In November 2018, Adam Zainal proudly tweeted approximately his grandmother receiving her Master’s degree in early life education. She turned into an eighty three-12 months-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 turned into satisfied to have a good time her graduation at Unitar, but she wasn’t approximately relaxed 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 in the pursuit of knowledge, especially for someone with an insatiable thirst for understanding. And so overdue 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 along with 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 pressure to college that is 10 mins from home.” The extraordinary-grandmother-of-, who dedicates between one and four hours every day for research, says gaining knowledge of 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 clicks of the mouse. Plus, it is user-friendly for people of various a while and walks of life. There are also virtual libraries which enable me to have a look at from the comfort of domestic,” she says. While she can be comfortable trawling through the Internet now, her affair with the era didn’t start at 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 period this as ‘geriatric technophobia’ wherein the aged are skeptical approximately the blessings of technology. For the longest time, my 4 kids tried to influence me to apply smart gadgets. I by no means troubled about these gadgets, wondering I could stay without them. But things took a turn when I decided to in addition 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 way of-step commands on paper for me. I can by no means 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 thru serps on the Internet. If I managed to learn it in my overdue 70s, I’m certain other seniors can do it too. What’s wished 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
It became boredom that led Siti Hendon to also her education. “After retiring in 1991, I kept busy by attending spiritual training and doing house chores. But I nevertheless had an excessive amount of loose time on my arms. I became starting to feel bored and had an experience of vacancy,” she confesses.
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 with the right basis to enable them to also expand their cognitive wondering,” she says.
Siti Hendon has attended some 50 publications in early education in 25 years, and armed along with her capabilities and certification, she installation a playschool beside her domestic in 1996. Her curriculum consists of phonics, Montessori, and arms-on getting to know and collaborative play, and English. Her 4 youngsters assist her by using financing her studies, regionally and abroad. “My husband and kids have been very supportive of my pursuit of higher training. I’m blessed that they have got stood by using my side during my adventure,” she says.
