Education for Life

This is originally posted on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 at 10:26

Being a ''product'' of the system, I know it intimately well. I started in kindergarten 1, and proceeded to Jiemin Primary School, a ''neighborhood'' school tucked in a quiet corner in the heartlands of Yishun. 

After my PSLE, I enrolled in Catholic High, a "SAP" (semi-autonomous) school. At that time, it was just above average. However I barely scraped through into the school- I had one of the poorest scores there.

After my O levels, I went to Catholic Junior College. At that time, I went largely because there was a pressure to do so. It is extremely rare in my batch to find a person who cannot make the grade into Junior College. And it seemed foolish to reject the JC path which accelerates the journey to University. Hence without much hesitation, I took the JC route.

However a slew of factors- largely because I tend to sleep in class and was not diligent to practice for my exams- led to an extremely poor grade for my A levels. With DDE for my three main subjects, I had barely passed my A levels. Since I was in the ''dragon'' batch, it is virtually impossible for me to make it into any local university. Up till today, I barely knew any JC student who had a poorer grade than me. 

After my national service and with a great deal of soul searching, I enrolled into SIM: UoL Economics. By this point, most would have expected me to rail and rant against the education system for "failing me". It is quite the opposite actually. The personal plight of various people who went through the system (misfits like me who don't "fit" the system) does not immediately imply that the system is fatally flawed.

By simply assaulting and attempting to dismantle the system, we may miss the forest for the trees, and throw out the baby with the bath water. Furthermore, one should not dismantle a system if he/she could not provide an alternative (if you can, then it's a great thing). In other words, hold your horses!

I start out with a simple question: What is education? Clarifying the definition of education will provide a solid ground where we can actually share ideas and agree on a concrete architecture for education.

Personally, I felt that most Singaporeans view education as sui generis- the system exists before you existed, you are born into it and you are beholden to its influences. This sort of deterministic mentality has two effects. Firstly, it exasperates those within the system- the individual sees that unless the system changes, they are stuck with a tainted form of "education" that sucks their childhood and suffocates their creativity.

Secondly, the "sui generis" surrogates the role of a healthy childhood and creativity to the system. In effect, parents expect formal education to rein their kids in, to empower their child and develop their child into a well rounded individual. This expectation, while understandable (most Singaporeans were raised with this expectation and they certainly want the best for their child), is fatally flawed.

Why do I say so? Personally 14 years of formal education had taught me one simple fact: the effect formal education on an individual  is limited by its curriculum, but education is really what we make of life. I know that many expect the education system to "well-rounded"- as exemplified in the liberal arts. The focus in this paragraph however is not to debate the different systems available in the world. It is to highlight the truth about education: your education is not merely dependent on what the school teaches you.

In fact many students of engineering, economics and english literature will find that their studies have little to no relevance in the working society (case in point: how do we apply indifference curve to a marketing job?). Is the education then "wasted"? Not necessarily. I'm not much of an idealist, but I believe there is something to be learnt and applied even if the discipline seems irrelevant (think English) to access well-paying jobs in society. An English major may be able to write and edit well due to the practice required in the course of his degree. If he learns to translates his writing into speech, he'll make a great conversationist. These are all "soft skills" that he could bring and contribute to his workplace. In the wider analysis however, I'll admit that most of the things learnt in formal education are still irrelevant to most regular jobs (unless you aim to enter academia).

At this juncture, signals should blare: if what I learn is irrelevant, then how am I going to survive in the workplace? Well, this is the whole point: Your education does not merely lie in the formal system! If you want to find out about resumes and CV, google it! If you need a demonstration for a presentation, watch speakers on Youtube! If you are nervous about general information (eg. interviewer may ask you about emerging markets), glance through wikipedia! If you are truly interested about what you study, borrow books from the library and glean new perspectives! If you want some practical tips, ask those who had been through it.  Be open and generous in your conversations, and you will be enriched by the shared experiences  as much as the other party had been enriched by you. There are so many sources of information out there, and diverse ways in which they are organized! Real education is a lifestyle. 

If you truly love your child, you should seek to instill a spirit of curioustiy, adventure and provide the tools for lifelong learning. My parents are modestly educated (up to secondary school), but they were reading children's books to me and allowing me to doodle since I was 3 years old. These form the foundations for my voracious appetite for manga and later in life, social sciences. My parents didn't force me to read. They simply bought books with interesting content and pictures- I got my first gameboy at 11 years old and my computer one year later-  I was placed in an environment where reading is a pleasure because there was scarcely other forms of entertainment.

As I read I wasn't just developing cognitively. Through stories I learnt the value of empathy, kindness and generosity. In the clever devices of the plot I found a creative spark. My patience was tested as I tenaciously tried to complete a lengthy novel. These intangible assets did not appear in writing, but they left an idelible mark in me. My teacher once said "If you can comprehend the naunces of personalities in a text, it will help you in understanding actual human behavior." What he said rings true even now.