Gen X’s kids – crossroads in education

I am from the Gen X era. I remember my primary education being pretty relaxed. No spelling at kindergarten. No homework till I got to age 11 at least. My school bag is not heavy or full of books. I learn words at age 7 in the school.  And despite all this – now that I am 40, I think our education system was wrong – not that because there weren’t any homework or we learn spelling or reading later in life – but that education when we are at high-school was boring. Boring not because the subject taught is boring but more like the WAY the subject is taught is boring – it was not about WHY we learn but JUST LEARN IT. Of course – when we understand it – it means we learn it but after the exam – bye-bye knowledge ! We do not see what we learn can be put to use. (for eg., I just recently found the usefulness of Triangle Trigonometry, just because someone explained to me how they can use it to determine the height of a tree by using this simple math theory).

I think I only started enjoy learning when I was 18. I went to college & we are allowed to write what we want on a topic that was given. We can imagine, we can argue & we can research to support our argument. It made us think so it became interesting.

Now – fast forward 20+ years later. My daughter born in the 21st century now faces an education system that is WORST off than what I had. They drill more now & to make matter worse, they are drilling them at age 3+. Relm is just 1 year luckier than some, because she was in a full play based pre-school till 4 (nursery) so you can imagine the ‘shock’ of her (and me as well) when she was required to learn spelling of 3 languages – 3 times a week for 2 months. When asked, the teacher responded this is to get the kids ‘ready’ for the primary 1 (chinese medium) system.

There are so many articles, books, theories & even evidence that 1-5 year olds are best left to play – ie learn from play. The Finns kids are all illiterate till the time they go primary 1 – and they all turn out to be one of the best educated people in the world.

From what I wrote, you can see I am against drilling. Against homework. Against learning through memory. But I have mothers whom are just a few years older than me keep advising me that going to a school that has no homework, no drilling – is BAD for the kid. The kid will just ‘play’ only. Their ‘education’ standard is ‘low’.

So there are 2 schools of thoughts, I know many Gen X’ers that share the same view as I am but there are also those that prefers the current drilling system of hard work. I think Gen X’ers seems to be always at the crossroads of changes – it is just tiring. Gen X faces the fast change of internet, smart phones & technology , to be fair – they adopt & adapt to them pretty well. Then now – we are at this crossroads of deciding what type of ‘education’ system that we want for our kid – the hard work learning or the play / usefulness base learning.

My personal experience says I learn better when I know what I can do with what I learn – so the question is how do I direct my kid to that sort of education system when one need to enroll kids to state schools. Must we fork out lots of $ for private school to just get an education that the parents are comfortable with?

Needless to say – I am disappointed with how our M’sia education system fail to keep up with what’s out there in the world. This is including those ‘chinese based’ education schools – they are only good just because they ‘force’ kids to memorized & repeat endlessly.

For me, I am beginning to envy the mothers’ that home-school their kids. They get to teach their kids based on their readiness & the curriculum (that is more ‘forward/modern’ base) seems more conducive to learning vs mass-school state education system.

So I say – Gen X-ers can be pretty unlucky or lucky (depending how you see it).Why are we always in the middle of important ‘changes’ that affects us in major way on how we run our lives? First it was the technology then internet , now – after we kind of like accepting & enjoying the technology – we are now faced with the need to decide what education system we want to adopt for our kids.

 

I am reliving my ‘teenager’ years at 40

You know how teenagers are associated with peer pressure & easily influence? Well, I do feel that I am entering into that same mode now at the age of 40 but this time the cause is my kid.

You know how teenagers know that some friends are not worth it, but they still hang around with them just to feel ‘in’? Well, I feel that too with my kid’s need to do spelling. I know that it is just wrong to ask a 4 1/2 yo to do spelling yet I do with with her anyway so that she fit into her school.

You know how teenagers doesn’t really like to do house chores, but obligations call (or rather parents’ orders) ? Well, I am doing that – but this time I enrolled her to a state school education system which I do not believe in just because I need to get it done first. (also on MY father’s advice)

You know how teenagers know that watching too much TV is bad, but they do it just because it is enjoyable? Well, I do that too to my kid , ie I let her watch the TV so that I have some moments of peace to do household chores.

You know how teenagers just like to do the opposite, just for the sake of testing the limits? Well, I do that too to my kid, so that I can gauge what will work to correct her behaviour . (let’s just say 70% of the time it backfires during these ‘tests’).

So yeah, it is sad. And just last year I was celebrating the fact that I have finally matured without worrying what ‘other’ people think – but here I am reliving my insecure ‘teenage’ years caused by my own insecurity of being a parent.

the earth is too small afterall

I used to think the world is so big as there’s still so many places I haven’t been. But the recent ongoing refugee migration crisis from Syria to Europe actually prompted me to really look at map & check out the location of these countries.

Wow! I cannot but help feeling quite unknowledgeable. Syria where currently ISIS is very active is, is so close to Europe. Yet the disparity in development is shocking despite the proximity of the regions.

As I just see the world map even further… I think the Earth is actually really quite small. I mean, we can travel less than 36 hours around the globe via plane, so how big can that be right?

Or maybe humans beings are just too big to handle for this simple planet Earth.

bite-size musings #18

It takes a village to raise a child

                                                                         -from an African Proverb

Read this somewhere before but today it is with more impact because my ex-Uni mate who is a widower with 2 young kids in tow were in the papers, sharing her experiences and mostly for readers to celebrate the woman’s strength. She quoted the above. I love that she was truthful, that she has a lot of support from family, church community & friends.  Definitely something to ponder about our social circle.

M’sia’s politics – just a show & tell

M’sia politicians – both from the ruling party & the opposition are all good for show & tell only.

The opposition will start with digging up the sordid past of the ruling party (which everyone already knows) then blow it up in the news. The ruling party then will just retaliate by showing what they can do just because they are in power by squashing the justice system to work their way. Of course – the whole show & tell just tells me that the ruling party are great politicians (note: politician not governors)

Now we have the ex-ruling party leader joining with other ‘failed’ leaders to bring down our current PM by signing some declaration. So there – another great show coming up for the world to see.

Personally – I do not support to this declaration just because none of the leaders deserved my support. Our ex PM is of shady past & crazy antics – his legacy after his 20 years of ruling is apparent in our current M’sia’s state. Then the opposition jailed leader – well, he was one of the cronies before he got kicked out because he got too anxious & greedy. Then there’s the ex PM’s son – which uses his father’s position to get rich & rise to power. And of course the great Lim Kit Siang – he disappoints me the most, because he is obviously not a leader because the coalition that was all gung ho after the previous election has all but gone to don’t know where. Is it true that M’sians vote based on race – and just because he is Chinese – the PAS hated him? I do not think so. Maybe PAS did not see the sincerity of him to actually leading M’sia without being biased.

Here’s a good write up on someone whom will not sign the declaration. I can’t help but agree. How do we support an ex PM that is as corrupt as the current or the opposition leader that failed to show leadership in times of need? I know I can’t. I would rather wait for the next general election, so I can see what ‘improvements’ that our current PM can deliver by then. Then – I will decide who deserves my vote.

Some substance in your column, please!

There are still some news going on refuting the fact that the locals do not want to do the 3Ds (dirty, difficult, dangerous) jobs thus SMEs hires foreign labour. So there are examples of M’sians going across the causeway to Singapore (about 400,000 of them) to work in the blue collar jobs (cleaners, welders, constructions, renovators etc). And when they were interviewed – they say they are paid RM2000-RM4500 a month. Look – I agree! Yes – working in Singapore does gets one more income.

I don’t get why are the journalists do not write something of subtance for eg – what causes the Spore dollar to grow stronger while ours (Ringgit) does not seem to grow or rather stagnant in value while inflation happens year after year for the last 30-40 years.

If one gets RM2000 a month from working in Singapore – that means that their pay is SG800 a month – which honestly is pretty low. But you see they can have a plate of chicken rice for SG3 while Johoreans need to pay RM5.50 for the same plate of chicken rice in Johor. So the SG800 wage worker’s purchasing power is 83% more than the M’sia wage worker of RM800 (if you gonna say that the ‘cost’ in M’sia is high – then please ask how much the hawker in Spore pays for their rental stalls a month vs. M’sia’s). We really need to stop ‘converting’ SGD to Ringgit when one wants to compare the ‘very low’ wages of M’sia.

The govt policies failed us for the past 30-40 years. We didn’t have policies to improve the people’s education (but policies to reduce the standard of education). We didn’t have policies to improve public transport (but policy to have ‘made in M’sia’ substandard cars or ‘twin towers’ for landmark). We didn’t have policies to improve productivity for the SMEs (but we have policies to support cronies’ failed companies). We didn’t have policies to cultivate competition (but we have policies to support ‘selected’ few).

All the policies above contribute to our stagnant Ringgit value (look our Ringgit is not like Rupiah/Pesos/Bhat-as our RM0.50 can still buy us a bottle of clean water vs Rp 0.5) – so if one would like to compare Ringgit to Singapore dollar in terms of purchasing term, 1 to 1 is about right at this time (I cannot vouch if Ringgit will continue to be stagnant for the next 30 years – and who knows – Ringgit may be valued as SGD 1 to RM10)

Any sane person would not provide a RM2000 for a cleaner job in M’sia unless the cleaner does not just clean but should he also have ‘additional’ value like factory maintenance work eg plumbing, simple electrical work , one would GLADLY pays that amount.

So please get this – it is not the local ‘businesses’ that ‘insists’ in paying ‘very low’ wages, wages reflect the ‘value’ of one’s contribution.

It is our government led by the ex ‘wonderful’ PM that causes Ringgit stagnation in value & not keeping up with the inflation of the real world. M’sia is not China in terms of population – we CANNOT expect domestic consumption to help with the economy.

The govt can dictate higher minimum wage policy if they want – and the businesses being sensitive to the ‘real’ world will either just stop hiring low wage workers (by asking everyone to clean up after themselves) OR wind up the business (so now everyone gets NO job).

So please M’sian journalists – please write something of substance once in a while & not keep ‘reporting’ what people already KNOW. Do your research. Do some thinking (or is it our media does not allow it) . So that I can actually read your column without feeling like I am ‘so shallow’ is it  – so I will actually ‘PAY’ to subscribe to read from your site.