Blog task 2

To what Sir Ken Robinson said about education, I entirely agree with it.

The modern world isn’t like what it was before, where in Singapore it isstill conservative and having the Chinese values and doing the best in whatever you can. The fact is that working hard won’t get you far, it is working smart that will. The old stories of working hard and getting a good job in some good company of your choice isn’t the truth anymore. This fact is no longer true due to modernization and a change in the global culture.

Kids are getting smarter and smarter with each passing generation. In the past, they would ask “Is this the correct way to do this question?” or say “It’s all right, I will redo it to understand it better”. As of now, the present, we will ask “What is the point of studying biology when we are going to be working in the financing aspect?” or “What’s the point of school when we just waste 12 years of our life getting ready for tests and exams and in the end not learning anything useful to our future job scope at all?” This is the inherent difference between the current and past pupils.

We do not see the purpose of school. That is true.

But why?

Is it because school is useless? No it is not, or else why would the oh-so-successful government still make it compulsory for the citizens in Singapore to go through primary school?

Is it because the pupils are lazy? No it is not, or else why would pupils still go to school and still bear the brunt of scolding and the piles and piles of homework that teachers often give?

Is it because we are forced to go to school? No it is not, we have rights to defy our parents (but it not that I am advocating students to go against their parents) and we have the rights to speech and freedom and act.

Actually there is no one obvious answer to why we do not see the purpose of school and education. It is a mixture of small, small answers.

The current system in Singapore and all over the world hasn’t had a major remodelling since like the Stone Age? For Singapore, although the government has done very impressively in our one-path studying way which is going though PSLE, O-Level and A-Levels, but what the government has to do is create alternate and better paths for which students are able to go as well. The government has done fabulously with creating ITE, Polytechnics and many other alternate choices.

But what they have to do is to persuade and debunk the myth that it’s the end if they follow the other path, because it is as good or not even better for the student’s future career.

Blog task 1

Alienating millions of kids who don’t see purpose of school

The usual story work hard, college, work, however, its no longer a guarantee

Marginalized ourselves

The current system designed, structured for different age in the intellectual culture of enlightenment, industrialization period

Many brilliant people think their not because they are considered non-smart

Economic and intellectual model is chaos

July 13 Online Learning

Writing Task 2: David Orr proposes 6 new principles for education. Referring closely to 3 principles, discuss to what extent you agree with them in your response of at least 400 words...

David Orr. He proposed the 6 new principles for education. I agree fully about the six principles that he has proposed.

Firstly it would be “The goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of one person”. This is one of the most important ideology of the whole education is necessary in Singapore. As we start off as children, as small and innocent Primary 1s, we start to realize that this is our path, and that education is our life for the next 12 years. As we continue on, progressing from Primary 1 to 2 and the on to 3, we realize that we are just chasing the perfect score of 100%, or in other words, absolute numbers which determine whether we would be scolded by our parents or not. As we start to grow up, we then start to listen to our parents who start to become philosophers, or trying to be, who talk about how education changes our lifetime. As we start to mature, we then understand that learning Mathematics is not just about the formulas, but about your analytical skills, and your logical thinking. The same applies to Chemistry or Biology experiments, it teaches us how to be procedural, and how to do things in a step by step process. By understanding the topic or subject at hand, you understand yourself even better, understanding your character and personality and this is the ultimate aim of education.

Why do we learn new things everyday? Why do we bother to attend school? It all boils down to the hunger for knowledge. We learn in order to gain new knowledge and why so? It is for your future, our kindergarten teachers say. It is for your own good, our parents remark. It is for your own use, our teachers say. They all make sense and they all possess one common characteristic. That it requires responsibility to know how to use it in order for it to be beneficial to us and our future. Mr Orr has also touched on this topic, when he said : “knowledge carries with it the responsibility to see that it is well used in the world”. We learn knowledge not for ourselves, as the exact opposite of it is engraved in our minds due to the myths that we grew up with. We have to use it for the greater good and not to be selfish. An example of a person being irresponsible with the knowledge he owns would be the Fukushima Nuclear plant disaster as well as the Chernobyl incident. Both are similar in a sense that these were possible because of the knowledge created in science for which no one was ultimately responsible. With knowledge, comes great power and with it, comes great responsibility.

Lastly there are many common characteristics amongst all the subjects that make them so similar yet so different. They are all environmentally related. Well a simple example would be like Mathematics and Geography. Mathematics is essential in our daily lives and by learning trigonometry, it allows us to calculate how short Bukit Timah hill is or by using differentiation, able to find the difference between two objects. Geography not only allows us to read maps if we are lost in the jungle but also know how it is related to economics with the demand and supply curve when studying about distribution of food. All the subjects are all related in one way or another, directly or indirectly, obvious or not obvious, to the environment and everything around us that revolves. It is the core of the point of education.