me, and for the not-so-great ones, who taught me to learn things on my own anyway;

For former students who come back and remind me how crazy I was;

For friends with whom I can share genuine laughter and silence; and for unfriends who remind me never to be like them;

For my three not-so-kids anymore who are growing up really fast, who give me joy just by their being;

And for my one and only wife, who sees all the good in me, and all the bad as well, but loves me anyway;

These past 45 years have been very well, thank you.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles atwww.freethinking.me.

One of the first mistakes I made as a rookie teacher was focusing too much on the material as well as the strategies of teaching. I thought that the more material I could cover and the more strategies I knew and implemented in the classroom, I would be a better teacher. At around that time, I also joined Toastmasters in order to improve my public speaking skills.

And all that was good and interesting for me, but did they really make me a good teacher?

I would soon discover one very important truth — one that all teachers know implicitly when they were students, but can’t seem to grasp once they stand in front of the classroom: Students don’t really care about the material, and neither have they any driving desire to cover as much of it as possible.

The one question always on students’ minds (whether they verbalize it or not) and the one question any teacher has to answer first before getting anyone marginally interested in what he has to say is this: Why is this subject important in my life? Will it be useful for me if I plan to be this or that in the future?

Teachers, please don’t give the standard “You’ll need this in college” line because while that answer may make some students shut up, it will never satisfy.

I’ve taught several subject areas but I noticed this question usually pops up when I’m teaching Math. Someone will eventually ask why they need x,y, or z in their lives, and I’ll tell them straight off: “Honestly, around 90% of you who won’t proceed to engineering or math-intensive courses or professions won’t really need this. But here’s the reality, you need to learn enough of the basics of what I’m teaching in order to graduate. And I promise I’ll only cover the basics. There’s material here that may be good for those of you who want to be math majors but I’ll leave that to when you want to pursue that path in your life.”

“A secondary lesson here is that there are things in life we need to do, even if we don’t feel like doing them, if we want to achieve a certain objective.”

“For example,” I would ask, “how many of you want to graduate?”

All hands would go up. So I would say, “Well passing this subject is unfortunately a prerequisite for graduation. Now you can fight and resist it, but that will only make it harder for you, or you can try to look at it as a new challenge — something new to learn, and that might make it less painful. I am under no illusion that all of you will come love math after this, but you need to know enough of it to pass it and my role is to simplify the material and help you along the way. I understand that you would rather not study this but this is how the system works so until we find a better way, this is how it goes.”

That was then, before I discovered democratic schools. Now I have indeed found a better way.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles atwww.freethinking.me.