Are you happy?
Please read this article and tell me if you agree with the findings.
For some reasons, I haven't seen this report picked up in the Straits Times but I remembered coming across it on the TV news.
Some questions I have :
1) How do students expect schools to help them in their pursuit of happiness?
2) What makes a student happy? (Think before you shoot. If you say "no homework" or something along this line, please be very sure you know the implication of this wish. What would it be like if schools really grant you this wish?)
3) Is it the school's responsibility to make you happy? Should one strive to be happy regardless of what the school does? (I'm not trying to say schools are totally not responsible for your happiness, but just trying to stir up a discussion in which you think about how your own happiness should be determined by -- external factors like school, educational system, family etc, or internal motivation?)
I hope I haven't made anyone's life miserable though. Teachers are in an unenviable position at times. We want students to be happy and like us too, but we have to do unpalatable things to you some times. Surely you understand that?
posted by MdmSng @ 3:12 PM
22 Comments:
Thanks for sharing this article, Mdm Sng. I teach Primary Four students myself, and I am hardly surprised by the findings though I did feel that this does indeed bring up many thoughts for us as teachers.
While I do feel that personal attitude of pupils would be a key factor for pupils to actually relate school stuff to their 'existential aspirations', it does also put up a point of reflection for us on whether we as teachers have been too busy chasing the syllabus, such that we have consciously or subconsciously only addressed the 'do well, go to a good school, and earn big money' issue, causing us to neglect these 'existential aspirations' of the kids in the process.
Truly something worth pondering about.
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Okaay, i just skimmed through that article since im in a holiday mood (meaning i don't like to read wordy stuff)
Here's what i think:
Schools aren't suppose to look for your happiness, its a bloody(aussies used it in their commercials! it ain't bad!) place where you LEARN for crying out loud.
In pursuit for happiness, what the education system is doing is more likely to teach you almost every single things under the sun, see what you like, and allow you to go in that way since we're all too young and don't know what we wanna be when we enter the workign world.
If what they can let us do to be REALLY happy, then, LET US CHOOSE OUR 6 REALLY BEST SUBJECTS FOR O LVLS PLEASE! (I don't like how combined humanities and languages are pulling students down -.-)
I've done some studying on SS on governance chapter. They said sth like "Each race is able to help their own race by organizing some sorta scholarship tuition for them or sth. It's the self help programn, and it's more efficient cuz their own race would know what is needed to help their own languages an stuff. But why is mr thamman-sth probing into our language?! It doesn't make us happy!He changed the language thingy without doing a survey! >=(
PS: Is mdm sng coming for the class BBQ this sat at shimin's place?
Ya, right. What the heck is happiness anyway?
HOWEVER, classmates can at the very least be nice to one another, and not isolate their classmate, leaving them in the dark about what is going on.
ps: Just for your info, I'm typing this on sat evening.
Oh, one more thing, hope you all enjoy your evening. Don't miss me.
wat r these students trying to say? tt we dun address their needs n aspirations?! come on! if they dun have e basic education tt they r getting in schools, wat do they have in hand to tok abt aspirations?!!!! a load of rubbsih rt. it's a matter of their perspectives! by saying tt sch dun address their happiness is very irresponsible. i agree tt e current education sys is very stressful n rigorous, but tt's cos e world out there is a devil. w/o basic EQ n IQ, who can survive? i feel tt students nowadays r too pampered...can't take 'hardships'....poor resilience in short.
One cliche that some folks like to quote goes something like: Do something you love and you won't have to work a single day. I.e. find something you enjor doing, and you will be happy doing it and it won't even seem like work. Sounds nice & dandy, but the problem is that many (most?) students have no clue what they love, even by the time you are required to make important choices like what diploma/degree to pursue.
One of you wrote that:
"what the education system is doing is more likely to teach you almost every single things under the sun, see what you like, and allow you to go in that way since we're all too young and don't know what we wanna be when we enter the workign world."
I'm not sure I agree - I see Pri/Sec education as serving 2 purposes:
1) establishing a foundation of basic knowledge & skills for further education, and
2) providing a means for assessing your intellectual abilities and thus determine your academic progression (sad, but I believe true)
As for discovering your passions, I think it is very much up to the students themselves and/or their family environment. I think the very process of pursuing something with passion, even if it is not something that can lead to a good career, has great benefits - kids can gain in self-esteem, they learn to apply themselves and put in effort towards achieving something, etc. Unfortunately, too many parents seem to end up either shutting out any 'meaningless' activities that don't directly relate to schoolwork, or pressure their children into doing things they may not like, just to be able to show off to neighbours.
The same student who wrote the above also wrote: "Schools aren't suppose to look for your happiness, its a bloody ... place where you LEARN for crying out loud."
My question to that is: Can learning itself be a source of fulfilment, and thus, happiness?
Li Hua: Kaoz, you never hear what LFL say to do for hw meh? Why ya think i'm studying SS. Sheesh, what you said is MUCH easier said then done. What you hate, you can never like it (which i believe it is for most cases) Take cod liver oil as an example. Miss Lam said she forced herself to drink it, knowing its good for her. But did she like it after so many years? No.
Xiao Wei:
sorrie to hear that, but we tried to spread the msg to everyone =_= We said about having the class bbq on the last week of school. We just changed to time or sth.
Anyway bout thebro:
"I'm not sure I agree - I see Pri/Sec education as serving 2 purposes:
1) establishing a foundation of basic knowledge & skills for further education"
Which was what i meant by "teach you everything under the sun first"
Uni? I didn't even know that there's a bbq at all, much less on whatever week of school.
And teachers don't "teach you everything under the sun first". They "teach you everything under the exam syllabus first".
shdwhawk:
It is impossible for anyone to teach you "everything under the sun". A lot of important things in life that one should learn are not found in the classroom. So I think no one should expect the schools to take on such an impossible role.
I think thebro is simply saying that schools try to give you a broad based education so that you can specialise later on. Students should, try to find happiness in learning because if you don't delight in learning, then what is the purpose of being alive?
Now if schools do not make learning enjoyable for students, then I think educationists should examine this problem seriously. Having said that, students should also not expect teachers to be entertainers. One should try to enjoy learning for the sake of it, and not be too affected by external factors.
Its a figure of speech =_= Come on la, but what we do does cover much more of the things we'll need. Like the M1 commercial, covering services everything under the sun or sth, you don't see us getting service in the middle of the amazon jungle or in the lift do you?
Anyway,tell me about secondary school maths? I think there is not a single thing we're learning is useful yet =l
We're most probably gonna end up in some company, doing administrative stuff. Bleax, but we need sth to cram into our little heads anyway.
Just blame technology, as technology advances, we learn more stuff and we have more kids breaking down, hurling themselves from 30 storey high HDBs instead of cliffs (and there weren't many cliffs mind you)
and again i APOLOGISE TO YOU O GREAT XIAO WEI! We can't really reach everywhere you know =_= Handphone, msn, thats the two things we use to communicate. Hard to reach. And you can just come you know =_= its a CLASS BBQ, not EXCLUSIVE class gathering, if you read what i posted.
Haha. I guess you're right mdm sng, since knowledge is infinite. And even then unless we have computer brains, we will forget much of what we know anyway.
Uni, who says math isn't important? Even admin work you still need math. Even music you'll see numbers. And O GREAT UNI, I don't live some underground hidout in the antartica. lol Just kidding, but I really don't.
We don't really need secondary school-onwards maths =.= They're teaching ALGEBRA to primary school kids now, i think thats all they'll ever need. And i dabbed a bit in piano before, i don't think you need THAT kind of high level math to understand the notes, rhythm and all. If not, how come you see so many kids w/o that kind of knowledge learning piano without much trouble?
Anyway, even mdm shariffa said she didn't need that kinda math despite being a physics teacher. And one more thing, the planners for the BBQ don't have the entire class list of numbers and all. Yeah you can say you don't live in antartica, but how can we contact you w/o knowing your msn, etc? Even contacting you during the glider project was kinda a problem.
Uni: If contacting me during the glider project was a problem, it was either because you lost my number or you didn't take it down. And the planners can always chain msg. There ARE some who have my number.
And i don't mean music needs math. I mean you'll still see numbers. And if you decided to have a career in say, music, you'll still need simple math --> your pay, tax, etc (unless you want to be cheated).
Lihua: Initially you didn't have the intention of informing me. You thought I already know about it. And Uni's point IS we don't need secondary school maths. Please read carefully and don't be so dense. And before you start on me about adv/diadv on pri/sec maths and whatever crap, let me just say I'm being Uni's devil's advocate.
Lihua and Uni, congradulations. You're now a member of the lameo club.
Lihua: dun come after me. It wasn't my idea to put you in. Frankly, I think a "siao" club will be better for you.
to the pple hu seem to be, put in nicer term, 'debating' here, pls try to control urself ya.. regarding the sec sch maths, they r pretty much part of foundation of other harder mathematical calculations and equations.. stuffs like determining whether a building is stable anot and how high it can be built etc etc requires maths.. do u really tink u can just get a device and just let the device work? even if it does exists, the chains of calculation r programmed inside.. btw, regarding that phys do nt need v.high lvl of math is becuz most equation and formulas r derived frm basic formulas and concepts.. however, at the same time, the very basic and foundation of them does include maths.. stuffs u learn in sec sch maths may nt be used in phys, but they r foundation of other concepts which r much harder and of a more advanced lvl.. speaking of which, do u noe tt maths can actually be used in business too? handling state affairs? there r more, but wad i can directly link to other than sci r those 2 for now.. if u dun quite believe me, take a look at the ministers' degrees.. there r quite some wif a maths related degree..
Xiao wei, obviously you aren't reading what i've written.
"Anyway, even mdm shariffa said she didn't need that kinda math despite being a physics teacher." THAT KINDA MATh, what was i refering to? Secondary math. You don't need secondary school math for your (pay/tax/etc)
Wow, me and lihua lameo club. I find that damn ironic. You're so cool xiao wei omg! So so cool! Woww~! I can't believe you're using direct insults on us. tsk tsk. How cool ya?
Jeanie: Er ya i know what you're trying to say. But take my working cousins for example. Most of them already forgot about their math. Yes, math IS useful to advance and learn higher level of sciences, but what i'm trying to get at is that it has no relation with your profession.
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Let me add, my point was NEITHER secondary school maths is less important then primary school math NOR we don't need secondary school math at all.
My point was:
SECONDARY SCHOOL MATH WILL MOST LIKELY NOT PLAY A DIRECT PART IN OUR JOBS IN THE WORKING WORLD! <-read.
And actually, if you look at the words, primary math IS more important. Primary (main), secondary (selective).
PS: xiao wei, i think you need have my dirty laundry to play "uni's devil's advocate". Since you're so persistent in thinking that we left YOU out on the bbq on PURPOSE, fine. Have your way, i'm sick of explaining no matter how much of well intention i have.
YOU'RE TOO COOL TO JOIN US! -period.
† Misère Noire †:
I am referring to the Primary School syllabus in my next few statements.
Most times, you need to at least know: add/subtract/multiply/divide in any profession. That is the basis for any calculation.
How do you write reports at work, or type minutes for meetings? How do you write letters and send email? - these are things common in many professions: You need to know how to read and write.
How do you communicate with other people? You need at least some level of grammar and vocabulary. You may not speak Queen's English, but because of your education, there is some standard of English there.
Yes, I agree with you that not all material that we studied in school would be directly applicable to professional working life. However, we base whatever we do at work on some level of foundation knowledge that we gained from our education.
Furthermore, you will discover that softer skills like learning to speak up in class, learning to work harmoniusly and cooperatively with group mates on projects, team spirit at CCAs, endurance during sports - these are all valuable skills that form the basis of good employees because we have 'adult' extensions of these things in the working world.
Just think of it this way. Why do some positions require people to have a certain level of education? Is it truly because they are just biased, and want degree holders or diploma holders? Or is it because there are different ways in which these people have been trained to think and to work under?
Whatever your views may be now, let it not stop you from doing the best in your education. Whatever efforts you put in now will definitely be duly rewarded when you move further in the years and eventually find "what you wanna be when you go to the working world".
All the best!
thought provoking. personally, no matter how terrible the circumstance is, try finding happiness, there must be at least some, somewhere. Hah, I sound like a super optimistic person. I'm not, really.
If school is that terrible, why would so many students cry when they leave their secondary schools and JCs (or perhaps polys). Yeah, happiness come many-a-time from great company, of friends and loved ones. Find a group like that, and it'll get you through terrible school life. Hah.
Well, there's my piece. ((:
Danfan, no need to be flattered. I didn't put you in. I dun find you lame at all. But then, considering the supposed nature of the club "masters" (especially Ian), I guess there's nothing wrong with putting you in on a whim... ^.^ And you should read more. Books, even storybooks can tell you many things, like which continent countries are in, how to describe people and so on. PLUS, its more enjoyable than if you read those info off a textbook.
Uni: You are a different case from lihua. You really belong in a lameo club, no insult intended.
I notice you are saying two different points, but I'm not going to say anything, because I keep getting the feeling that we're ALL going in circles here.
Summary: Lets just quit our useless and circular argument.
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