Singapore and the push for a "well-rounded" education

Post Script: This was not what i planned to write initially a few weeks ago when i said i had stuff i wanted to say. That one mostly pertained to the City Harvest Church scandal and the case where some guy lost his rifle to a worker with a screwdriver.


I just wrote this after watching a video on youtube and felt some words on my brain that I wanted to get out on paper.

My single greatest fear should the government succeed in pushing for an all-rounded education is that if raffles and all the other top schools start taking it seriously, our mentality will change from seeking exam-smart students to seeking to be the best at everything from sports to music to arts to academia. We have a messed up mentality, especially at the top, of wanting to be the best or the first at anything and everything. If the criteria switches (or more likely evolves slowly over time into such a state), we will eventually start looking for "perfect" people who are good at everything and that simply doesn't exist. Our blind enthusiasm towards "being the best" will lead to people not committing suicide because they scored a C or D in major exams, but because they couldn't run fast enough, even though they've been good at everything else. It's always a pity when kids kill themselves because they think they are failures at life for failing exams. I don't want that to spread to the rest of their pursuits. I want kids to fail. I want them to screw up at painting or running or guitar because that's where they learn some  goddamn humility, not shame for trying and failing.

Think about the way we treat CIP and voluntary work and you can see a little of what might possibly happen with pushing all fronts. The environment at the top currently, is that more or less everyone will do CIP but often for less than satisfactory reasons. Many of them hate doing it, but just suck thumb and do it. This may not be a overall majority opinion but we know it happens and we can assume it's not an extreme minority. I don't want to music or arts or sports to evolve into something kids hate doing just to pull up their resume or testimonials. I want there to be something worth doing just for the sake of doing it.

The entire idea of a well-rounded education is not to produce people who are good at everything. Singaporeans and people everywhere must always remember that. It is to protect people whose interests and talents lie outside the academic sphere. It should be more of a safety net to catch those who can't perform in exams. Because those people aren't useless. They certainly aren't useless for getting F at math. They may be amazing tailors or athletes or guitarists. Education is supposed to help everyone, including people like them.

Education is not linear.