#26: Community update 30/3/2020

Good Morning ISHCMC Community,

We hope that you are well and have had a good weekend. We are pleased to let you know that two of our three teachers who have been detained since Spring Break at quarantine facilities were released yesterday and the third will be released this morning. All three have remained negative for Covid 19.

Yesterday the People’s Committee issued communication No: 1156/UBND-VX which extend the period of school closure to April 19^th. This came as no surprise given the transport directives, closure of shops and the move towards increasing social distancing policies. Hence, ISHCMC will continue with home learning and teaching from home until this date. On the school calendar, April 2^nd is a national holiday celebrating King Hung’s birthday and April 3^rd is a school holiday giving families a long weekend. Given our present learning program teachers have been asked to provide work for students to follow on Thursday and Friday to support you as a family, and to allow students to consolidate, recap and reflect upon their learning. Please use this work as you see fit. If you believe your daughter/ son needs a break from technology then use the long weekend to achieve this goal. Teachers have been given the option of being online but this is not an expectation, as they also need a wellness break from teaching from home. All students will be assumed to be present and working on both days.

As we have already informed you the IB Diploma examinations for May have been canceled. You may have been wondering how Diplomas would be awarded this year. On Friday we heard from the IB that they will be using vast historical assessment data to ensure that they follow a rigorous process of due diligence in what is a truly unprecedented situation. They will be undertaking significant data analysis from previous exam sessions, individual school data, subject data as well as comparative data of schools who have already completed uploading requirements and those who have not. All schools have been instructed to upload all internal assessment and predicted Grades by April 20. Hence the IB will be maintaining its reputation, rigor, and value of the Diploma.

To complete this morning’s update we thought that we would share this untitled poem by Kitty O'Meara that was shared with us and is going viral on social media. It is a lovely poem and links with the NY Times article that we are also sharing with you, What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change. The two link together very well in their provocation that as we human suffer and recover from Covid 19, are forced to change our way of living, this allows our Earth to recover from our misuse and mistreatment. This is well illustrated in HCMC with the beautiful days, blue skies, clear visibility and low AQI readings. So the question arises; do we have to be suffering a global pandemic to enjoy the beauties of nature, or is it possible for us to reflect and use this moment to change our relationship with our Earth for the better?

Kitty O’Meara’s Poem. You will find this being circulated in many different formats and linked to different events in human history some going back to famines in the 19th century. The truth is that Kitty O’Meara is still alive today and is in fact a housewife living in Madison, Wisconsin, US.

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

Here is a video link to the poem that could be used for a short meditation or mindfulness activity together as families on Thursday and Friday.

Have a good week.

Keep safe and healthy,

Yours,

Adrian

#25: Could home learning be more applicable for the future than learning in school?

Everyone knows that home learning isn’t the same as learning in school. They are different, but it doesn’t mean that what we regard as traditional learning is right, or better, than what we are going through at home today.

In 1665 Isaac Newton was confined to learning at home due to the Great Plague of London. At the time he was a student at Cambridge University and due to social distancing had to work from his home at Woolsthrope Manor about 60 miles from Cambridge. Newton worked at home for about a year without his teachers to guide him. He referred to this period as his 'years of wonder,' because he thrived given the opportunity to inquire. During this period he developed early calculus, new theories on optics and the first thoughts about gravity and that famous apple from the tree. Hence, it is not always that we are at our most creative and learn the most when we are learning in an institution. 

We must also remember that not all students learn in the same way and that many, as was obviously the case with Newton, enjoy setting their own parameters for inquiry, investigation, and problem-solving.

The aim of this post is not to suggest that all students working at home are going to be  Isaac Newton, or are enjoying the experience of home learning, but rather to provoke thinking about the future, what we need to learn and how we might be doing this. Hence, I am going to share two videos with you.

The first is Humans Need Not Apply. This video supports much of my fears about the future of employment and why we need to be looking at what is really important in schools and how the school prepares students for a future ruled by AI. Given what is happening in the world with Covid 19 this world might come quicker than previously anticipated because AI doesn't get impacted by human viruses, doesn't get tired, and doesn't need sick leave.

 The second video, by Heather McGowan, talks about the Future of Work and explains how the school will need to be more about giving students learning skills and that work will be the place our children will have to use these skills to learn and upskill all the time. (I have shared this before but feel its relevance is so important to today) So much of learning in the future will be done by our children independently and at home in their own time. As they recognize a threat to their own employment they will need to either increase their skill level or research and train for another job. It will be a constant cycle of work, learn, re-skill, re-employ, work, learn..........

Hope you found this interesting and gave you something to think about beyond Covid 19.

#24 Humans need not apply

We all know the world is changing. We all know that it will be a different world of work for our children. We believe that with all these changes will come new jobs that our children will fill.

That sounds great and stops us from thinking about changing things like education. But what happens if the new jobs are filled by bots, not humans?