On 'How to escape education's death valley'

Sumary

'How to escape education's death valley' is the title of a speeech that Ken Robinson did in a TED event. On it, he talks about the problems of the US education system and explains why is there a lot of teenagers that leave school, everything with a lot of ironic humor.

Ken starts criticizing the american law 'no child left behind', saying that how is it possible to have a law called like this when over 60% of kids are left behind on high school (80% on native areas), and by the way he mentions that this gives economic benefits to the US government.

To explain why the US education system is wrong Ken compares the human natural activity with what we have to do on school, and he talks about three points. On the first placec, humans are naturally diverse, and education is not, on it we focus too much on some subjects, leaving others apart. Secondly he tells that our natural process in learning is: we feel curious about something and then we achive the knowledge; on school, instead of encouraging this curiosity, instead engaging kids, what teachers do is to give information. Robinson says that it's not teachers' fault, because they are not asked to be professional educators, they  are asked to know things. On the third place, Ken talks about the important role that creativity should play on every educational system.

After that, he exposes how successful educational systems work nowadays (for example Finland's), focusing on some specific points: more individualized teaching, the high status of teachers on those countries, the high investment that is needed to help those teachers, the 'humanization' of education in general. Another important comment he does is that education is not a political affair, so politicians shouldn't decide what to do in class, this habit takes away the freedom teachers need to work.

Ken says that good educational systems exist already in the USA, but they are all private.

Finally, he acclaims that we need a revolution on education.

Opinion

On this talk Ken Robinson says what I've been thinking since I started school (his talk is more elaborated than my thought, of course, I was saying that just to show my agreement). What he says is so clear, totally logical, until the point that I don't understand why we still have the educational system we have after a talk like this.

I'm going to do a logical process: A country has a failing educational system→ it tryes to improve it → there are examples of good educational systems→ the country just has to imitate the good example → the country has enough sources  (we're talking about the USA!) → the country gets a good educational system. So what happens here? If the contry wants, it does. If the contry doesn't want, it does not. Remember that there are good private schools, it's just the public education that fails. I won't say more.

Vocabulary

thrive

STEM

Engage

'At your own discretion'

Commetee room

A funny look at the unintended consequences of technology

'A funny look at the unintended consequences of technology', by Chuck Nice, is a talk that is part of a TED event. Chuck is a comediant, but this time he talks about a serious issue (or future issue): the consequences of technology.

Sumary

Chuck Nice starts exlaining the consequences of a technology we havenowadays, the social media. When it all was created it was supposed to make us be connected with each other more than ever (Cchuck shows a photo of three girls, side by side, talking through the phone), it was supposed to help us communicate with other people all arround the world (Chuck shows a picture of a subway carriage: everybody is looking to his phone); the conclusion is that we are not more connected with other people, we are just connected to our devices. Then, Chuck talks about other unintended consequences of social media, such as cyber bullying or the problem of dating.

After that, Chuck critisizes autonomous cars, and then we get into the main part of his speech: the AI. He mentions the warnings of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the AI, and he says 'the creation always despises its creator' (it's the moral of Frankenstein, even if Chuck doesn't say it) . To explain the situation, he asks the public what they think the AI is going to do when it discovers that we are destroying the planet (ther's one thing we can take for granted, that we'll have a problem). He mentions the problem of sexual robots as well. 

Finally he talks about biological engineering, and how it's goiong to change us as humans. It's scary, isn't it? Well, at that point Chuck comes up with a wise conclusion: technology isn't scary, what's scary is what we can do with technology. Chuck ends his talk with this question: 

The true question is, how human are we?

Opinion

Ther's a point I don't like of this talk, because at some point it seems that Chuck is critisizing things, for example autonomous cars, without explaining the positive consequences they can bring to the world. However, he's doing such a necessary task, he's awaring people of the consequences of AI, and we does so in an interesting way: firstly he talks about an example so people can understand that technology has unintended consequences, and then he makes people wonder about the unintended consequences that can have a powerful thing as AI.

Vocabulary

DMV 

Despise

Engineering (it's not a new word, it's just that I never know how to spell it)

Think out

06/02/2018

On February 6th of 2018 an historical event happened: the Falcon Heavy rocket of SpaceX completed successfully its first flight and landing (mainly). And is that important? Somebody could say that it's just a millionaire launching his red car into space... (Well, if somebody says so, it will be better for him if I don't hear it) But that's totally wrong, there are a lot of thing going on here. 

First of all Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket that's been launched since the famous Saturn V that took us to the moon, so it's the most powerful rocker that's been launched this century. And there's another important thing here: SpaceX rockets are reusable. That reduces the cost per launch a lot; just imagine paying a hole airplane every flight, it would be too expensive for anyone to fly in a plane, it's the reusability what makes it possible to use airplanes. 

What SpaceX is doing is changing the rules of the rocket market, and doing so they're changing the possibilities of space exploration, and the successful launch of falcon heavy is a step towards Elon Musk's plan of going to Mars. 

I have to say that for me it was so emotive, I've been waiting for this launch for years, and I didn't expect a successful launch, I thought that something was going to fail... But it didn't, and it all went perfectly: the startup, the lift off, the max-Q, the booster separation, the landing of the side boosters... 

And then, the music. While all those things were going on, 'Life on Mars', a song by David Bowie, was being played, and the Starman was driving a red car to Mars' orbit, with a sign that said Don't panic... I didn't know whether if i had to laugh or if I was supposed to cry. Shame that the central core didn't land as expected. Anyway, the launch gave the world incredible images, and it's an example of progress, the result of a lot of effort by the SpaceX team, because some years ago what Falcon Heavy has done looked like science fiction. And I'm happy for Elon because SpaceX has been criticized by a lot of people, and one more time SpaceX has shown that they deserve respect. SpaceX is creating a new space race that hopefully will lead us to new discoveries and to a new period of exploration beyond the Earth. Ok, all of this is good stuff, but furthermore what SpaceX is doing is motivating people, for example myself and my generation, to look for a better world and not to accept it for what it is nowadays.

A reader kid

I started to read when I was 8 years old. Well, when I was 8 I had read some books, but nothing serious. When I say that I started to read at 8 is because when I started I didn't stop. The first books I read were the Harry Potter ones, then Idhun Memoirs, and then lots and lots of books more, it was a non-stop since I was 15. I read everyday in every chance I had, mainly fantasy books. I have to  admit that this is a bit insane, i read too many hours a day, but I don't regret. Well, since then I have thought a lot on how reading can affect a kid and it's development, and I think this gives lots of advantages to a kid:

1. Learning how language works.
2. If the reader gets inside the book deeply, he undertands diffferent ways of thinking and we sees different problems with their respective solutions.
3. It gives a strong imagination: when the reader visualises the images in his head, or when he just tryes to imagine a landscape he is not actually seeing, he is improving his visual memory and his spatial intelligence (what by the way is really useful).
4. Reading like this means that the reader will put less interest in some activities, like watching the TV or playing videogames, the most common activities in nowadays kids.
5. Reading means learning, history, phisics and even politics. I say even politics because usually people don't think on this, but in fact in every story where is shown how any living beign organises is telling something about politics. An extreme example is every book written by Ken Follet, but well, it's not really a good book for a kid.
6. One last advantage. Fantasy books related with magic often contain passages about learning how to control one's mind. A curious kid is going to try this kind of things, mental exercices that, I can not tell exactly how, but can be useful. For example, 'Eragon' learns to control his thought and just think on one thing during a period of time, not easy. Now imagine a kid trying stuff like this; I have the feeling that it helps somehow, maybe in concentration or abstraction. 

In conclusion, I think that reading is a good thing for a kid. I'm sure that all those thing together can help the kid in a lot of situations: having fun where there's nothing, a quick understanding on problems and solving them faster, empathy, more connections between thoughts... But the most important for me is the power of the imagination in a kid.

This image shows perfectly what I mean:

Books and writters, thank you all.

A new moon race?

NASA and SpaceX have both recently announced they will send humans to the moon. They aren't going to touch the moon but to orbit the moon and coming back to Earth. The objective of both corporations is to prove their technologies before sending manned missions to Mars.
Those missions are significant too because it will be the first time since Apollo 17 that a human leaves the Earth's lower-orbit, and because of the details of the orbit arround the moon both are going to send humans further than a human has ever gone.

The program of NASA is called Exploration Missions. The first one, EM-1(2018), is going to do all the process without carrying astronauts, and then EM-2 will do, one or more years later. They're going to use improved technologies that they used previously. This is the presentation of the mission:

The SpaceX mission is quite different. They are going to send humans on the first try, and they are going to be 2 tourists (they have paid some money already), not professional astronauts. SpaceX' plan is more daring and brave, just as often when it's about Elon Musk's plans. Apart of the experience that this mission will give to SpaceX, Elon sees the space tourism as a way of doing money, money that SpaceX needs. In this mission they're going to use a rocket that is going to be lauched for first time this year.

Elon said clearly that if NASA is interested on his mission, for example if they wanted to send their astronauts with the SpaceX program, he would give them preference. SpaceX guarantees that the tourists understand the danger of the mission.

Send humans to the moon by 2018 is a big challenge, but both corporations have shown that difficult things are possible.  So it seems that there is a kind of new moon race, but this time is the private corporation against the public organisation.

This video explains the situation:

I wish the best to both sides, but mainly to SpaceX, because if they achieve it they will show the world that  their innovation works. Well, I have to say that I can't be objective, 'cause I like all Elon's projects and I share his ideas. 

Dragon 2 capsule (SpaceX)

Orion capsule (NASA)

Why when I think on how small I am I want to do it all better?

Often I have the thought of how small we are. Every human has an insignificant size and time,we like it or not. It is not easy to imagine the size of the Earth, and I don't mean looking at a book with a comparison, I mean sitting somewhere and try to imagine how big is the planet. If you have never done it, look at the landscpe somewhere and try it, I warn it takes time. Well, this thought comes to me often when I look at the sea, when I am on somwhere with a lot of view or when I look at the stars. Then I try to compare myself with other sizes in he Universe... In conclusion, this thought makes me feel really small, and when I think on this, I feel good, relaxed. It may sound too poetic, but when I think on this I really feel peace. All these thoughts make me want to do everything better, to do well with my life... It gives energy, and when it's 11:00 PM, late, I have a lot of work to do, I am young and I just dream on doing things I really want to do but I have no energy to do ones I 'have' to do, it's important to have something like this that helps up to carry on doing all in the right way. 

One day I was just walking and I started to think on why thinking on how small I am I try to do all better. Logically, I think this should be the contrary: 'I am insignificant in the Universe, so it doesn't matter whether I do good or bad'. So how it's possible? Meybe it gets off the pressure of 'I have to be good', or maybe this leads to think that everyone of us is part of the human kind and as this pice of human kind I feel I have to do it all better for the rest of the humans, maybe then my worrys look so insignificant... I really don't know, but what I know is that it makes me feel good.

Bye, my friend

Hey, ESO,

Yes, it's the time. Will you let me go, at the end? It's been a long time since I met you, walking throug the corridors, just a kid. Don't you remember? One who was scared of don't fit in with the other scared kids...

Well, it has been a nice time with you, growing up, starting to know how runs the world and starting to know myself and the society.Just like in the photo, I was covered by clouds, and you've been the wind who cleared me up.

Because you, ESO, you have made me change a lot. Actually, I've changed not because of you, but with you, you have seen my growth. I met you a kid, a dreamer kid. Now I am a boy with objectives, hopes, dreams and a lot of strength, positivism and energy to show to the world. Now I'm not as innocent as when we met for the first time, ESO, I've been too much deceptioned and I've met too people. But don't worry, you didn't want to do it to me, I know it, but it's necessary to grow up. I'm not angry with you because of the bad moments you leaded me to, I understand that some things are needed to happen.

The question is, will you miss me? And, more important for me, will I miss you? I hope no much! If I miss you, it would mean that I'm worse that when I was with you. Don't you be offended, you have been a good mate, but I want a better future!

I know I will feel melancholy because of you, because our soungs and our privacity, especially thinking in the moments of solitude, the moments when I closed into myself, the afternoons reading in the garden, doing the homework or listening to music.

And I have to say "Thanks, ESO", because you have brought a very important thing to me... Love. I'm really thankful to you because of that. Forgive me if I left you aside a little bit because of the love, I hope you understand it. Now, my life could be very different without love.

Well, what's left to say? I will miss you, my friend, but I could not start our relationship from zero again (LAZYNESS). I'll see you next year, just from one year away.

I'm leaving you, ESO, thanks for your company, good luck and wish me good things!

My world - Shunga Jung

Few months ago my brother raccomanded me a video from youtube. This video showed an asian boy, called Shunga Jung, playing the guitar, and he played it very well. I watched the video and I didn't search more of his videos.
Two months later I was surfing on YouTube when I saw a video of Shunga Jung, and this time the way he played made me get interested and I browsed more of his videos. He is special because of his technique: he plays at the same time the melody and the accompaniment, but he plays the melody exactly how it sound in the original song. This is a good example: 

 

(Jason Mraz has invited him to play with him in more that one concert because of this video)

He's really good as well as young! Well, this video is a little bit old, now he is 20. 
I have seen a lot of his covers, and one of my favourites is his cover of Beat it(Michael Jackson):

He does his own compositions as well as covers, he has five albums between covers, collaborations and compositions. 

Today, loooking for information, I have found his official website, and there, this:

Sungha Jung (Born South Korea on September 2, 1996)  

Hi, I'm Sungha Jung from South Korea.

My dream is to become a professional acoustic fingerstyle guitarist.

I had been watching my dad play the guitar for awhile before I finally jumped on it myself three years ago.

Currently, I am taking drum lessons and teaching myself fingerstyle guitar.
I used to not have tabs for the music that I played in my videos.
I just listen and pick them up directly from the sound source in videos available on the internet.
However, recently, I have started playing with original tabs whenever they are available to me by courtesy of the authors.
My old guitar is custom made by Selma to fit my body size, and on it, Thomas Leeb wrote "Keep on grooving to my friend."

As of Jan. 1st, 2009 Lakewood acts as sponsor for my guitar officially.
I'm very grateful to those prominent guitarists who have had a great influence on my guitar playing.
I'll continue to study them and learn more about interpretation of music and various playing techniques.
My daily practice routine lasts for one to two hours when school is open, but I play up to three hours a day during the school breaks.
It usually takes me two to three days to practice and videotape a new piece but sometimes up to a week for more difficult ones.

Last, but certainly not least, I can't thank Ulli Bogershausen enough for being my musical inspiration. 

 It is hard to believe that he plays the songs just listening the music! At least, he needs to know very well the chords, the harmonies and the guitar techniques. Anyway, he is an amazing guitar player.

I have tried to play some of his songs, and I'm proud because now I can play this: 

Feeling proud of playing a song that a little child plays is a rare feeling, I can guarantee it. And even more, because I can not play it as well as him, but I still feeling proud.

Now I am trying with another one, River flows in you, origally played by Yiruma with a piano and arranged by Shunga Jung.

Last December... and now?

"What am I doing? Don't waste another day, don't waste another minute! Start doing something, the time becomes short if you waste it!" Those were my words last December, when I was stressed by the exams. I was dreaming about travelling and do useful things. 

Is complicated for a student to be concentrated  in one lesson when he knows that the lesson is completley useless and that he will forget the lesson the next week. But that's okay, a student can tolerate this. But when the student is under pressure, he has a lot of homework, he knows that this pressure is harming his health;  is easy to understand that his mind flies away every minute. Because, why are we every day six hours sitting in a chair, hurting our health, being teenagers full of energy and enthusiasm to discover the world? I think there are better ways of learning. In addition, we waste the greatest part of those six hours doing absolutely nothing, but this is another issue.  Returning to the subject, after six hours of school, the student arrives at home and he has lunch, he lies in the sofa some minutes... And he thinks about the studies, he thinks on the six hours in the chair, the hours in front of the computer, the useless and wasted time... But he controls himself, because he knows that if he keeps thinking like this he won't do the homework. So he starts again with the homework. But he is working on the Internet and he sees a photo of a mountain, so he starts to think about travelling and about go to beautiful places. Then he decides that its time to take a break. Then he keeps doing the homework... But it's already late, and the student is stressed and angry with himself. The student says to himself: "What am I doing? Don't waste another day, don't waste another minute! Start doing something, time becomes short if you waste it! Concentrate now, is what you must do, in the future you will enjoy your life, at the right time." He says this to himself because he knows that this is the truth, but does he find it correct? It doesn't matter, it seems that no one cares about it.

The best holidays... A classroom writing

He remembers perfectly the best holidays he has ever been on. It was summertime, two years ago, and in his family they were deciding where to travel. Finally they decided to go to Italy to visit their family.
They took a plane from Barcelona to Pisa. There, in the airport of Pisa, they met his mother's brother, one of them actually. With him they went to Florence, "Firenze" in Italy, and there they met all the family: uncles, aunts, grandmother, cousins, second cousis... There were lots of people! So they stayed there for a week, visiting museums, monuments and much more. All the sculptures really impressed him. And, of course, he remembers perfectly the fantastic food. How they ate..!

Then, they spent a week more in Torino, where his mother grew up and lived when she was little. He doesn't remember Torino as amazing as Florence, but he has a good memory of Torino too. There he played a lot with his brother and with a friend they met.

At the end, they returned to Barcelona directly from the airport of Torino, and he brought with him pretty good memories.

The guitar and me

I started to play the guitar more than two years ago, when I was 13. I had a guitar tutorial book, and it interested me. We had an old guitar at home, so I tried to play. But I had to give up, it was too hard and I realized that  with only the book I could not learn.

But I am lucky: my mother has always paid special attention to what us, her sons, wanted and dreamed to do. She asked me if I wanted to do some guitar lessons to have a base. Of course, I said yes.

I started to go to private lessons every Saturday in my town, and I did it for two months. My teacher was a young man. He was really nice and friendly, but in the lessons I didn’t feel well at all, because when I was 13 I was quite shy. In those two months I learned the bases, some chords and a bit of guitar writing. The lessons were only one day a week, but I practiced all week long at home. I have to say that I found it a little boring and repetitive. Naturally, I could play the most basic things.

When I stopped to go to the lessons, I kept playing about only 3 times a week, it’s about one hour and a half per week. This is not enough if you want to learn to play. I searched some songs, but I could play only the more simple of them.

Slowly, I improved. I realized it when I played easily a song that at the beginning I found impossible to play. I found it easy! I was pretty surprised and happy. Was in that moment when I started to enjoy the guitar.

About five months later, I needed more lessons to jump into another step of my learning, so I went again with my guitar teacher, but this time I went 4 times only. In those four lessons I learned a lot, because I played every day at home and I was motivated.

After that, I kept playing a couple of months on my own, but then I stopped. I returned to play mid year later, and I stopped again… I repeated those intervals until the start of last summer. In this year, more or less, that I was playing and stopping playing I got better, but slowly.

Last summer I practiced a lot, and because of that I improved so much. The guitar started to be, and it still is, an addiction. Maybe you know “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton, or “Let her go”, by Passenger. I learned both this summer, and more.

Nowadays, I love the guitar and it relaxes me. When I learn a new song, it makes me glad. If I think about my beginnings, I realize:“Yes, it’s real, it is me who is playing now!” This is moving. But the guitar brings me a problem, too: it fights with my homework, but the duty goes first, unfortunately for the guitar.

Daisy

She is Daisy (it's better avoid call her "it", she could find it offensive), one of my two cats. She (remember:  "she", not "it") isn't like a daisy, she doesn't look like a daisy, but this name is perfect for her. She is a really special cat, because of her personality. If you say her something that can offend her, like "You are ugly", she just goes away, but not before look badly to you, and if you have passed the line, it's better that you remain away of its claw range. But if you are nice and respectuous with her, she is the best cat you can have. She is pretty lovely!

And, of course, she is an interesting cat. I wish she can talk with me.