Those of you heading to Harvard, or to university in general;
those of you waiting anxiously for SPM/STPM results (have you even taken the tests yet?);
those of you putting in 24-hour days to get those “top grades” to get into something like Harvard thinking it’s the Holy Grail;
those of you pushed into the 24-hour days lifestyle for the Holy Grail by your parents, teachers, peers, the authorities;
those of you that are doing the pushing:

Please heed the words of ex-Harvard Dean Harry Lewis:

Slow Down.

(the above link leads to a .PDF – download and READ.)

EDIT: Tony has been released and was able to appear in Parliament today.

Tony Pua, founder of one of the first Malaysian education blogs, Education in Malaysia, as well as a Member of Parliament, has been arrested and jailed following his involvement in an anti-ISA peaceful protest.

It’s not immediately clear whether the arrest was purely due to his involvement in the protest, or whether other factors – such as his blog or his involvement with the Opposition parties – also played a part. After major arrests on bloggers mainly for what they wrote, it’s not entirely surprising if they thought his blog was potentially dangerous.

This does not bode well for anyone. After RPK’s release and the ruling of his arrest as “unlawful”, I figured that it was safe to comment on the Government’s education and youth policies, and was about to analyse some laws related to education and young people. But if Tony Pua – who hasn’t even done anything remotely criminal, and indeed is part of the Government now – could get thrown in jail, what hope does a Lain-Lain (racial “other” or minority) permanent resident have?

Good luck Tony; hopefully justice will prevail and you’ll be free soon.

The Sudbury Valley School system, started in Massachusetts in 1968, is one of the more pre-eminent and well-known forms of alternative school systems in the world. In the core of the Sudbury Valley system is democracy in education: students and staff are all given the right to vote on issues in the school that affect them – from school lunches to changes in rules. There are also no compulsory sessions, classes, or subjects; instead, the students take their own initiative in deciding what they want to learn, when and how they want to learn it (much like unschooling, just with a structural base). Age groups are mixed and often the students also act as teachers to their peers.

The Sudbury Valley system is in place in North America, some parts of Europe, Israel, and Australia, though it hasn’t really taken off elsewhere. This could be due to different cultural and societal expectations on the purpose of schooling and education. Imagine if Malaysian students were allowed to decide what they wanted to learn, and didn’t have to do exams if they didn’t want to! I would personally love it, but the rest of the country may degenerate into confused chaos as it’s completely the opposite of what we’re used to.

Part of overcoming such barriers is to experience the Sudbury Valley system for ourselves. If we’re not lucky enough to get to visit a school, though, there is another way: watching the film Schooled.

Schooled showcases the journey of Fred, a school teacher facing plenty of problems both in his personal and professional life. To resolve his crisis, he goes out to discover alternatives, and stumbles upon a Sudbury Valley school. The sheer difference of systems shocks him into reevaluating his perspectives and goals.

The film has received positive feedback from the Alternative Education Resource Organisation, the key worldwide organisation for alternative and democratic schooling, as well as other educators and past Sudbury Valley students. Screenings have been held around the US, Australia, Sweden, and Canada.

To celebrate its launch, the people at Schooled are offering special discounts and free offers for every DVD sold on Wednesday, October 15 (Launch Day). The DVD normally costs $25, but for Launch Day there will be a 20% discount as well as a choice of goodies related to alternative education or to Hollywood.

I haven’t had the chance to see the movie yet, but if I do I’ll post a review. This should be interesting – there have been a lot of films about teachers and schools, but not many (if any) dealing with a real-world alternative system. Will this increase awareness and acceptance for alternative systems? Let’s see.

(thanks Erin!)

The SOLS (Science of Life) 24/7 organization, founded by the family of young Malaysian social entrepreneur Raj Ridhvan Singh (recently shortlisted as one of KLue’s Blue Chillies) builds boarding schools across Cambodia, Timor Leste, and Malaysia for marginalized young people. In these schools, students learn 2 years of English, maths, business, leadership, character, and volunteering skills, amongst others. This enables them to reintegrate with the rest of society, obtain jobs, and support themselves.

Malaysiakini also has an interview and video profile with Raj about the SOLS 24/7 school in Malaysia.

I’ve met Raj briefly and heard him speak about his project, and I find him really passionate and sincere towards his cause. I do have some questions about the Science of Life system itself (some of the students talk about it being an actual subject, but there’s no actual information on it specifically) but overall this initiative is doing a lot of good to those that really need the help.

SOLS 24/7 is in great need of funding, support, and volunteers. If you can help, contact Raj at +6012 6398 442 or email him at raj@sols247.org.

If you think young people don’t have the capacity, interest, or drive to make the world a better place, watch this speech and think again:

That powerful speech (transcript here) is by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who started the Environmental Children’s Organization in Canada when she was nine, and at twelve delivered the above to world leaders at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Her passion for environmental awareness still lives on today, with the creation of online think-tank The Skyfish Project and her current studies in ethnobotany.

I’ve heard from quite a few adults – some who should really know better – who lament the idea that young people are too apathetic to care about the world. However, as examples like Severn show, passionate socially-conscious young people are out there making a difference every day. Indeed, the Social Citizens project has published a paper detailing the efforts and consciousness of the Millenials (the current generation of 15-to-29 year-olds) and their important social change work. Severn is on the edge of this generation, but she is a great representative of the power young people hold.

Do you know of any other young people like Severn? Share your examples here.

Tony Pua, co-writer of top Malaysian education blog Education in Malaysia, won his seat in PJ Utara in Malaysia’s recent elections, and is now a Member of Parliament. He is one of a handful of Malaysian bloggers that are now officially involved in politics.

This will be interesting. I knew about Tony’s nomination, but I didn’t think he’d win mainly because he’s under DAP and the Opposition hardly wins in Malaysian elections. However, this year’s elections have been surprisingly good for the Opposition (now not Opposition? haha), and Tony’s one of the beneficiaries of that good fortune. Another factor against him was that he didn’t have any political experience – and who expects a blogger to get into Parliament? Now we have 2 in federal and 2 in state assembly! Crazy!

Tony and I have been acquainted due to our similar blogs, and we’re often crossposting from each other. We sometimes have diametrically opposing views on education (for example, Tony’s big on determining the value of universities by their rankings; I think rankings are bunk) but we still respect and quite like each other.

Hopefully Tony will be able to introduce some changes to the Malaysian education system, making it more open and varied and supportive of students. Will Tony be Minister of Education? I doubt it (wouldn’t all the Ministers have to be from BN since they are the majority?) but I’d definitely like to see it happen – at least he knows what he’s doing!

Good luck Tony and all the best!

Daniel and I have shortlisted the nominees of our Young Entrepreneur eBook project and they are now up for voting.

Click on this link to vote for your favourite young entrepreneur here now!

From The Star:

I AM a Malaysian citizen who has taken a Filipino wife four years ago. Since then, I have also been raising her son from a previous liaison as my own. 

But my stepson, who is now seven-years-old, is unable to enrol in a government school to begin his Primary One education. The Education Ministry has denied him permission to study in a government school although the school in question had already accepted him in principle.  

The reason given for the rejection was because my wife was stated to be “single” in our marriage certificate and it is impossible, in the eyes of the ministry, that my wife could have kids before our marriage.

Ah, Government. You and your strange ways of determining citizenship and school eligibility. And you say you want to arrest parents who don’t send their children to school?

Gerald, I suggest homeschooling.

If you’re a social entrepreneur, activist, thinker, idealist, young achiever, or anyone else in between, come by to Brisbane this weekend for Edgeware’s Do Well conference!

In Do Well, you will be able to:

• Hear from other entrepreneurs on how they make their ventures work
• Share your stories and ideas on your projects
• Work together on practical hands-on workshops to boost creativity and energy
• Share your expertise with eager learners
• Network with people from varying industries
• And much more!

Do Well will take place from Friday 22nd February to Sunday 24th February, at the Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre in New Farm.

Tickets usually go for $500, but as part of a special “Little Legends” offer (especially made for me!) you can gain entry for just $100 – an 80% discount! I have TWO spots left for this discount, so quickly drop me an email at tiara.shafiq@gmail.com for further instructions.

I’ll also be presenting on Saturday afternoon, so it’ll be great to see some of you there.

Thanks and be quick!

Daniel and I are sorting through the nominations for the Young Malaysians Entrepreneurs eBook, and there’s a glaring omission:

Where are the WOMEN?

We have about a gazillion male nominations, but less than a handful of female nominations. We are sure that there are wonderful young Malaysian females out there being enterprising – we just want to know where you are.

Go and nominate some women now!

An extremely thought-provoking video from the Digital Ethnography class at Kansas State University – does the current education system really work with the reality of student life? Or is it stuck in the past? (thanks ExperienceCurve):

I particularly liked the part towards the end where, after one student holds up a sign that says “After I graduate I would likely be hired for a job that doesn’t exist today”, one student holds up a filled-in exam answer sheet and responds “This won’t get me there”. Now this is a university class I’d love to take.

Daniel CerVentus, co-founder of Ideapreneur and myself are looking for 21 candidates to be featured in our upcoming eBook about young Malaysian entrepreneurs.

We are looking for the following:

• Malaysian – doesn’t have to be a citizen, but has to be connected to Malaysia in some way

• Age 30 and below by 31st Dec 2008
• Self made or revolutionary in an an existing business/organization – for profit, non-profit, social enterprise
• Highly respected in their industry
• Have great passion for what they are doing.
• A great example what Malaysia have to offer.

Please send all your suggestions to Daniel or myself before 14th February 2008. Thank you!

(cross-posted to EducateDeviate, Wanna Be A KP, and Facebook)

I’ve got some plans to develop EducateDeviate further (to make it more self-sustainable) as well as to boost my chances at getting KaosPilots funding.

To do that, I need help with the following:

• Web design and development – particularly those who can take my list of “I need my website to do this, that, and the other” and develop a nifty CMS that makes the job easy (more details later) while keeping to a certain aesthetic.

• Graphic design, particularly for postcards and brochures – I have ideas, I just can’t design all that well
• Event management - someone who can take my ideas and work out how to make it happen
• Promotions/marketing/publicity – the maven who can get all that above OUT THERE

In response to tech conference Tokion’s lack of women speakers, women bloggers everywhere banded together to create a list of women speakers for any conference, hosted at Personism. The ever-growing list contains hundreds of inspiring women in design, the arts, entrepreneurship, activism, non-profits, business, and everything else that would certainly be an asset for any conference or gathering of minds.

There’s another group of people often missing at these conferences though: young people. Sure, there is no end to youth conferences, but look at the big ones like TED or ideaCity – how many of the participants are under 30? IdeaFestival is testing out a “IF Kids” section, which was apparently quite successful in the 2007 festival, but might be a little condescending to young adults who aren’t actually kids but who aren’t quite old enough to blend in with the other adults. And even if those big events were more inclusive socially, many deserving young people won’t be able to afford them. Tickets are upwards of US$500 a piece, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to get them before they sell out. Factor in travel, visas, accommodation, and all other costs and you see a very pricey proposition that turns away many young people from otherwise being the biggest contributors.

What young people need are more opportunities to be represented, more exposure to wider groups of people (and not just their peers). Young people should be taking the stage more often in those big events, they should be the ones being listened to by big minds such as Al Gore or Richard Branson. It’s their voice that should be heard, particularly since all the big chances will be handled by us anyway.

Inspired by Personism’s list, I am now creating:

The List of Youth Speakers and Inspiring Young People to Invite to Your Conference or Event

This list is by no means exhaustive. If you want to be on this list, or know anyone (below 30) who should be here, leave me a comment with their name, country, the field they’re involved in, and a brief description. Please also include a link to a website or webpage about them. It doesn’t have to be their personal/business website – a profile or a news article works too, just as long as it has information (and preferably contact details too) about themselves.

Don’t be afraid to self-promote! So many of us deserve better but are too shy or modest to ask for it. I will scan the list for scammers and spammers though.

You may notice that (at least in the early versions) this list is skewed towards a certain geographical area. This is partly because I’m from that area so I know more people there, but also because people in non-Western countries tend to be underrepresented in big events like these. See the diversity of countries as a good thing – you’ll get a very varied set of backgrounds and opinions, information and knowledge will cross borders, and everyone benefits.

List last updated: 26 Jan 2008

Don’t forget to list your recommendations!

I’ve just been shortlisted for the AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007 in the Most Outstanding Youth category. Check out my profile, which includes a short interview with myself and my mother. I thought they played up the depression/anxiety angle a bit too much, but oh well – it is about overcoming adversity, after all.

To vote, send AYA Y 14 as a text message to 36828. Each text message costs 80 sen and I think you can vote more than once.

The other people shortlisted are:

• Gopinath Nadaraju, who gives free tuition to underprivileged students
• Jasvinder Kaur, who motivates young people to excel in life
• Jessica Mak, who serves the Malaysian deaf community through leadership programs and sign language books
• Kenny Lee Kian Yee, a doctor who mainly serves in rural areas
• Martin Majod Richard, another dedicated doctor that battled mediocrity growing up
• Muhtar bin Suhaili, who was born in poverty but is now an inspiring engineer
• Ruth Yeo Pei Cheen, who coedited a book on business and climate change
• S. Sivam, who battled a death in the family and being the breadwinner at such a young age
• Suzanna Saw San San, organizer of various youth choirs
• Tan Chui Mui, active in the independent film scene
• Teng Poh Si, cofounder and coeditor of Malaysian youth webmag theCICAK
• Tina Yap Li Yan, who had a rough adolescence but found peace through faith
• Vinod Laxmikanth, who survived his parents’ tough divorce and went on to be a doctor

Hmm…looks like a lot of doctors!

Check out their profiles and if you like, vote for them too! You may even win tickets to the Awards Ceremony if you’re lucky!

Links in Post:

• EducateDeviate: Nominate Young Malaysians – AYA Dream Malaysia Awards & 50 Years, 50 Heroes
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Zahira Tiara Shafiq
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Gopinath Nadaraju
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Jasvinder Kaur
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Jessica Mak
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Kenny Lee Kian Yee
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Martin Manoj Richard
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Muhtar bin Suhaili
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Ruth Yeo Pei Cheen
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: S. Sivam
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Suzanna Saw San San
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Tan Chui Mui
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Teng Poh Si
• theCICAK
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Tina Yap Li Yan
• AYA Dream Malaysia Awards 2007: Vinod Laxmikanth