We have heard the parents and the educators. They want the best education for the children. Everything that needs to be taught will be taught. Our children are our future and should be the best they can be. They will be taught the basic knowledge in schools. They would also be taught the arts, music, and sports. They will also be mould with the best values of good responsible citizens. In short, they will all grow up in the best education system the schools can provide and will turn out to be world best, short of being geniuses in every one of them. And they will beat the rest of the world with their hands down, rounded in every skill.
One little thought, while we aspire to have the best for the children, and wanted them to be the best, do they have the potential to be the very best? And at their tender age, how much can they really absorb or be taught, educated and trained to be what the system wants them to be? Children develop at different age and different paces. Some mature earlier than others. Some learn faster or earlier than others. How much can the system squeezed into them to be super beans?
The reality has proven otherwise. We have the best system for many years. We have the best trained teachers and the best equipped and furnished schools and environment. We have the money and resources, from the schools and the parents’ pockets to give to the children.
And what did we produce? Nothing better than children from Third World countries who did not have anything but merely the basics, a roof over their heads, rickety furnitures and poorly trained teachers. And they are producing all the talents that we need and filling up the top positions in our economy.
What happen to all our super all rounded kids? Where are they? Driving taxis or what? Or are they kept in the museums or in the Guinness Book of Records? Even Santos is better than our super kids.
Chua Chin Leng AKA Red Bean
*The author blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg