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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Bravo... Ian Tan Yong Hoe!

A journalist called Ian Tan Yong Hoe is my new hero because he spoke the pain of Singaporean children with words that resonate deeply with me...
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120502-0000026/Standards-are-unrealistic


Here is a comment tagged to the above article (that I find so good that I hope Sarah Sum-Campbell will forgive me for reproducing it here)...

My husband has a PhD in computer science and I have post grad qualifications in a child related field, yet we struggle with just the idea of sending our 5 and 3 year olds into the education system here. We need to migrate to get a life for our kids, the kind of childhood we want for them. What schools need here is to lower teacher-pupil ratio, spend the money on getting children inspired by teachers who have time for them. Children do not need huge buildings and fantastic hardware to learn, they need people to guide them how to think, show them how the world works and how to get along with each other. Here, the schools build robots out of our kids, kick the life and creativity out of them with a warped focus on achievement. To what ends? Achieving high marks does not make a child smart, creative, compassionate, a problem solver. Unfortunately only a small percentage of parents care enough about our kids think this way. I believe the bulk of parents here still think nothing of making their children sit through lessons, assessments and more papers each day. That accounts for flourishing of tuition centres - to better complete the robotic process and nail the coffin of childhood.


Post Script

Here is yet another well-written perspective in response to Ian's article...
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120504-0000062/Lets-rethink-the-scoring-system .

2 comments:

curioxete said...

Hi Petunia, not sure if you are still in Perth.. i've been following your blog for some time.. thanks for sharing your tips and insights on everything from botany to property :)

Just thought to let you know there's another point of view on this (by my husband)..you can read it here - http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120504-0000062/Lets-rethink-the-scoring-system

Petunia Lee said...

Curioxete - Thanks for the head-up!! I've included the link in the main post above.