(1) Comment on Janelle Lee's view on the education system in Singapore.
Singapore has seen tremendous growth from a third world to a first world country over the past 40 years since our independence. This is largely due to the fact that our education system has been efficient in nurturing out our present leaders based on meritocracy, which picks out the crim of the crop. However, Singapore's education has been one of the toughest and most rigid system compared with the other developed countries around the world. Despite the government's efforts and large expenditure to improve education, Singaporeans are still unhappy with it. Janelle's letter shows very clearly this fact. It has effectively expressed the unanimous view that all students and even teachers themselves would hold, that the education system does have its flaws.
Janelle stated in her first point that students were deprived of the ability to ask "Why?". Indeed, as we now live in the technological era, this ability is essentially important to us if we, especially the Generation Y and even Generation Z, are to survive in this fast-advancing society. No matter how developed the world is, we have just unearthed a small part of the vast universe. Asking "Why?" will certainly help to unveil even more mysteries, especially if innocent young children ask these questions. Sometimes, they may ask questions that even experts have not even thought of. Furthermore, these seemingly insensible questions such as "Why am I born on Earth?" or "Why are you my parents?" can possibly aid the human race to solve the mysteries of life in the future.
Currently, teachers will immediately stop us when we question a theory, formula etc. If we do not understand anything and are just forced to memorize, how then are we supposed to apply the formulas or theories in real-life situations when we start working? To solve the problem as mentioned in the earlier paragraph, schools should focus more on subjects such as Science or Socratic Questioning. Science is a wonder that has baffled scientists for years. Most of the science that we know today are mostly derived from people pondering about things, how they work and how they are formed. If we are not trained to ask "Why?", then there is a high chance that the field of science will stay stagnant for at least another generation, as there is hardly anyone able to contribute. Socratic Questioning is a fairly new subject where only a few schools teach this method of thinking. It helps us to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, and to follow out logical implications of thought. This can be very useful as reflection which provides both mental and emotional training.
Janelle then mentioned the problem of Civics and Moral Education (CME). In primary school, my Chinese teacher was also my CME teacher. The replacing of CME lessons for Chinese lessons in preparations for the then upcoming PSLE was all too familiar. I remembered that one and a half months before the actual examinations, I had no CME lessons at all. Although this helped my Chinese to get good grades, I felt that I had lost precious lessons training my character. It is undoubted that there must be a problem with the allocated time slots of the timetable, such that the teacher had not enough time to finish the Chinese lesson and had to eat up part of the CME lesson.
In conclusion, this letter has truly changed my view about the once-thought perfect education system, and also made me notice the inevitable flaws present. I hope for a change so that future batches will not have the same mindset as this teenager has, and that education will one day become the education that we all long for.
(2) Is an ideal education possible? Explain.
The meaning of ideal is "conceived as constituting a standard of perfection or excellence". We have heard familiar phrases such as ideal place, ideal environment etc. However, there is a flip meaning to this word, which is "existing only in your imagination or as an idea; not likely to be real". This, in my opinion, tells me that an ideal education is not possible.
We are but humans, to err is our nature. No matter how intelligent man may be, he can never create something perfect. An ideal education must be able to provide an all-rounded curriculum to a student, at the same time ensuring that the student is not too stressed and time is managed properly. It would be like creating a Utopia, which is impossible given the current system we are having. The ideal education system depends on the effectiveness of both the teachers and the students; the education itself depends on the information, whether it is accurate and reliable. Given that the ideal education system is put into use, the students would be so packed with work that they have practically no time for relaxation or to pursue their talents. This might end up as a disadvantage which results in a failed attempt at perfecting education.
Thus, it is better to have education flawed, so that we can slowly improve it. However, there can never be a case where the education is perfect as people have different perspective and their idea of ideal will vary. The utilitarianism education is ultimately the best, where the ends justify the means, and there is happiness ensured among everyone for the greater good.
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