Meaning of Success

Recently, I came across a quote which got me thinking – “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” 

In Singapore’s education system, our children are expected to excel in all subjects, to become masters of all subjects.  Reading this sentence alone gives me great stress because our children have to be great linguists, mathematicians, scientists, historians, geographers, chemists, physicists, biologists, and the list goes on.  Can we adults achieve these ourselves?  Nevertheless, young Singaporeans have lived up to that expectation, some even surpassing these expectations, if you go by the number of distinctions our students achieve every year.   This extraordinary achievement has resulted in the bar being raised year after year.  How did our children do that, and at what expense?

More than half of our children are myopic before they turn 12 years old and the age for needing to use spectacles to correct their vision keeps getting younger and younger.  The number of obese children is also on the rise.  More and more teenagers are reported to be suffering from depression and many have chosen to prematurely end their life.  While there is no concrete study to show that our high-stake examination system is the sole cause for all three scenarios outlined above, to ignore the possible co-relation is also misguided. 

Long hours spent on studying meant that our children do not have the time to go outdoors to play – an activity that has been proven to reduce stress, lower the probability of developing myopia and obesity among children.  High expectations to excel and the constant upward shift of the “goal-post” inevitability create sense of fear and inadequacy.  Image a hamster running on a spin-wheel.  When will it be consider good enough for it to stop?  Also, achieving an A1 in chemistry does not necessary imply that the child will become a good chemist.  It merely implies that he has managed to get most of the answers correct.  Whether he understood the concepts remained to be seen. 

I am not encouraging parents and educators to be “soft” on our children in the name of indulging in their search for the easiest way out (when faced with challenges).  In fact, I am all for instilling disciplinary and developing tenacity in our children.  No great thing is achieved without these two attributes.  However, do it for the right reasons and know your child’s limit.  Will you consider it a success if your child finally achieve the perfect score, but find it both mentally and physically impossible to go on?  What then is the use of the perfect score?  

Commemorating Steve Jobs

This month, the world stops (at least for some), to remember the passing of a great visionary, Steve Jobs.  Many articles have since been written about his life and his contributions.  From the many tributes paid to him, two aspects of him left an indelible impression – Passion and Exposure.

 “People with passion can change the world for the better”.  Do we want our children to be able to change the world for the better? Or are we already satisfied for them to be part of the world?  If our choice is the latter, then is passion still necessary?  Many people have survived, and some have even thrived (using their own yardstick), without having to show any passion in the work they do.  It takes a lot of courage to choose passion.  Maybe what we lack is not passion, but the courage to choose it. 

Jobs once said that to be creative is to be able to connect the dots.  What if we do not have that many dots to begin with?  Job’s suggestion is to give our children as many varied experiences as possible.  This suggestion sounds simple, but in today’s context, one month is what our children will typically have; when school closes in December.  For some children, even that one month is used to prepare for what’s installed the next school year.  Many parents have told me; “Either way, when children become successful in school, they will be able to do everything else creatively by default.”  Does it really work this way?

I supposed it is not everyday that we see another Steve Jobs.  Do we still need our children to have “Passion” and “Exposure” if we do not require them to make a difference like what Steve Jobs had done for us?    

Informal Learning - What's That?

The bulk of my work now revolves around informal learning – what exactly is “informal learning”?  In short, it means learning that takes place outside of school.  It encompasses learning that happens within museums, libraries, galleries, zoos, aquariums, gardens, parks, and even when taking part in competitions. 

Many educators and parents agree that some learning and impartment of skills do take place; but by and large, they do not consider such learning to be important.  It’s no fault of theirs.  To begin with, if it’s important, it would not be called “Informal Learning”.  Just reading off the title gives the impression of something “nice to have but not necessary”.  Secondly, the information that children gathered from such experiences are often not of “model-answer” format and therefore, not useful for examinations.  Lastly, how can we assess what the children have learnt after visiting these venues?  In pure practical sense, if we cannot measure the output, how can we determine the value of the process?  Yes, the children seem to have more fun than they do in the classroom.  However, at the end of the day, “fun” may not translate into “grades”, the ultimate yardstick.

It will be foolish to forsake the value that informal learning can bring just because we do not yet know how to make better use of it.  Learning that involves our senses and ruffles our emotions usually leaves a deeper impression and for a longer time.  This is where informal learning can do better than traditional classrooms.  Take for example, you learn to swim in a swimming pool (or river, or the sea for some), not in a classroom, do you?  Even if you have not swam for days, weeks or even years, the minute you jump into water, the skills that you have acquired will come back to you (slowly for some).  Now, try recalling the information that you have memorised for that 5^th grade or even college examination.  How much have you retained?

How then can teachers and parents make better use of informal learning?  Let’s talk more on my next entry.  

Why Homework?

What is the purpose of homework? 

If the purpose for homework is to ensure that students understand what was being taught, does it then mean that no homework is required when students show good understanding?  This suggestion is unthinkable for many teachers as equating homework with learning has become a norm for many parents. 

Logically, in a classroom, a handful of students will grasp the concepts.  Others may only understand certain parts while some will find particular sections more confusing than others.  In the ideal situation, the teacher will then assign different sets of homework to different students; depending on the areas the students needed extra practice.  Look at how athletes are being trained.  The coach observes them during practice and identifies the individual’s strengths and weakness.  Each athlete then spends more time targeting their area of weakness and developing mastery.

In reality, how can our classroom teacher tell who is missing out on what?  With 40 students, and only 40 minutes in class, she cannot.  To be fair, unless the class size is small, more time is allocated for the students to apply the concepts in class and not just for the teacher to “teach”; there is no easy way for teachers to know.  The solution will then be to design a generic set of homework so as to find out.  Here comes the bigger question - what is done to follow-up after homework is submitted?  If nothing is done, then the time that was spent on completing and reviewing the homework by the students and teachers respectively could have been better spent doing something else. 

Issuing generic homework is not constructive and does little to help students improve.  However, in today’s school, where each class has 30 to 40 students, what other alternative lies for the lone teacher?  Pedagogically, all teachers know that following up on what has been submitted by the students is even more important than the homework itself.  Why are we not practicing what we already know?  This is not the job reserved just for teachers.  Policy-makers and parents need to play their part too.

Art and Culture. So What?

The learning of the Arts and Cultures has been given more prominence recently when the Minister of Education encouraged teachers to “nurture in students a love for arts and culture”.  All educators know that they should expose their children to some form of Art and Culture; simply because such exposure is good.  What is so “good” about such exposure?

When children engage in painting, they are credited as being creative and expressive.  When children dress up in traditional costumes, they are termed as culturally exposed.  Both activities are not wrong, but their scopes are too narrow to fully reap what these two disciplines can illuminate.  Art education is not only about training our children to become artists.  We do not need to become artists to know how to appreciate great works.  Similarity, not only historians can benefit from the knowledge of ancient discoveries and advancements of the great Ottoman or Greek empires.

When artists create, they are expressing their ideas, motivations, feelings and sometimes, frustrations, albeit in a visual form.  When enjoying the artworks, we are not only looking at the colours and the painted images.  We are also communicating with the artist to understand another person’s point of view.  When faced with opposing views, do we have the courage to entertain the thought that people have different ideas, but the other person may not be “wrong”?  Are we then ready to provide our own responsible and justifiable perspectives?  When faced with a more "superior" opinion, do we have the humility to recognise our own limitation?

Culture helps us to navigate our own bearing and place in society.  Being aware and proud of our own sets of values and traditions give us the foundation and the identity to face challenges.  Being aware and respectful of other people’s history and culture make us less presumptuous and open to ideas and to celebrate diversity and similarities at the same time.  This broadens our outlook, allows us to better adapt to circumstances and to function more effectively and contribute maximally to society in our own unique way. 

The value that both the Arts and Cultures can bring to our children is immense. We need to approach them with more wisdom and not just seeing them as two non-exam-able subjects where minimal exposure is considered too much.    

I Do Not Like School

This week, in one of my classes, I asked a group of Primary 5s (between 10-11 years old) if they would like to stay in an economically-challenged country with no hygiene standards to speak of and no education system in place for their citizens.  Not surprisingly, a good number of the students put up their hands and said “Yes”.  When asked to explain their choice, they said they like that that country does not force their children to go to school.

To a large extend, I feel that my students, still at a young age, do not yet appreciate what it means to not have an economically vibrant country with top-class hygiene standards.  Maybe an exchange programme with another country will get them to re-think their decision.  I remembered asking the same question, albeit in a much simpler language, to a group of Kindergarten students (between 5-6 years old).  All of them said they like school.  Although these are two different groups of students, in just a matter of 4 years, the enthusiasm and excitement that I witnessed from the younger group has been extinguished as they moved on to Primary education.

Ask a child if she would like to go to an amusement park, play computer games, or simply just cycling in the park, and you get an immediate and resonating “YES”!  Why then do we not get such response when we asked them to go to school?  As educators, we often like to assume that children do not know what is good for them and the only reason why they do not like to go to school is because they are “lazy”.  No doubt there may be some truth in that, it is also very convenient for us to just push the blame onto the children and not reflect upon our own actions.

A school will not and should not function like an amusement park.  A school has a much greater responsibility to fulfill. However, is there something we can learn from an amusement park?  How can we make school a much more pleasant place that children want to go?  A school allows our children to try out something new everyday.  It allows our children to make friends and to socialise.  Does this not sound like what an amusement park is doing to attract our children?  Maybe it’s time for us to ask ourselves if we would like to exchange places with our students.  Can we blame our children if even we ourselves do not want to be where they are right now?  How then can we make it better?

Technology for Technology Sake

Recent educational journals, magazines, and newspapers have been advocating the use of technology within the educational landscape.  Even conversations amongst educators and parents echoed the same sentiments.  Positive results have also been observed from children using apps to improve their command of language and their counting skills.

This conversation is not new.  Ever since the explosion of the World Wide Web into our daily life, educators have been thinking about how to harness technology to make learning and teaching more interactive, more engaging and more efficient for all. 

I am a believer of trying out new ideas, methods and pedagogy; as long as they are sound and well-intended.  Much has been said about the efficacy of technology.  I would like to suggest another - to reduce the emotional distance between the teacher and her students.  In a class of 40 students, the teacher is just an authoritative voice.  It is a tall order to ask of the teacher to build a strong bond with each of her student – to understand each unique temperament, character and the challenges he faces both in school and at home.

How then can technology help?  Snoop around Facebook and Twitter, and it becomes clear that our young are very comfortable with sharing their feelings, thoughts and ideas with others.  We educators need to use this to our advantage!  There is no need to wait for the year-end feedback or until the “Meet-the-Parents” day.  Our children are communicating with us and reaching out to us, but are we listening?

Irregardless of how technology has modified the way children want to learn, the effect of care and concern that one human being has for another will not change.  Our children will only learn better and enjoy learning more if they know that there’s someone whom they can trust.  Someone who is not there to judge them, but is genuinely concern about them and want them to succeed in their own ways.  Let's use technology to bring us closer to our children!

There are many other ways technology can help us educators.  This communication platform is here to stay and embracing it sooner rather than later is wise advice.  However, it is silly to champion technology just because “it’s technology!”.  “Why do we want to use it?”, “How do we want to use it?” and, “Where do we want to use it?” are important questions that we educators need to ask ourselves first.  Sounds familiar?