In November 2018, Adam Zainal proudly tweeted about his grandmother receiving her Master’s in early life education. She turned into an eighty-three-12-month-old graduate, and the Internet applauded her achievement with 15,000 likes plus 27,000 retweets and shares of his post. Datin Siti Hendon Abdullah was satisfied with having a good time at her graduation at Unitar, but she wasn’t relaxed enough on her laurels. The octogenarian has now put the pedal to the metallic to pursue her Ph.D. in the early formative years of schooling.
The retired headmistress believes age isn’t any barrier to pursuing knowledge, especially for someone with an insatiable thirst for understanding. And so, overdue for the closing year, she signed up for her Ph.D. at a personal university in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Despite being in my 80s, I still revel in mastering greater things, studying instructional books, magazines, or autobiographies. There isn’t any give up to education,” she says.
Working on her Ph.D. hasn’t been clean, mainly because of her failing eyesight. “Reading details kind is my biggest task, so I depend upon my trusty magnifying glass to amplify the phrases. Despite those hurdles, I stay up for lessons every week. I nevertheless feel pressure to go to college, which is 10 minutes from home.” The extraordinary grandmother-of, who dedicates between one and four hours daily to research, says gaining knowledge has been made less complicated way to era. She considers the Internet the greatest invention when you consider that sliced bread.
“I love Google. This seek engine is my savior. I love how I can dig up information with a few mouse clicks. Plus, it is user-friendly for people of various ages and walks of life. There are also virtual libraries that enable me to look from the comfort of home,” she says. While she can be comfortable trawling through the Internet now, her affair with the era didn’t start on the proper foot. Some senior residents are intimidated by using generation and feature fears of navigating on small devices or complicated menus on virtual gadgets.
Some people consider this ‘geriatric technophobia,’ wherein the elderly are skeptical about the blessings of technology. For the longest time, my four kids tried to influence me to use smart gadgets. I was not troubled by these gadgets, wondering if I could live without them. But things took a turn when I decided to add to my research in early childhood education,” Siti says.
She jokes about her conflict to get acquainted with programs like PowerPoint, Notepad, and Word. “It took weeks to learn how to operate my laptop. My grandkids needed to jot down step-by-step commands on paper for me. I cannot overlook the numerous incidents after I didn’t save my paintings and had to re-do the whole lot from scratch,” she remembers. Now that she’s versed in the generation, she’s satisfied other seniors can also learn to use clever gadgets and maneuver through serps on the Internet. If I knew it in my overdue 70s, other seniors could do it, too. What’s wished for is confidence and determination. Don’t hesitate to ask your children or grandchildren to manual you,” says the retiree from Johor.
Age is just a range of
Boredom led Siti Hendon to further her education. “After retiring in 1991, I kept busy attending spiritual training and doing house chores. But I nevertheless had an excessive amount of free time on my arms. I started to feel bored and had an experience of vacancy,” she confessed.
Fearing health troubles like melancholy and dementia ought to creep in, she opted to go for more studies, mainly in early life training. Her doctorate, in particular, centered on literacy among young children. I’ve been teaching for over 37 years, and I, in particular, like coaching preschoolers. I agree with human capital. It’s important to offer babies and young children the right basis to enable them to expand their cognitive wondering,” she says.
Siti Hendon has attended some 50 publications in early education in 25 years, and armed with her capabilities and certification; she installed a playschool beside her domestic in 1996. Her curriculum includes phonics, Montessori, rms-on-getting, collaborative play, and English. Her four youngsters assist her by financing her studies, regionally and abroad. “My husband and kids have supported my pursuit of higher training. I’m blessed that they have stood by using my side during my adventure,” she says.
