Saturday, October 5, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
I'm not dead yet!
It's been a while since I posted anything. A lot has happened, but none of which I felt was worth sharing here. So here's something that perhaps will just be for myself to read 10 years down the road.
I am now a teacher officially, not teaching little kids anymore, but still kids. Big kids. College brats who are more like teenagers. This isn't something I expected to happen, but it did anyways, so here I am, a college lecturer. Design education is very different from pretty any other major. Idealistically we should learn mostly(if not entirely) from practice. Design education is also tricky because we lead students to engage in projects in which they should be the one coming up with the brilliant ideas while we provide the stimulants. That works in a society where kids grow up to think independently. Not here. The bunch that I am teaching aren't dumb kids. They are the smart kind, but they are not yet independent thinkers. They are constantly looking at me for "the next step". It's the way they were brought up, the way the society molds their environment and the way their parents want them to be their loving children forever. This becomes a problem when they want to become designers. They have to break their own molds. The hard part isn't to tell them to do something different, but to think different without telling them what to think. I've been warned by fellow and more experienced professors that I may feel defeated, and it may come to a point when the students' projects becomes more like the professors' works. Today I understand what that means. However, I realized that this is a part of the process to help get the students to the next level. In order to get them to think independently and differently, especially when under time pressure, I have to show them where they can be. I need to set the bench mark, a bench mark that they can see and aim for. Perhaps this time, I am giving them too much to lean their thoughts on and authenticity of their ideas may suffer, but to me, it's not about the authenticity that matters, but how to build a logic that will take them where they need to be.
To teach a person how to fish, you have to show them what a fish is, even to let them have a taste of it first. If not, where's the motivation going to come from?
I hope one day, they will find their own source of endless motivations.
I am now a teacher officially, not teaching little kids anymore, but still kids. Big kids. College brats who are more like teenagers. This isn't something I expected to happen, but it did anyways, so here I am, a college lecturer. Design education is very different from pretty any other major. Idealistically we should learn mostly(if not entirely) from practice. Design education is also tricky because we lead students to engage in projects in which they should be the one coming up with the brilliant ideas while we provide the stimulants. That works in a society where kids grow up to think independently. Not here. The bunch that I am teaching aren't dumb kids. They are the smart kind, but they are not yet independent thinkers. They are constantly looking at me for "the next step". It's the way they were brought up, the way the society molds their environment and the way their parents want them to be their loving children forever. This becomes a problem when they want to become designers. They have to break their own molds. The hard part isn't to tell them to do something different, but to think different without telling them what to think. I've been warned by fellow and more experienced professors that I may feel defeated, and it may come to a point when the students' projects becomes more like the professors' works. Today I understand what that means. However, I realized that this is a part of the process to help get the students to the next level. In order to get them to think independently and differently, especially when under time pressure, I have to show them where they can be. I need to set the bench mark, a bench mark that they can see and aim for. Perhaps this time, I am giving them too much to lean their thoughts on and authenticity of their ideas may suffer, but to me, it's not about the authenticity that matters, but how to build a logic that will take them where they need to be.
To teach a person how to fish, you have to show them what a fish is, even to let them have a taste of it first. If not, where's the motivation going to come from?
I hope one day, they will find their own source of endless motivations.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Photo Entry: Graduation
It's graduation for the sixth graders, but it also felt like my graduation from Taitung. Although it's been two months since I left, upon getting off the train I felt like everything is more familiar than ever, which is a feeling that I don't get in Taipei.
I simply love this area. The environment, mountains and ocean. The air, water, sunshine, breeze and wild life. This is the perfect place for retirement, and a dream if I can live here with my career. So here are more photos that I will probably be flipping through from time to time, to remind myself that there's indeed a place where I want to go "back" to.
I simply love this area. The environment, mountains and ocean. The air, water, sunshine, breeze and wild life. This is the perfect place for retirement, and a dream if I can live here with my career. So here are more photos that I will probably be flipping through from time to time, to remind myself that there's indeed a place where I want to go "back" to.
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