Posted on 10 July 2014 at 4:44 PM
Without wanting to come across as a Brazil apologist, I wasn't overly impressed by Germany's 7-1 demolition of Brazil in the first semi-final of the Fifa World Cup 2014.
Yes, the current Brazilian national team, minus Neymar, do not meet the high standards of their predecessors. But, honestly, the German squad are not really the geniuses breathlessly excited commentators are making them out to be.
Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller, Mats Hummel and gang are ruthlessly efficient and technically accomplished. What they are not: football's answer to Beethoven, Picasso and Steve Jobs.
Their 7-1 victory over Brazil never took my breath away for the way they executed it, only for the very fact of it happening at all. They get my adrenaline pumping without stirring my imagination, the way Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo and even Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic do. At their best, those artists of the pitch play fantasy football.
What the 2014 World Cup German team play is reality football of a very high quality, the result of a superb youth training system. (See this Guardian piece)
And this is why this blog entry is in this Education section: Singapore's rigorous education system is increasingly being derided for the very same reasons the German football squad is now being celebrated - it drills its kids in the basics and beyond to maximise their potential.
Often I hear critics of the Singapore education bemoan the system's pursuit of rigour at the expense of creativity, as if creativity could be taught or hindered. A Messi could never be hamstrung by being placed in the German football academy system, just as a Jobs would nevertheless survive the Singapore education to accomplish what he did with Apple. That's why they are geniuses.
On the other hand, the relentless efficiency of an Andre Schurrle or a Toni Kroos might not have been honed to the shining example they displayed against Brazil, if they had not been put through the wringer of a no-nonsense youth training.
That's what I appreciate about Singapore's education: As merciless as it can be, its rigour and systematic drilling of students would squeeze every last ounce of potential out of everyone, if only they would submit to it. No doubt there will be late-bloomers and odd geniuses who fall by the wayside, but the system is for the majority and has benefited the majority, if our students' top performances in worldwide tests and Olympiads are any gauge at all.
Products of the local system may not impress the world with their charisma and have not yet exhibited Nobel Prize-winning creative sparks, but neither is there a Pele among the German squad circa 2014.
*Article first appeared on www.Hardwarezone.com.sg