A beautiful day with Mister Rogers

Netflix added A beautiful day in the neighborhood. The movie shook me to tears. The more I learnt about Fred Rogers, the more I admire him. He is the great example for any teacher. To keep the feelings somewhere safe, I decided to write about them down for personal reminder.

For someone who has not been familiar with Rogers, he is an American TV presenter, educator, and minister, etc. His 30 minute show Mister Rogers's Neighborhood ran for 31 seasons. To many American, he is considered the uncle of many children and who used to be children.

For the millions of adults who grew up watching him on public television, Fred Rogers represents the most important human values: respect, compassion, kindness, integrity, humility. On Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the show that he created 50 years ago and starred in, he was the epitome of simple, natural ease. (King. M, 2018)

1. Consistent simplicity

But how do we make goodness attractive? By doing whatever we can do to bring courage to those whose lives move near our own--by treating our 'neighbor' at least as well as we treat ourselves and allowing that to inform everything that we produce.

Over 800 episodes, he entered the set with he same old way, change to his cardigan, and swapped to basic canvas shoes.

Just like that, his simplicity imposes immense impacts on generations. The sense of familiarity brings trust and security to young audience. Rogers's cardigans, Steve Jobs's black turtlenecks, or Mark Zuckerberg's grey shirt share similarity. Simple choice of clothes serve as blank canvas for audience to focus on what matters.

2. It is you, that I like

People love to be loved. Once you express the genuine interest in others, the love is mutual. We can see love is infectious thanks to Mister Rogers.

Love is at the root at everything, all learning, all relationships, love or the lack of it.

Just by saying "I like you", you can change lives. Try it.

3. Gentle triumphs

The legendary's soft spoken voice can carry strong statement. Fred Rogers prove that you don't need to make a scene with dominant voice and gesture to persuade. To persuade, Rogers trigger people emotions given trust-worthy relationship between his audience.

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. (David Hume)

Do we need to yell to express our anger? Rogers' answer is N O

When you feel so mad

That you want to roar

Take a deep breath

And count to four

When You Feel so Mad That You Want to Roar

I can stop when I want to

Can stop when I wish

I can stop, stop, stop any time.

And what a good feeling to feel like this

And know that the feeling is really mine.

Know that there's something deep inside

That helps us become what we can.

For a girl can be someday a woman

And a boy can be someday a man.

What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel

4. Accept your imperfection

Sometimes people are good

And they do just what they should.

But the very same people who are good sometimes

Are the very same people who are bad sometimes.

It's funny, but it's true.

It's the same, isn't it for me and..

"Sometimes People are Good" (1974)

Teachers are always asked to act like living saints. We need to wear, act, and talk in certain way that students should admire hence listen us. Fred Rogers, however, embraces imperfection.

Let's watch his famous tent debacle

“No, this is good. We’re ok. Children need to know that even when adults make plans, sometimes they don’t turn out the way we’d hoped.”

Yes, what kids and students need to know is that teachers are also in their practices. We as teachers are not perfect and we grow alongside with our students.

It’s a practice. He’s not a perfect person. He has a temper. He chooses how he responds to that anger... Well, yeah, he does things every day that help to ground him. Reads Scripture. Swims laps. Prays for people by name. Writes letters, hundreds of them. He’s been doing that since I met him. (Quote from A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019))

5. The purpose of life

Fame is a four-letter word; and like tape or zoom or face or pain or life or love, what ultimately matters is what we do with it.

To him, the purpose of life is to be helpful. Fame, fortune, and power can come along but they are not the purpose of life.

6. It might hurt

Mister Rogers does not avoid difficult subjects such as divorce, assassination, war, or death. He was the very first person to mention those topics.

You know, death is something many of us are uncomfortable speaking about. But to die is to be human. And anything human is mentionable. Anything mentionable is manageable. (Quote from A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019))

As a lecturer, I was told to avoid topics like drug addiction and divorce in my teachings. My colleagues advise avoiding difficult topics to encourage children for right doings. After long consideration, I insisted talking about them all: the beauty and the ugly sides of life. No matter how consistently we try avoid, people still smoke, divorce, and die. Our tasks are addressing the problems rightfully not to avoiding them. This, I have to thank Rogers to strengthen my beliefs.

On divorce

On assassination

Just like when you get vaccinated, this might sting but it will be over. And you will become stronger.

Reference:

King, M. (2018), Mister Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/mr-rogers-neighborhood-talking-to-kids/562352/

|Book Review| Nghiện giấc mơ, bơ lối mòn

Mình quan tâm và để ý tới Nguyễn Chí Hiếu do anh là một người học kinh tế và đam mê giáo dục. Một phần nào đó, mình muốn tìm hiểu con đường anh đi. Một số điểm mình muốn nhắc nhở lại bản thân sau khi đọc sách:

1. Cách học tốt nhất là tự học. Tự tìm tòi mầy mò, xây dựng thói quen tự đọc và tự viết về những gì mình đã học.

2. Xây dựng 1 thói quan học tập 7 - 8 tiếng một ngày đều đặn tự học.

3. Mình có vẻ hợp với kiểu học của anh Hiếu - dạng người học reflector, quan sát, chiêm nghiệm, đúc kết, chỉ nói những gì chắt lọc, và cảm giác có sức nặng.

4. Trở nên "kén chọn" hay social selective không có gì xấu. Thời gian quá quý giá để dành cho những người và việc không cần thiết.

5. Chí mén: being subtle and never lose interest. Đau ốm là do trời, chuyện học hành là do mình. 

6. Cuối mỗi chặng đường, hãy nhìn về quá khứ. Nếu có nhìn, đừng nhìn những điểm son, mà nhìn cách đi đến những điểm son ấy. What else lies beyond the degree awards.

7. Sách có thể đọc thêm: Bird by bird, Academically adrift, Growth mindset , Creativity, Inc., The promise of a pencil, Excellent sheep, The road to character

8. Leave your ego at the door

9. Put yourself at the stretch zone

10. Failure is a must

11. Đừng để những nhu cầu thiết yếu của cuộc sống đẩy mình đi mà để giá trị bản thân dẫn lối

|Book Review| Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

My favourite Youtuber Ali Abdaal introduced Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning as a book to improve his learning speed. The major lessons I learnt including:

1. When learning is harder, it is stronger and last longer. The more effort you have to extend to retrieve knowledge or skill, the more the practice of retrieval will entrench it. The added effort increases comprehension and learning. Effortful learning changes your brain, making new connections, building mental models, increasing your capacity.

2. Rising familiarly with a text and fluency in reading can create an illusion of mastery. Don't over-emphasize highlight, underlining, and re-reading 

3. Active Retrieval: Testing is a tool for learning. One, it helps you to know what you know and what you don't know. Second, recalling helps brain to reconsolidate the memory, which strengthens its connection to what you already know and make it easier for you to recall in the future. Like Aristotle once said: "exercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory". Low stakes testing helps dial down test anxiety among students by diversying the consequences over larger example. It helps instructors to identify gaps in students. Tests require learners to supply the answer like essay or short answer test, or simply practice with flashcards, appear to be more effective than simple recognition test like MCQs or T/F

4. Spaced repetition: When retrieval practice is spaced, allowing some forgetting to occur between tests, it leads to stronger long term retention than when it is massed. 

5. When you are asked to struggle with solving a problem before being shown how to solve it, the subsequent solution is better learned and more durably remembered. 

6. If the outline of lecture proceeds in a different order from the textbook passage, the effort to discern the main ideas and reconcile the discrepancy procedures better recall of the content. 

7. Process of learning: 

- Generation: The act of trying to answer a question or attempting to solve a problem rather than being presented with the information or solution 

- Reflection: retrieval, elaboration, and generation. One form of reflection can be "write to learn": express the main ideas in their own words and relate to other concepts covered in class or outside. 

8. Learning habits are beneficial includes: rule learning (extracting underlying principles or rules from new experiences) and structure building (singling out salient concepts from the less important information and link them into mental structure - memory palace). 

9. Students aim at performance goals while others strive towards learnings goals. While the first case works to validate your ability, others work to acquire new knowledge and skills. The prior limit their potential. The latter pick ever increasing challenges, interpret setbacks, to sharpen the focus, get more creative, and work harder.