So this is why I never got along with Chinese [Mandarin] teachers

Arrived via mr wang says so:

Most Singaporeans don’t realize that education is a political tool, and possibly the most insidious. Nowhere is the power of this universal panacea so espoused by Chinese teachers more obvious than in the introduction of the National Education syllabus in recent years, a travesty of education that makes even veteran teachers cringe and whisper to their students “You all know what to write to get an A in this class”. And the last few times I’ve dropped in to say hi to my former teachers, I’ve been hearing complaints about how it’s difficult to introduce NE-related components into a teachable curriculum plan. At least in my former schools, the emphasis has always seemed to be on the As and teaching to the exams; whatever happened to actually caring about what students learned?

If we as a society are to continue our perennial navel-gazing at what makes the average Singaporean so rude, uncultured, and incapable of critical thought, it’s high time we examine the teachers who taught them (and us) and their love/hate relationship with the pressure-cooker system that includes and how successful they have been at molding the stereotypical, quintessential Singaporean.

         (Elia Diodati)


You see, in my value system, the individual always comes before the group, for it is an irrefutable tenet that the group would not exist if not for the individual; there is no general without the particular. Such a view is anathema to Confucian philosophy.


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