“The potential possibilities of any child are the most intriguing and stimulating in all creation.”-Ray L. Wilbur, Third President of Stanford University Potential, is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future” and is from the Latin word potentialis, from potentia ‘power‘, from potent– ‘being
Category: Youth
Defining Freedom
Freedom is a term which is very loosely associated with things. Although this is the case, one thing has always been very clear; we, as humans, desire freedom. We crave it. We yearn for it. But what exactly is freedom? Freedom is very often personified in birds. ‘I want to be as free as a
Set in Stone
He was sweating, his hands moving in a blur, ever so eager to let the image in his mind that was screaming out at him out of the marble. Moving, moving, moving, tool after tool, noises that made his ears ring, months of exhilarating work, still moving, still moving, still… Finally still. After many months,
Teaching Tolerance
I was fourteen when I was first labeled as too dangerous to attend school. My act of rebellion? I had tried to kill myself. The sad thing is, it wasn’t the first time this had happened, nor was it the last time I would try to end my life. Even today, as I suffer from
The Chicken or The Egg
It is often said that exams test your ability to remember rather than your intelligence. They rigorously check whether we recall the correct formula or the exact structure of words that will get us one more mark and let us pass. For a school, or any institute of learning, that is judged on the results
Dare you make it?
“Study just to find a job and get a livelihood, raise a family and die” Is that the real life we wanted? Does it make it worth to breath every second? Mark Twain says “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
The True Value of Marble
Born in 1475, in the small Italian town of Caprese, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (artist, sculptor, architect and poet) sparked a great revolution in art in the high renaissance era. Michelangelo was the artist who recreated what wasn’t there. He sculpted and painted the world that existed solely in his mind. He treated the
Creativity & Happiness
Introduction In our education we are supposed to be challenged. I agree with Logan because we are taught in our schools being happy and healthy is important, but only within their guidelines. We have had these guidelines set out for us, although what applies to one person may not apply to another The Pursuit of
The True Goal of Education
It was like a thick blanket covering us all; the mentality stretched towards the end of the earth. In every continent and country, on both print and electronic media, everyone was talking about the same thing. A victim I was to this era, where all our schools and learning institutes centered our learning on opinions
Conventional or Flipped Classroom?
I guess even the embryos in the pregnant women know the quote: “Education is the best legacy.” Western education, as known by our fore-fathers, is the best legacy every parent strive to give their children especially in Nigeria where education is the only catapult away from poverty. Even the orphans do struggle for it. And,
Classroom or Homeroom?
There is a quote by a great man Epictetus that goes ‘He who opens a school door, closes a prison’. Have you sat down and asked yourself this question: What would a person opening a prison be doing? It is one thing for someone to open a school; it is another thing to perform the
Save The Planet!
Turn off lights. Own one phone instead of three. Throw your rubbish in a recycling bin and not a normal one. Come on, people-if we all made the slightest bit of effort, our planet would survive for centuries more into the future, whereas the way we’re going, the world as we know it will be
Looking for Souls in Stones
Imagine reaching out, oblivious to the whispering breeze which whistles past your face, feeling the delicate particles of smooth marble come to life beneath your touch; courageously, audaciously, you breathe in the realisation that your next movement could enlighten or obliterate our world. Michelangelo, an artist to put all others to shame, was one of
Myths, legends and fantasies: why do we read them, why do we watch them?
At fifteen years old, I’m reaching the age where it is seen as ‘not cool’ to be engrossed by genres such as fantasy. However, I find myself drawn to books such as the Harry Potter, Inheritance Cycle and Percy Jackson series, alongside hit TV shows Merlin and Charmed. In all honesty, and without trying to
To be or not to be – is that what school is about?
At the back of the classroom, in the very corner, under the damp ceiling she quietly takes in her drab surroundings. Other children around her comprise of the Bully and his crowd of Followers. Followers, because they’d rather follow a bully around than be Followed and picked on by him. In the rows up ahead,
Let us light the fire
At the start of September every year, newspapers begin to publish a salvo of articles bemoaning the death of education: high school students are dropping out; college graduates cannot find work; students are disinterested and unmotivated. Every year, legislative bodies attempt reforms, and every year, the bemoaning continues. The problems with the education system today
True Education is the Following of a Passion
In a classroom consisting of 37 wooden chairs and tables, a typical public school student in South Korea is allowed 3.3 meter square of space if he is lucky. When he first enters the classroom, he faces a decision of choosing which ‘society’ he wants to belong to. The first society would be the two
Myths, legends and fantasies: why do we read them, why do we watch them?
Fantasy is ancient. Everyone in the world has experienced it, and as long as humanity exists, they will continue to experience it. Our entire culture is defined by dreamers, by people who hope and deliberate until they produce something – anything. And how do these people, these artists, dream of the unreal? Well, fantasy begins
Myths, Legends and Fantasies: why do we read them, why do we watch them?
Myths, legend, fantasies are interrelated. Myths and legends are symbolic representations of reality. Legend usually encompasses myths and fantasies. They contain strong wisdom that humans experience. Legends generally have a hero, or a heroine, and contain some truth or historic fact. It may also contain fantasy places or fantasy monster. Examples of legendary stories are
Be cool and stay in school, enlightenment is key to living a happy life
Introduction I strongly believe that every teenager should strive to put maximum effort into his or her school studies as it opens the door to a plethora of opportunities and makes one more enlightened. However contrary to many people’s beliefs, I do not believe that school necessarily determines one’s future success or failures. From personal