The mind is a terrible thing to waste. I remember those notices on billboards on major streets in the Watts and South Central areas of Los Angeles on my way to college in the early 1970s, as a student from Ghana. On one of those billboards I remember a most touching picture of the great civil rights leader, the late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, with a little child nestling in his arms to stress the point that the mind is a terrible thing to waste. But such positive notices were few and scattered.

They were mostly drowned among many competing billboards that sported, in larger and more colourful and expensive formats, the virtues or “hipness” in drinking trendy sorts of booze, smoking particular brands of cigarette, or driving flashy cars for social acceptance. It was not difficult to see which ads caught the vanity of the impressionable youngsters on those streets.


One recent Easter day, at the La beach in Accra, cigarettes were being doled around, free of charge by one manufacturing firm, to the unsuspecting youth to engage in the habit, and be hooked on nicotine.


Wherever you look, education is key, so when opinion leaders and conscious personalities as Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey or Tyler Perry donate resources to advance important causes as education, be it in the U.S. or elsewhere, the rippling effect is affirmative in that they boost morale at many levels, both locally and internationally.


Such uses of good money contrasted sharply with resources wasted on drugs, expensive toys, the “bling, bling” medallions of assorted sizes dangling, decorating, and bedecking the necks, ears, noses and hands that characterize the mindset of many who have made new money in show business. The consciousness is all. It was impressive (in the movie “Madea’s Family Reunion”) listening to the literary laureate Maya Angelou and Cicely Tyson making those very points to the younger generation: Seize the moment; it’s your day; make good use of it; it’s not about your “booty”!


It was impressive reading that the Obama administration had approved an increase in Federal Pell Grants to cover up to $5,500 for each year of college education for the American youth. The grants are supposed to allow up to 7 million people to return to school for a college degree. Equally inspiring is the financial encouragement for mothers to pursue courses to complete their college education. If a nation’s future does not lie in good education, where else could it possibly lie? “It is evident that we can be improved and elevated, only just so fast and far as we shall improve and elevate ourselves,” said the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.


In a July 2nd 2009 interview by AllAfrica, before his historic to Ghana, Obama indicated the keenness to spotlight Ghana as a successful model, and an effective partner. But the key to “democratic commitments that ensure stability [and] a direct correlation between governance and prosperity” depend on whether people “educate their children”. We cannot see “progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law, in the protection of property right, in anti-corruption efforts” without mass education of the citizens.


He said, “I’m a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa [and] for many years we’ve made excuses about corruption or poor governance; that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism ... I’m not a believer in excuses ... I can give you chapter and verse on why the colonial maps that were drawn helped to spur on conflict, and the terms of trade that were uneven emerging out of colonialism ... the fact is we’re in 2009 [and] the United States has not been responsible for what’s happened to Zimbabwe’s economy over the past 15 or 20 years. It hasn’t been responsible for some of the disastrous policies that we’ve seen elsewhere in Africa.”


Tough love for tough times. These are some of the key messages to expect on this visit to Africa: that redemption comes from within, and not without; and the means to support visionary components of development are not complicated new wheels; there are “models out there” already.


Both Barack and Michelle Obama come from an American culture where historically the black man or woman has to be twice as educated, and work twice as hard to compete and succeed in a white world. Additionally, Obama’s own father whom he loved dearly left him and died too soon. When he noted in his autobiography that, “Respect came from what you did and not who your daddy was,” he meant it to the bone. He is the nerve center of that very predicament.


That “Respect” thing is possibly also a hint to those who expect to feed on daddy’s silver spoons. President George Herbert Bush senior, for example, aided Bush junior, for the U.S. presidency; but now in office success eluded the son. Dan Quayle is another protégé who found it hard to hang in. History is packed full with “big daddies” and abysmal results.


It is revealing that Obama chose Abraham Lincoln as a mentor: Talk about tough love, and rising up from your own bootstraps! It was no accident that on his inauguration as 44th U.S. president – January 20, 2009 - Obama swore on the same bible “Honest Abe” himself used – March 4, 1861 - as the 16th president of the U.S., declaring the Union perpetual. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” of 1863, “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is key to understanding this unique African-American president. Obama re-affirmed Lincoln’s beliefs, ideals, and identity for himself.


In their endorsement of Obama in 2008, the Rolling Stone magazine (New York) wrote: “There is a sense of dignity, even majesty, about him, and underneath that ease lies a resolute discipline. It’s not just that he is eloquent – with that ability to speak both to you and speak for you – it’s that he has a quality of thinking and intellectual and emotional honesty that is extraordinary.” The Rolling Stone could just as well be describing Abraham Lincoln.


Another Obama mentor is America’s resilient 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though crippled by polio, “Paralyzed legs locked in heavy braces”, F.D.R led his country into an unprecedented 4th term as president in 1944.


[ “F.D.R.: An intimate history”, by Nathan Miller, is a riveting 563 page biography about the life and struggle of an unusual leader, who made a difference despite the great depression, a challenge similar to one facing Barack Obama today. It is highly recommended for Africa’s leaders, and the youth everywhere aspiring for leadership.]


Once he noticed that people had begun to listen to his opinions, it made him “hungry for words. Not words to hide behind but words that could carry a message, support an idea.” Authors whom he cited, in this search for literary excellence, included Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Franz Fanon, Leon Trotsky, and of course, Mahatma Gandhi.


His other mentors included Dr Martin Luther King, Harry Belafonte (the best-looking man on the planet), Thurgood Marshall, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Fannie Lou Hamer, Marcus Garvey, Jesse Jackson, Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), Joe Louis, Louis Farrakhan, Booker T. Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Nat Turner, and Magic Johnson.


The Africans included Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Gamel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta (the Burning Spear), Tom Mboya, and Odinga Odinga.


The Artists category included Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, Dave Brubeck, Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and others.


To say good education is too important to this new first family is an understatement. Education has been the cornerstone of each successive achievement of theirs, all the way to the top. They are the very embodiment of how education can lift a life with meaning, and grace it with self-actualization. In our Africa, it is sad to see children learning in roofless schools, and under the shades of tree. Where many leaders themselves stop learning, and glue themselves to petty, grandiose projects and exuberant lifestyles - what chance will the newer generation ever have?


Of course, Obama’s speech to Africa is going to be very positive. He loves Africa with his heart; but in supporting his heart with his head, he may shock Africa’s leaders out of their complacency. Hear him gain, from the July interview: “I think that when my father left Kenya and traveled to the United States back in the early ‘60s, the GDP of Kenya and South Korea weren’t equivalent – Kenya’s was actually higher. What’s happened over the 50-year period?” South Korea put “great emphasis on education for a skilled work”.


Under circumstances popularized by many western media as Africa’s “hopelessness”, it is appropriate to take the larger historical view, to appreciate the lives, times, the works of the early pioneers who saw Africa’s positive future in, through and beyond education with prophetic acumen, and accordingly championed the cause for Africa in general: J. Africanus Horton, Edward W. Blyden, J.E. Casely-Hayford, John Mensah Sarbah, Kwegyir Aggrey, J.B. Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Francis L. Bartels, and others: Can we ever thank these bold souls enough for the enlightenment?


Like Obama response to his legacy question, on his stamp on Africa, we all hope to see “that a young person growing up in Johannesburg or Lagos or Nairobi or Djibouti can say to themselves: I can stay here in Africa, I can stay in my country and succeed, and through my success, my country and my people will get stronger.” We need the United States as a critical partner in that process. Akwaaba.


Anis Haffar is the Founder / Instructor of Gate Institute, consulting in Teacher Education for English Language Skills, and Methodologies for Leadership Centred Teaching. Email: gateinstitute@yahoo.com. Website: www.gateinstitute.org.

CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH LEARNER - CENTRED TEACHING

Critical thinking through learner-centred teaching






Prof Eleanor Duckworth and Anis Haffar at the former's study
An interview with Eleanor Duckworth, Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) By Anis Haffar

Introduction: On a recent academic tour of some U.S. colleges and universities, I had the honour of conversing with some notable educators. One was Prof Eleanor Duckworth, a former student of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) a key theorist and practitioner in educational psychology whose seminal works included “The Early Growth of Logic in the Child” (1958). Eleanor’s own experiences include teaching in her native Canada, the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This interview was done on June 1, 2009, at her office in the Longfellow Building, Harvard. The questions began with her interests.

Eleanor Duckworth [E.D.]: My question that I’m interested in is: How do people learn things? And what can anyone do to help? My own background was with a Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and his research director Barbel Inhelder from whom I learned that people must construct their own knowledge; so that leads to the question: If people construct their own knowledge what can a teacher do? So those are the kinds of questions I address. And I believe that to teach about any subject matter, we need to give the students the subject matter, not words about the subject matter.

I started in education, and in my early years I spent a year in Equatorial Africa on this work, in primary school science curriculum development. I didn’t know anything about science when I started that, but I knew something about children’s thinking. My colleagues who were all from the sciences clearly loved their subject matter, and they wanted kids to learn not from words but from worms, and ice cubes, and the moon in the sky, and pendulums, and torch batteries, and bulbs, and things, and to study the things from which they derive the knowledge. I believe that I was thoroughly persuaded by that.

Now I teach teachers with every kind of subject matter, and every time we try to find how to put the stuff of the subject matter into the learners’ hands – both children and adults, as learners.

So, in the case of Literature, it’s not so hard. You put the person’s writing into the learner’s hand: You get them the poem, novel, or short story.

In history it can be harder, but you give them artifacts and documents from the time they’re studying rather than other people’s words about those artifacts and documents. In Geography you can start in your own neighbourhood, learning how to map, and learning about geological structures and so on, and by going and looking and trying to explore them.

So in every subject matter people do – dancing, and computers, and how to run a meeting, and any kind of thing - it’s always by giving the subject matter itself to the learners in some way, and then watching carefully to see what happens when the learners explain what they are thinking; that’s the second part, have the learners do the explaining rather than teachers do the explaining. Teacher does the listening, and the learner does the explaining. And then the teacher knows what the learners think. If the teacher does all the talking, he or she never knows what it is the learners think.

So if the learners do the talking you always know where you are, and then you know what to bring in next, or what question to ask next, or what contradiction to point out, and so you have much more to work on as a teacher.

Anis Haffar [A.H.]: Excellent. Excellent. In teacher centered (as opposed to learner centered) methods, students merely listen to what is said, and reproduce what is said for an examination; and we are developing functional illiterates in the sense that people are not thinking critically. How is critical thinking incorporated in some of the methods you use?

E.D.: Well, learners are always the ones who produce the ideas and the teacher has the ear all the time to see if the ideas are adequate or if there’s something more the students need to know to develop those ideas, or if there’s something else, a contradiction within the ideas.

The teacher’s job is always to get the students to be assessing their own ideas by listening to each other, to see how their ideas compare with each other, how if they are different they can try to persuade the other person, or what gets them persuaded by that other person, or they read something that makes them think more.

In the case of the sciences, the teacher can suggest that they do another experiment which now will contradict what they found the time before, so their ideas are always being “self-criticized”, and by each other, themselves or by their peers; with the teacher always assessing if that idea is going to be okay for now, or should I bring in something else so they will re-assess that idea.

A.H.: I’ve learned here at Harvard that there’s a focus on community service. Is that a big thing here?

E.D.: It’s not too big here actually, but it is big in the United States, and in many places. Yes, there’s a lot to be learned from community service. Usually they’re shaped by teachers so that there are some questions students have when they go to do the service, and in the process of doing it they start to learn about the questions they have. That too becomes hard intellectual work, as well as service to the community.

A.H.: What is the benefit of community service for students; for example, for graduate students and undergraduate students, from your perspective?

E.D.: Certainly, for learning the sociology of their neighbourhoods, for learning the structure of the food supply in the neighbourhood, the economics of the food supply, learning the economics of any commerce, often if it extends outside the neighbourhood itself; so that gets you into geography, and economics of distant places, can also get you into history, also of why are things done this way, and certainly can get into mathematics of calculating what is needed in the situation, arithmetic mostly - not complicated mathematics. For a certain level that is good practice, that sort of thing.

A.H.: I appreciate community service in the sense that sitting behind desks all day long – can be a waste of time. And then President Obama, perhaps because of his community experiences, we see that when you get involved with people, to really understand people you have to get involved with them, you want to see them, see what makes them tick, see what you can do to serve them. We want to see what is happening outside Ghana to update our own educational system.

E.D.: Did you ever know about the Science Education Program for Africa in the 1970s, in Accra?

A.H.: No. In the 70s I was a student here in the States.

E.D.: When I worked with it, it was called the African Primary Science Program. The funding came to Massachusetts and it was sent to Africa but then afterwards it became Africa based and funded directly to Africa, based in Accra, for about six or seven different countries. And they did wonderful work, but I don’t know if there’s anything left.

A.H.: Thanks so much. We started from scratch; now see where we are. Thanks again.

E.D.: It was a pleasure.

Concluding Notes:
Eleanor Duckworth’s book “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” published by Teachers College, Columbia University (2006), contain some potent observations and suggestions especially in the chapters “Critical Exploration in the Classroom”, and “Understanding Children’s Understanding”. Here are some key points overall:

* We must find ways to present subject matter that will enable learners to get at their own thoughts about it.
* Helping people learn is my definition of teaching.
* Devise the situations in which children are called upon to think, and to talk about what they think.
* Questions must be clear; they must be broad enough to invite a response of more than yes or no.
* Critical exploration has two aspects: One, developing a good project for the child to work on; and Two, succeeding in inviting children to talk about their ideas: putting them at ease; being receptive to all answers.
* When working with someone else, try to understand how they understand something, and see how we can get to the same answer.
* Looking honestly at what a child really understands can be a self-evaluative act; it can be seen as a measure of the teacher’s own competence as a teacher.
* Put emphasis on what the children were thinking, not on its rightness or wrongness.
* The better we could judge how children were seeing a problem, the better we could decide what would be appropriate to do next.
* To the extent that one carries on a conversation with a child, as a way of trying to understand a child’s understanding, the child’s understanding increases “in the very process”.




Author’s Email: gateinstitute@yahoo.com
Website: www.gateinstitute.org

Laptops For Blind Youth
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for both blind and partially-sighted youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.

Stephen Amanor Kwao, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, made this known over the weekend when he addressed the 17th Annual National Delegates Congress of the youth and students wing of the Ghana Association for the Blind in Accra.

The minister noted that the Disability Act, passed in 2006, was to protect and promote the rights as well as the interest of people with disabilities and further empower them to contribute their quota to national development.

He also assured them of government’s support in the areas of education and employment.

He further stated that government will work with the National Council on Persons with Disability to among other things coordinate policies and activities of organizations promoting the interest of people with disability, international organizations and also NGOs that deal with disability. Collaboration with such bodies, he noted, was necessary as these monitor and evaluate policies and programmes, as well as promote research on issues on disability to encourage self employment among people with disabilities, particularly the youth.

Honorable Amanor Kwao added that in view of government’s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the District Assembly Common Fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2 percent to 5 percent. Also, government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.

The minister, in his concluding statements, encouraged the delegates to work with determination and avoid begging. He also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.

Mr. Ofori Debrah, president of the Ghana Association for the Blind (GAB), noted that all the tertiary institutions have blind students in their institutions and therefore the laptops would enable them do their activities with less support from others.

He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB was finding it very difficult to fund students who cannot pay their user fees.
According to him, The high facility cost for visually-impaired persons should not be used as an excuse to deprive them of quality education. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.”

The president of GAB also charged government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra Rehabilitation Center and the Social Welfare Department were under performing with regards to catering for the physically-disadvantaged.
The low enrolment rate of such people was also attributed to the poor allocation of budget to institutions catering their needs.

.
PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress

GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE LAPLOPS FOR BPSY
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for the Blind and Partially Sighted Youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.
Government made this pledge as a result of the courtesy call made by the president of the Ghana Association of the Blind (GAB) Mr. Yaw Ofori Debrah during the 17th annual national delegate’s congress of the youth and students wing of GAB.
Mr. Ofori Debrah noted that all the tertiary institutions have trainees of blind students in their institutions and therefore the need for laptops to be provided for he blind and partially sighted students to enable them do their activities with less support from others.
He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB is finding it very difficult to fund for the students who cannot pay their user fees stating that cost should not be used as an excuse to deprive the blind and partially sighted of this facility. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.” He said.
The president of GAB also charge the government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra rehabilitation center and the social welfare are under performing in catering for the disabled who cannot go to school and this is as a result of poor allocation of budget to these institutions.
The minister for employment and social welfare, Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao in his address to the delegates stated that it is the expectation of every democratic government that every citizen contributes to and enjoy the economic development of the country hence the pledge to provide laptops for blind and partially sighted students.
The minister noted that, the disability act which was passed in 2006 was to protect the rights and promote the interest of people with disabilities and to empower them to contribute their quota to national development assuring them of governments support in the areas of education and employment.
Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao added that, in view of government s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the district assembly common fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2% to 5% and also government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.
The minister in his concluding statements encouraged the delegates to work with determination and to avoid laziness and getting things the easy way like begging and also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.

PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress