In line with the SG50 celebrations this year, I decided to write something about Singapore. My past experiences as a tutor made me realised that the kids these days have so much in life that often, they take things for granted. My ex-colleagues and I always lament about how these kids that we deal with will eventually become part of the workforce yet they lack not just the resilience in life but also the hardworking mentality that effort breeds success. To many of them, success should be God-given and their sense of entitlement is something that I honestly cannot handle. When reality falls short of their expectations, they then go back to their parents to cry foul about the treatment that they receive in school and from society. I kinda disdain that even though I love the job of teaching and nurturing.
Recently, I read an article online about how our government in an attempt to satisfy the electorate, is trying very hard to increase the number of places in university so that more can fulfil their aspirations of attaining a degree and if possible a good one with good career prospects. Consequently, universities have to lower their admission criteria and adjust the difficulty level of the examinations because these brats simply CMI. Even with the bell curve, there are so many failures that they had to give free bonus points to everyone. Well, who to blame because these students are so used to tuition and spoon-feeding and when they get into university, they also expect likewise from their professors. They expect to ace exams without putting in the required effort but they had forgotten the fact that the results are on a bell-curve basis so if you are indeed smart or put in the effort, you will emerge at the top. However, if you just scrap through your exams all your life with that "last-minute hug the buddha leg" mentality, I am pretty sure your results in university will be mediocre. Eventually, these undeserving kids in university graduate and enter the workforce. They bring with them this sense of entitlement to their workplace and overlook the fact that school and society have been accommodating to their whims and fancies for the past 20-odd years. So, yes this is where our dear Singapore is heading towards after celebrating this Golden Jubilee 50!
I share the same sentiments as the author honestly. When I first started teaching, entrance to local universities was so much more difficult that I have several students who did not manage to make it to the local university. However, they are very positive people who happen to fumble during their examinations. Subsequently, because of the 2011 elections, I had several students whose results were much more worse off than the previous batches yet manage to get a place in the university. IMO, I really felt that some of them DO NOT deserve a place in the university. I will always remember this particular student who was extremely lazy and unmotivated throughout the 2 years. No sort of critical thinking in the work done and his command of the language was terrible! I do not know exactly what happened during the exams but he managed to get a place in one of the local university. I met him on the streets some time later and asked him about school. Guess what, oh still the same old last minute studying but scrap through with C's and D's in the university. Imagine this person eventually graduating and stepping into society? Not a bit of him has changed despite the lesson at A levels whereby he flung his exams in the entire JC2 and I had to call his parent umpteen times. SO so so not deserving of a place in the university honestly and eventually calling himself a GRADUATE! What a SHAME - MY THINKING OUT LOUD THOUGHTS. That said, I know that I am in no position to judge.
There is another case which left me in a dilemma but I agreed to help eventually. This student was not in my class but was in the CCA that I happened to be in charge of. The student was doing relatively well in his first year in the college but somehow results got worse in year 2. Having contact with this student through CCA and numerous school events, I find him a little too whiny and had this sense of entitlement which I really disdained. He was extremely rude to his parents when he spoke to them over the phone on an occasion when it was obviously HIS fault. He was always complaining about how lousy the school was, how he was ostracised by his teammates in the CCA and felt that he didn't belong to the team. On top of that, he felt neglected because the coach felt that he was not good to be in the first team and did not give him enough playing time. So one day he came to me and requested to quit the CCA. As teachers, we encourage our students to have a CCA as part of your portfolio so I encouraged him to stay even though my heart told me that I should let him go. We were not in need of players but I did not want him to feel that even I, the teacher-in-charge, did not want him to stay on in the team. Eventually, he stayed on.
When the results were released, he did not do that well and came to me and asked me to be his reference for university entrance. I told him that he cannot possibly use his CCA to try to get a place in the university because he had no achievements whatsoever in the CCA. He held no leadership position, was a substitute 80% of the time and honestly his attitude was poor! The only thing that I could possibly write about was his commitment to the team because his attendance for training was close to 100%. I was really in a dilemma. On one hand, because I had persuaded him to stay on in the team, I felt that I was kinda responsible for his results. Perhaps if he had quit the CCA, he would have more time to study and done much better for A's. On the other hand, I felt that his attitude was poor and I do not think that I should be held responsible for his results. By encouraging to stay on in the team, I had indirectly become responsible for his A level results because he could simply put the blame on his commitment in the CCA and me. So eventually, I agreed to be his reference. I do not know if he managed to get a place in the university ultimately and he did not tell me either. My personal take is that if he had been granted a place in the university because of the reference that I wrote him, he would never learn his lesson that you OUGHT to be responsible for your OWN actions and not point fingers at others all the time. However, this concerns his future and if I do not help him, I feel guilty myself.
These stories that I shared are just two of the many stories that many of us in the teaching profession face. We TRULY want to help these kids so we keep giving and giving. However, we seem to have overlooked that by giving endlessly, we have unknowingly become the ones responsible for their success and failure. These kids will never learn the importance of shouldering responsibility for their own actions and decisions in life. How then are they to face the harsh reality in their workplace? That said, one of my colleagues used to say this - Human beings are highly adaptable creatures. We may think that these kids will suffer when they go out to work with this "type" of attitude but somehow they will survive. Let's just hope for the best.
As much as we keep complaining about our government, I also think that they have a tough job. It is very easy for us to say that "Oh well they are so highly paid so they should be there to solve problems and get mocked by the people." No doubt some of our ministers really seems to be a little CMI but my interactions with the multiple PSC scholars in my career and while traveling tells me that these people who eventually become ministers have really got something up there in their brain. If they were to not be ministers, they can still earn buckets of money elsewhere in a MNCs. Yet some of them chose to serve and take on all these FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS that we are complaining about. That said, some of them really ought to do better la. It is always simpler to be a bystander and look at the effect a policy has on YOU - a single person but to consider the bigger picture and look at the effects it could possibly have on the entire 5.4 million people in Singapore, go with luck.
If you ask me what is the toughest job in this world, I can tell you without any doubts that it has got to be EDUCATION. As for policy making, you might be better off throwing a dice at times and let fate decide? hahaha!
No comments:
Post a Comment