Via Dave (on Facebook).
Via Dave (on Facebook).
We were studying memory in the psychology class today when I had that revelation that I think most students who’ve been schooled in East Asian methods (i.e. rote learning) must have when they are introduced to the concept of memory in introductory psychology classes. It is this:
The system of rote learning in education and examination isn’t there to make students’ lives harder, it’s there to make teachers’ lives easier — when they’re marking our exam papers, it’s either right or wrong with rote learning. If it’s about how much we actually understand a concept or an event or even a word, teachers will have to interpret our comprehension of said concept / event / word and that requires them to exercise their brains.
(Neil adds that this also means the teachers will have to have a thorough understanding of the topic.)
And this system is meant to educate children. Does that make you worried?
Parents told to write bedtime tales. Mum wrote stories for us to read at bedtime (we weren’t so into storytelling as we got older), and although we didn’t keep ‘em (she coulda been JK Rowling before JK Rowling), I remember they were great fun.
Catholic faith coming under attack, says Archbishop:
Mario Conti, the Archbishop of Glasgow, urged his flock to resist threats to their way of life from everything from same-sex civil partnerships to anti-sectarian campaigners critical of denominational schooling.
…
He said: “At a distance of 25 years, we need to reflect on the Holy Father’s words: In so many areas of life the most fundamental principles of our Christian life are not only questioned, but ridiculed and threatened with sanction.’ “Individualism has come to predominate the growth of the quest for individual rights has taken precedence over what is right.”
Sigh. Because only the Catholic church knows what’s right. Yes. Indeed.
Earlier this year the NASUWT teaching union called for a blanket ban on any new state-funded single faith schools, saying they caused social divisions**.
From what I’ve been told, this is totally true. Parents who send their kids to state-funded Catholic schools here are saying, “Look, we’re different from the rest of you!” and their kids are treated as such. If groups wanted a separate religious school, they should be free to do so, but on their own dime. The state education system is meant to educate, not to indoctrinate children with religious ‘values’.
* I’m Catholic.
** Neil would totally agree with this. But what does he know, he’s a Proddy! Hehe.
If private educational institutions choose to give fee exemptions to asylum seekers’ children, that’s their prerogative. It would, in my opinion, be wrong to compel the Executive to waive all university fees because they’re asylum seekers and bright enough.
It just doesn’t seem right to set a group apart by preferential treatment — by singling them out for special treatment, they are even more distinctly different (the same goes for any type of affirmative action). I don’t have a solution, aside from organising student loans for these students who, if they achieve their potential, should enter the labour market and earn enough to repay the loans.
(I don’t think a lot of Scottish students truly appreciate the opportunity to go to university because it’s free. Too many think it’s their ‘right’.)
O-level exams to start one week earlier from 2007:
The Board said bringing the exams forward would allow results to be released earlier, enabling students to be admitted into junior colleges or the centralised institution at the same time in late January, instead of the current double-intake.
Jialat. Kids will now have to start studying for their O-levels while they’re in Primary 6, compared to the good ol’ days of studying for the O-levels from Secondary 1.
(I was one of those expected to start studying for my O-levels before I’d learned anything to revise — that came from my father who, as far as I’m aware, tanked in most of his exams.)
Just received an e-mail from my sister, answering one of her old friends (and copying me on it). The school where I spent 11 years of my life, St Nick’s (the long name: CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School) is going through a bit of a crisis. It’s been a high-ranking school, academically, for a long time, and parents used to do pretty much anything to have their kids attend (volunteer to teach after-school activities, donate money, etc.). St Nick’s is a SAP school, and this is why my mother enrolled my sister and I there (but our Chinese still sucks, although I get to practise these days). Now, however, it’s facing a kind of competition that (it appears) the administration and (active) alumni are having trouble dealing with.
Singapore’s Ministry of Education began an Integrated Programme in 2004, allowing certain ‘elite’ schools to tie up with JCs — qualifying students get to skip their ‘O’ levels and study through to their ‘A’ levels (the equivalent would be the Highers in the UK, TEE or HSC in Australia, high school diploma in the US). Top-ranked schools RGS and RI have tied up with Raffles JC, and Chinese High and Nanyang Girls have tied up with Hwa Chong JC. Dunman High School, National JC, Temasek JC, and Victoria JC are also offering the Integrated Programme in their own way. St Nicks now feels obligated to do the same, but its traditionally-affiliated schools, Catholic High and Catholic JC (where my sister and I went after St Nicks) do not have stellar academic reputations.
So, the originator of the e-mail wants us to discuss and maybe raise some ideas on what we can do for St Nicks, because we want to be proud of the school we went to, and for it to become a ‘third-rate school’ would be shameful, with former St Nicks girls choosing to enrol their daughters elsewhere, making the situation worse.
I won’t print my sister’s response, but I certainly echo parts of it. I’m not proud nor ashamed that I went to this school — its academic reputation means nothing to me*. I spent most of my childhood there, so I have good and bad memories of the place. My teachers were both good and bad. The same with Catholic JC — I am neither proud nor ashamed that I studied there. I spent two very important teenage years at the buildings on Whitley Road. I have good and bad memories of the place. My lecturers and tutors were both good and bad.
Students from ‘elite’ and ‘regular’ schools may not receive the same levels of attention smothering, but if you’re a concerned parent or teacher, you know no amount of nagging will entice a student to work for good results unless they’re motivated.
If St Nicks wants to start offering the Integrated Programme, they should do it because they think they can contribute something to education, not because they need to keep up with the Joneses Rafflesians. If they are going for the former, why not work together with Catholic High and Catholic JC? The three schools can work towards streamlining and improving what they’ve got to create a better learning experience for kids, because that’s what’s important. It may be a struggle at first, but when is the provision of a quality, well-rounded education supposed to be a breeze? If the principal and teachers at the school think it’s too much work, then we’re all better off if St Nicks ends up a ‘third-rate school’.
And that’s my $0.02 on the matter.
* This may be because, like my sister, I went overseas to study at university. I don’t know.