I read an excerpt in Today yesterday (no pun intended) from SPG's blog. SPG= sarongpartygirl who has sexy pics on her blog and talks about sex openly. I digress.
Anyway, she said some about Singapore's education being all memory work, and you know, how we are just doing rote learning.
Well, what she says is true to a certain extent. We are doing memory work. Not all the time though, if you bother to ask questions in school, learning will be interactive. So maybe you blame the system for making you not curious and inquisitive. So maybe that is why you don't ask questions...well going to USA has made me realize that the good thing about Singapore's education system is that it teaches you discipline from a young age. If you are disciplined, you generally will be successful. If you are not, either you are a super genius or you fail miserably.
So maybe you think discipline is nothing. I disagree. I have an American friend who studied here in SJI for a few years before going back to the States. He credits the Singapore system with making him what he is today. He parties hard, clubbingm drinking...hanging out...but he also does wonderously well. He is starting or has started his first job as a project manager in Microsoft. What does he work on? Powerpoint.
Discipline. Something we take for granted. But it takes discipline to memorize stuff...you think what, we're robots who can just suck in information by playing computer games and soccer and going shopping? True, we are all somewhat cookie cutter students and true, we don't really remember what we so painfully memorized in the wee hours of the morning. We are, well..dull. Its not too late to be "undull" as this can be done when we are older. But discipline? Its much harder to inculcate once you reach a certain age.We did get something out of it.
Didn't we?
2 comments:
SPG? i looked at her blog once.. cos my bf noticed it and felt she had a rather unique take on things. and i was mad at him cos i thought it was just the sexy pics.
anyway, i think no educational system is perfect, and to say whether its good or not depends on what level u came through at. some of us have been quite privileged, but what about others? those who this cookie cutter thing doesn't work out well for? food for thought i guess. =)
i agree it isn't perfect...but i dun think people should just slam it without seeing what its benefits are..which is pretty much what pple do these days.
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