The karate kid and The 'head fake'

What does a movie and football have in common. Head fake is a popular technique employed in football where in the QB points the head in one direction but throws the ball in a different direction. So football coaches teach the offensive line up to focus on the torso movement of the QB and not the facial or eye movement,in order to not get deceived. In plain simple words, head fake is just a deceptive technique. Those who are aware of Randy Pausch and his 'last lecture' and those who have seen the movie 'The karate kid' will quickly discern the similarity between the essence of the movie and the technique.

When it comes to learning, there can be no other technique as deceptively efficient as a 'head fake'. Randy Pausch talks very nicely about how he incorporated head fake techniques in virtual reality and came up with very interesting techniques of teaching computer programming to kids. By using simulation and virtual reality, Randy's technique makes the students believe that they are doing something playful, where as in reality they'll be learning a programming technique. That's exactly what the Japanese plumber does in the movie Karate kid. He makes the kid do some elementary house work, such as painting the wall, cleaning the floor etc but in reality he will be teaching the kid karate techniques. By faking the method of teaching, the teacher essentially provides a new perspective of understanding the basics of karate. It's quite natural for anyone to ignore the basics and jump to the 'cool stuff'. For instance in Karate - the key is balance and concentration. It's very likely that as soon as one gets into learning karate - the first thing they want to learn is how to punch, because that's the appeal of karate - to punch. By eliminating that appeal and by bringing in a new perspective that deceives the students to learn the basics, the 'head fake' technique essentially makes the students master the basics without even knowing they are doing so. Now that's creativity.

Creativity in teaching is a rarity. For kids, learning in a classroom is no fun. It always seems boring (as a kid, I felt terribly bored in a classroom) and the homework is no fun either. It's always seen as a 'serious' affair to do well in studies. Well on the contrary, kids always want to play. It's in their nature. The mind is ever exploring new things and has a tendency to look for new and exciting things every moment. What a boon it would be to kids if they could just enjoy learning programming or math as much as they would enjoy playing games. Wouldn't it be so nice if the same creativity that the Japanese master employed in the movie could be employed to teach some of the arduous subjects to kids. It definitely would be and I'm quite certain this technique is employed in many schools today. I just wish every parent understood this and used it effectively to teach discipline, morals and all the good stuff to the kids, in a 'cool way'.

Oh and The karate kid is a must watch movie - for anyone.