Juggling improves learning ability?

Side show at the Singapore Airforce open house exhibition (Thursday Aug 28)

I’ve just learnt a new fact from Alvin Teo, the marketing director of Kaplan, a private education service provider in Singapore: juggling improves your learning ability.

Five of us were enjoying a hearty lunch at Mezzanine restaurant in Hyatt Hotel – my colleagues sales manager Tammy Hong and marketing manager Frederick Khoo, with Alvin and his colleague Jess, and I.

Alvin says students in his programmes are forming a juggling club and he is importing juggling balls from China. One of his department heads is also a juggler and a strong believer in juggling for academic success.

“Most of us are already jugglers,” Alvin pointed out. “We juggle home and work and other commitments. Working adults who sign up for part-time studies will have one more ball to juggle.”

Not everyone is good at keeping too many commitments up in the air. Tammy said one of our customer service executives, Bee Wah, who signed up for a Bachelor in Business Admin at Kaplan, has to give up her studies halfway. She finds it too strenuous.

A search on the Web provides lots of stories on juggling linked to education:

Teachers link juggling to improved academic skills

Although they admit to a lack of scientific data supporting their observations, several teachers and administrators recently told Education World that they've seen students' schoolwork improve after the kids learned to juggle. Improvements in concentration, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, reading, and behavior are just some of the benefits of juggling cited by educators. More…