EDUCATIONAL IDEALS NO MATCH FOR PRAGMATISM   

This is my letter published in the Voices column of the Today newspaper in Singapore on 29 September 2012.

(Background: In the keynote address at the Ministry of Education work-plan seminar, on 12 September 2012, Singapore's Minister for Education, Mr Heng Swee Keat,elaborated on the four key attributes of a Student-Centric, Values-Driven Education: (1) “Every Student, an Engaged Learner” regardless of background or ability, to be supported by; (2) “Every School, a Good School”; (3) “Every Teacher, a Caring Educator”; and (4) “Every Parent, a Supportive Partner”.)

Despite our Education Minister's good intentions in his new initiatives, I worry that his four slogans would be paralysed by hard realities.

"Every student, an engaged learner" is more likely to remain as every student fully engaged to try to become an exam expert. "Every school, a good school" would probably not supersede every school being an examinations centre.

"Every teacher, a caring educator" may not replace the impression that every teacher seems to care more about worksheets. And "every parent, a supportive partner" makes us smile because every parent is more likely to support the tuition industry.

The Education Ministry is taking on forces it cannot tackle by itself, with three interlinked structural factors working against it.

First, our society is materialistic. Much of human activity here is channelled to generate wealth and economic growth. So, education's main aims are seen as vocational and economic.

Higher qualifications are deemed as a passport to good jobs with good pay and a comfortable life.

If only good exam grades get you into good tertiary institutions, then that is the priority, never mind the learning.

Second, meritocracy is deemed as one of the irrevocable tenets of our society's success. Unfortunately for pupils, meritocracy is defined narrowly as academic excellence. Thus, exam expertise becomes the most important skill needed to be a winner in Singapore.

Third, our national psyche is centred on pragmatism, a realistic approach that is concerned with life as it is and not as it should be. A pragmatic society's values are dictated by the country's prevailing social, political and economic conditions.

If the key to material fulfilment and to endorsement by our meritocratic system is exam expertise, then the whole education process would predictably be hijacked into one great effort of strategising for maximum exam results.

The acquisition of life and social skills, critical thinking, cultural and moral values can practically be dismissed as trivial.

But the more effort, time and money our pupils spend on honing exam skills, the less adequate they are likely to become mature, functioning, smart and moral citizens - a double whammy of high stress and poor preparation for life and employment.

"OUR SINGAPORE" CONVERSATION

                                                                -my solutions and a quick conclusion to it!

 

A unique national dialogue was launched by our Prime Minister at the recent National Day Rally.  He urged our citizens to come together in a national conversation and appointed our Education Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat as chairman of a 26-member Our Singapore committee.

Mr Heng said: "This national conversation will first and foremost be about putting Singaporeans at the heart of our concerns. It will be an opportunity for Singaporeans to come together, and ask: What matters most? Where do we want to go as a country, as a people?"

The conversation is said to need to accomplish three goals: 

1. To reaffirm all that is good and relevant.

2. To re-calibrate areas where the country has gone off-course.

3. To refresh and innovate by charting new directions.

 

According to an on-line poll conducted by Yahoo Singapore, the major issues for such a national conversation are as follows:

1. Cost of housing 28% 

2. Manage flow, integration of foreigners 21%

3. Widening income gap 17%

4. Education (competition/stress in schools) 8%

5. Cost/access to healthcare 8%

6. Political/electoral reform (ISA, public assembly, GRC system) 4%

7. Social graciousness (online/offline) 4%

8. Tackling baby woes (parental leave, early childcare) 4%

9. Inclusive society (GLBTs, marginalised, single parents) 3%

10. Public transport crunch 3%

So far, the Conversation seems to lack focus.  Also, most participants merely express their opinions on certain issues, but they did not directly discuss or challenge the views of others.  A lot of questions being thrown up went unanswered.  But, the true spirit of 'conversation' dictates that there should be an interaction of perspectives and an engagement of opposing  positions.  Perhaps, it's the usual Asian dislike for confrontation and the fear of the loss of face that is the cause of such responses.  Or there may be more skeptics than suspected whose dismissal of the whole exercise has resulted in a general lack of enthusiasm.  In any case, if the Conversation goes on in this way, it's going to take forever and I can forsee no fruitful outcome.

I also happen to think that this situation is unlikely to improve even if we give it more time (1 to 2 years as stated officially).  In fact, interest and enthusiasm are likely to wane if this initial response is anything to go by.

In view of the above scenarios, let me attempt a 2-minute quick analysis and solution to "Our Singapore" Conversation using a doctor's perspective:

 

Our country's problems can be likened to a patient's illness:

Symptoms: 

1. Anxiety about affordability of housing and healthcare.

2. Fear of being displaced by foreigners in jobs and access to infrastructure.

3. Feeling of being marginalized in the quest for prosperity and national participation.

4. A dysfunctional education system.

5. Dissatisfaction with public transportation and our political system.

 

Signs:

1. Regressive and uncivilized social behavior. 

2. Suppression of the biological instincts of marriage and reproduction.

 

Analysis:

1. All signs and symptoms seem to be separate and unrelated.

2. Actually, they are inter-linked.

 

Diagnosis:

1. Unthinking materialism

2. Narrow view of meritocracy

3. Idealism overwhelmed by pragmatism

 

Inspired Hypotheses:

1. Tinkling with isolated measures to suppress each individual sign and symptom are not long-term solutions.

2. Rectifying the underlying structural sociopolitical imbalances and dysfunctions may do the trick.

 

Treatment:

1. To educate and enlighten that a fulfilled life consists of much more than satisfying material wants alone. Knowledge, friendship, love, self-esteem, self-actualization and morality are far more important.

2. To widen the concept of meritocracy into one of holistic functionality in our society.

3. To re-introduce the enduring values of the best of humanity into our national psyche. Reaching for "what should be" will be given more emphasis that merely recognizing "what is".

If the above can help our country save time in mere conversation, we can start implementing the solutions earlier and our nation can better face our present and future challenges.  Much work remains to be done.

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS INTO LIFE AFTER DEATH

1.  The Afterlife Experiments

In his book, The Afterlife Experiments, published in 2002, paranormal investigator Dr. Gary E. Schwartz and his research partner Dr. Linda Russek detailed a series of experiments and case studies they conducted with 8 mediums who were able to gather accurate information of deceased individuals under highly controlled scientific conditions using a triple blind protocol.  These mediums achieved an amazing 85% accuracy rate (control group was 36%).

Dr Schwartz is the director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health, a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona, a graduate of Harvard University, a past lecturer at Harvard and Yale for nearly 30 years and an author of more than 400 academic papers. Though initially a skeptic, he came to a scientific conclusion that the mediums had actually communicated with the dead and there is life after death!  


2. Near-Death Experiences (NDEs)

Dr Raymond A. Moody, MD, a medical doctor with postgraduate degrees in philosophy, was the first to investigate the phenomenon when he studied the experiences of about 150 people who were clinically dead before being revived.  He published his results in his book, Life after Life, in 1975.

Later research corroborated his reports of the common elements of NDEs which include a sense of peace, an awareness of being dead, an out-of-body experience, a sense of moving up a tunnel toward a bright light that mysteriously does not hurt the eyes, a non-verbal communication with a being of light, an intense feeling of unconditional love, being reunited with deceased loved ones, having a life review, hearing music, having heightened mental functions, a reluctance to return to the body, an altered perception of time and the congenitally blind being able to see.

These common experiences are being reported by people of different ages, beliefs, religions, races, cultures, sight ability and causes of NDE. After such experiences, people undergo a consistent set of value and belief changes, including a greater appreciation for life, a higher self-esteem, a greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding, a desire to learn, an elevated spirituality, a greater ecological sensitivity and concern for our planet, a feeling of being more intuitive, a loss of the fear of death and a re-prioritization of life choices.Yet, there are some near-death experiences consisting only of being in a dark void, lacking love and surrounded by negative energies filled with anger and arrogance!

The consistency in the accounts of NDEs irrespective of culture and religion, the encounters with only previously deceased relatives during these experiences, their inexplicably accurate descriptions of hospital events which happened when they are brain-dead, and the amazing gift of sight during NDEs in the genetically-blind, suggest that NDEs constitute arguably the most convincing evidence of the afterlife.

3.  The Scole Experiments

Four mediums, Robin Foy, Sandra Foy, Alan Bennett and Diana Bennett were able to prove that there is an afterlife and that discarnate spirit entities exist in another dimension.  Between 1993 and 1999, in a series of sittings in Scole (England), US, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Ireland, in full view of an audience of scientists, intellectuals and paranormal investigators, they demonstrated the voices of spirit entities, their physical touches, levitations and apports of objects, the spontaneous playing of musical instruments, the mysterious appearance of images in unopened photographic films kept in locked boxes and the materialization of complex patterns of psychic dancing lights.  Subsequently, researchers David Fontana, Arthur Ellison and Montague Keen, from the Society for Psychical Research published "The Scole Repport" which endorsed the authenticity of these phenomena during the experiments.  To-date, their findings have remained unchallenged.

Conclusion

It appears that there is an afterlife, but it is unclear what that afterlife is like.  It seems different from the accounts as told by the various religions.  However there are clues.  Some people who had NDEs were told during their experiences how they could live their lives better, emphasizing the importance of love for others, morality and the acquisition of knowledge.

     "Are you a human being having a spiritual experience, or a spiritual being having a human experience?"
                                                                       - Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Could de Chardin be right, after all, in suggesting that we are spiritual beings sent here to have a human experience to learn about love, to become moral and to gain knowledge?  If so, paradoxically, the afterlife is the real existence and our present life the unreal one!

TO CONVERSE IS TO TRUST

(This is my letter published in the Today Newspaper Voices Column on 14 September 2012)

(Background: During the recent National Day Rally, Singapore's Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong invited Singaporeans from all walks of life to come together in a national discourse about their future hopes for the country.  An "Our Singapore" Committee of 26 members to be chaired by Education Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat was appointed to oversee more than 30 dialogue sessions and other forms of communication.)


It is a pity that the national conversation has been greeted
with premature cynicism and frank dismissal as a partisan

exercise in some quarters, by those who have apparently

distanced themselves from the effort.

This undermines the inclusiveness that they claim they 

are championing. Our citizens must realize that there is a 

valuable opportunity to provide input for future national

policies that we must not let slip.

Since it has been branded a conversation from the start, 

we can have optimistic expectations.

A conversation is usually a cordial exchange of information

and opinions between equals. It may be spontaneous and 

unpredictable, with no limits to the scope of discussion within 

the chosen themes. It may also be interactive, with room for

follow-up requests for clarification and the presentation of 

counter-arguments.

Nonetheless, we must understand that a conversation cannot 

be expected to lead to agreement or a firm conclusion.

Ultimately, since we elected our Government to represent us 

in Parliament, we must trust it to diligently and thoughtfully 

collate the feedback provided, to be used to complement its

judgment in improving our policies.

          A DEDICATION TO MY MOTHER

                                   1930 -2012

My dear sweet mother, 
   It's hard to find another,
     So loving and so caring.
       You made my heart sing.

          You taught me right from wrong,
             How to be brave and strong,
                Both in my heart and in my mind.
                  Foremost, how to love and be kind.

                      So, let me thank you now,
                        And lay down this solemn vow,
                          To remember your words well,
                             Never mind heaven and hell!