before i begin on the actual talk-talk, let's see how much you know about the world today. in the video below are a number of facts that i'm willing to bet you have no idea about, for at least half of it. take the test, be true to yourself, and ask yourself from your deepest thoughts and emotions--"do i really know what is going on in the world?"
alright. bet that caught you off-guard, huh? that goes to show that there is so much information flowing about, you can never say that you know the world at your fingertips. every second, a new word is formed, a new technology is discovered, a new individual is born ; the world is changing at such an alarming rate that education concerning all of these has to struggle to keep up with conveying the knowledge to people like us. but first, you might like to ask yourself the question--what is education?
a really wonderful place i visit to learn every weekend is the School of Thought. in the most recent lecture, we have discussed eductaion and we have come to the conclusion that education is defined as the following: to get every individual AND society as a whole a chance to be successful. also, it is an interplay of 2 challenging processes--getting knowledge that is outside to move inside and vice versa.
however, this definition raises another question that must be very obvious to you at this point in time--WHAT IS THE MEANING OF SUCCESS? what is a successful life? what is a successful society? basically, success involves many different aspects:
1. material dimension (like the wealthy, rich & developed)
2. intellectual dimension (concerning the intelligent)
3. emotional dimension (being happy and satisfied)
4. social dimension (the gracious and kind individuals)
5. moral dimension (being noble, righteous, etc.)
in all these different dimensions, what you make of success is really based on what you feel is success to you. it's like how a priest's definiton of success is different from a solid economist's definition of success. a priest might see success as being able to share the word of God in the human world, to consult, care for and fulfill his mission God entrusted him with to others on earth, essentially the people of God. by 'mission', i mean many different entities (there is no single one that defines it so go check out The Purpose-Driven Life if you're interested). however, in the businessman aspect, his definition of success may be to maximise his profits, please his shareholders, ensure the company runs smoothly, to work with clients co-operatively, and most of all to enjoy the gratification that monetary rewards bring him. everybody has a different concept of what works, but whether these ideas are accepted thoroughly is a separate scenario altogether.
in short, a successful journey depends in whether we reach the final destination we wanted to get to in the first place. here's another test for you--ask yourself the question: if apocalypse were to occur tomorrow and you know about it, will you consider your own life a success at this point in time? will you consider Singapore/your society a successful one as well? chances are, you'd say 'no' for the first one and a half-'yes' for the second. nothing's perfect anyway.
going back to education, referring to what i said above, we cannot be fully educated about what goes on in the world. it's impossible to have perfect knowledge. why? because edication changes so quickly. if you've got time, take a look at the social studies textbooks in the secondary syllabus. two years ago, there were topics discussing knowledge-based economies, as well as the argument of why our own country's healthcare system is better than the UK's heavily-subsidised, monetarily-free healthcare. i have no idea what spurred the change, whether it was due to globalisation or that singapore has finally decided to take off the amount of propaganda through education in secondary schools, that caused the KBE chapter to be omitted completely and the evaluation of the healthcare systems made so much less unbiased. maybe it's about time singapore realised what was going wrong and took the step to neutralise the problem, i don't know. i'm just speculating. but what i do know, and what YOU do know now, is that when such drastic changes are made to education processes, it does indicate in fact that this shift of education is no small thing or a joke. it's real, just like how globalisation is real and inevitable (in fact it has already taken place), like how the income gap will just get wider and wider, and like how the world will eventually reach its end.
that said, let me evaluate education as a solution to our problems. firstly, education is one of our best long-term solutions becuase it deals with roots of problems, mindsets and values, therefore preventing them from recurring. however, on the other hand, education needs the support of long-term solutions because it does not deal with the symptoms of the problem that stops the situation from escalating. it does not address immediate and pressing issues.
why education has its faults is due to the fact that it cannot be effectively implemented in every society. education might be useful in developing countries of the world to improve living standards and such, but in developed societies, do we still need to use education to improve the already-high living standards? it's more of staying relevant than basic education.
from all of these information, i shall now take my stand. before you read this, i request sincerely, please do not fault me for my thinking because you think it is wrong in your eyes. you may be younger or older, taller or shorter, or live in a completely different society from mine, but the key to understanding is respect. i will accept your values and your mindset because i don't expect everyone to think like me, behave like me, or share the same morals as me. i know that every individual will do well based on his own expectaions and goals, it's just a matter of shaping them. likewise, the plans i have might need some shaping too, like how it might be useful if i were sometimes pointed in the right direction. some might say that if i disobey a certain 'value' or set path, i'd have to learn things the hard way, and though that might be true in certain situations, i would disagree. no matter what route is taken, there is bound to be hardship--no route is perfectly smooth. in order to pursue anything at all, a certain degree of hardship is necessary. nothing comes easily. it's like saying how the A levels and a degree are 'the way' to go. true, you've pointed me in a direction that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH IT WHATSOEVER AND IS A REALLY GOOD PATH TO FOLLOW to get to where many people perceive as a highly-educated person. i do not fault you for that or disagree with that at all. i personally believe that it is achievable by many individuals, no doubt about it. what i do not agree with, however, is that this 'way' is the only way to reach that final destination and to attain that extremely sought-after goal by many. it is still possible to get there via an alternative path in which you might see as 'learning it the hard way', but look back to what you said about the first route. is this first route absolutely easy? does it require no hardship? like i said, everything requires a degree of struggle so that you will be deserving. i contend that there is no such thing as 'a route harder than another', because what might seem easy at first might also have a whole bunch of difficulty later. i absolutely dislike putting theories into subjective topics like this. it's like how i will always say that love is not a theory, glosablisation is not a theory, success is most definitely not a theory and in this case, education is not a theory. call me a non-conformist, but that's how i see things and i am extremely happy the way they appear to me. without theories, in comes the arguments, changing morals and such. to the mathematicians, i see all these topics as having a variance of infinity.
while theories might be useful in their absolution, creativity is what is killed when people start following set definitions and guidelines, the 'rules', 'by-the-book' or whatever you may call it. ever wonder how creativity was born? it was from people who deliberately challenged the traditional norms. here's an explanation by sir ken robinson about education in relation to creativity at the TED conference.
by saying that those who challenge norms emerge the creative ones, i do NOT, by any means, suggest that challenging the absolute truths, such as the law, are going to result in creativity. neither do i support any one of you purposely going against your parents and caregivers to tell them you're trying to be creative. that's just stupidity. if you want your respect for your choices, SHOW the respect in the first place. respect is mutual, and you can loathe that for all i care, but it is so and WILL remain so.
i'd like to share a recent experience of mine. a few weeks back, as i sat at in the school hall doing my mathematics mid-year papers, i somehow felt the same way i did two years ago, back in 2006 where i sat for the same subject's examination. i can't really put a definitive word to the emotion i went through, but it was quite like a bit of frustration, a bit of confusion, a bit of reflection and some reminisce put together, garnished with a minute sense of anxiety. quite a number of thoughts went through my mind at that time, the first one being "why am i sitting for this paper?" without a doubt, i was a tad unsure of whether what i was doing was really what i wanted. sure, i quite enjoyed what i was set out to do when i entered junior college, it was one of the biggest learning points in my life but why do i only get the hunch that there was something not quite right only now? was there something i overlooked? was there something missing? i wasn't too sure. next, i asked myself, "why do i keep getting the same feeling whenever i do the paper? is this trying to indiacate something?" then my mind just rewound all the way back to before i entered JC. in 2006, sure, i had the suggestion of doing physics-maths-economics and i took it up without much real consideration, i was only 16 then and really looking at life options was about one of the last things i thought of doing. so i paid the 'price', screwed up all the grades and ended up at another milestone in my life--deciding whether to continue JC education. so i did, i took another year to look at the syllabus and i told myself that this was the 'set' route to follow, and that i'd better not get derailed from these tracks or i'm basically done for. i did what i could for my promotional examinations in 2007, just tried to work it all off. i DID make it in the end, but that was a period of one of my greatest fear because half my mind already believed that i had failed my promos for the second time. at this point, i'd like to finally open the doors to something i have not really told anyone before, especially those who are closest to me. at that time i thought it's be better to just leave it alone since it was considered 'cleared', so i didn't bring it up. but well, here it is: to meet the promotion criteria, i had to attain at least an 'E' pass in all subjects. my results shown on the slip were CDEEE, but in actual fact, to the real academic capabilty of myself, i had gotten CESSS instead. that was three subjects that i failed. all were H2s. S is one grade less than E, with the biggest gap being 5 marks away. the reason why my result slip showed CDEEE was due to the moderation of the marks within the school. during that time, i was already halfway out the school gate--deep inside me i knew i had failed and that i was going to get knocked upside down, but i just kept praying and praying that a miracle would happen at that time because i was overwhelmed with fear. i don't know how the resultant grade came about, whether my prayers were answered or i was just lucky. but today, i somehow felt the same way when i did my math paper not too long ago--when i left the hall, i told myself, i would be really happy if i even managed to pass this subject at all. i entered the examination hall relatively well-prepared, with my expectation being at least a 'D' grade. somehow, while doing the paper itself, my hopes diminished and i just felt that something wasn't right somewhere with my decision. when i got home that day, i could do correctly the same exam questions without any aid whatsoever, something which i had failed to do in the actual examination hall. i had gone in with the spirit of a soldier going to war and to 'go down with a fight', but i left the venue telling myself it was over. that's when i decided it was time to do even greater personal reflections, something i had so unknowingly neglected over the years. after attending the SOT lecture, i told myself that i HAD to get it right, i HAD to create a master plan ; a blueprint. nothing else to embark on except to work a plan first. i had to evaluate on whether what i was currrently doing was right, for me. before attending SOT at all, i shaped my plans on what others told me was good, what others told me would suit me well. i respected their advice and took it, but today i realised that there is only one person other than God who knew me so well that i could only take directions from him----myself.
after the lecture, i believed that what i become comes from myself and nothing more. i believed that if i did what i trusted myself to do, the results would follow. sure, i fully realise that the road ahead may be a tough one, so tough that i might break down, i might lose my mind at times or i might cause others to worry for me, but once i learnt to break through that entire wall, i'd be so much happier. i'd be happy because i did what i wanted to do, happy because i knew it was right to listen to myself, happy because i took the step to decide in spite of what i feared, and happy because my parents, friends, God, my loved ones and others are happy that i am happy where i was. at the end of the day, i'd know that i made the right choice.
attending school of thought gave me a much greater insight into how i should see life as. it might have courses labelled "A-level GP" but other than the skills syllabus, what i have really learnt there was to open my perspectives. i learnt to see things from a macro view, rather than a confined space. i learnt how values worked and how the world functions. the learning process continues this instant, but what i can say is, SOT has taught me more things than any other form of lesson, tuition or tutorial has taught me. i'm not commercially advertising for them here, and neither are these views of mine taught to me by the school in a persuasive manner. they stated their arguements, and i took up what i chose to believe in. i know that the road ahead is going to be extremely difficult, some people might not be happy with what i've decided to become and there's plenty of uncertainty, but i have mentally prepared myself for the worst. after all, the tougher the problems, the more i learn. and isn't that what education is about? i'd prefer the word "learn" to "grades" anytime, for it's the life skills that get you where you are, and not the papers. that's where my aims of success come from. if you support me in my learning journey, i sincerely thank you for accepting me and i hope that we can become even closer.
ben
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