Alot of my friends know that my family have been in the bathroom business since the early 70s and personally I’ve been in the business full time for about 3 years too. One of our family habits have been to visit the toilets where ever we go and be able to tell the brand that they are using be it a high end restaurant decked out in Kohler Luxurious One-Piece WCs and Vola tapware or at a mall with reliable Toto WCs and hygienic Presto sensor tapware. One thing for sure is I’ve always been asked for recommendations for bathroom products.
Cleo and Clié at the Showroom which I worked at last time
As my parents have retired, their business have been bought over and hence my recommendations now will be totally unbiased. :) Here are some recommendations if you are looking at shopping for toilets and tapware.
Not sure when I started having these dreams, but it felt like I’ve always had them. These recurring dreams of places that are so familiar yet quite different. It’s like a reflection of the real world but with slight differences that makes every step in my dream an exploration yet a revisit of places I’ve been. It’s almost like a long déjà vu when I wake up every single time.
The end of the street where I grew up lead to a main road here in reality, but there in my dreams, its a candy store which sold toys and they are still in operation till today… in my dreams. The theater in town has an underground subway, but in my dreams it’s an elevated track that circled the city. Confidently I know where I am in my dreams, but when I awake, I can never find the paper and pen I need to start my cartography as if there is an elaborate plan in play to ensure I don’t.
In my dreams I feel like I’m walking in water when I want to run, but at other times I fly like a weightless leaf dropping upwards into the sky employing only my will to direct myself towards where I want to go.
Actually I’m not sure how much in control am I of myself in these dreams. Sometimes I’m proud of myself for making certain decisions there when I awake, maybe because it reflects what I would have done here. However sometimes I regret not making mistakes as there would be no consequences anyway.
What I’m not sure is if the people in these dreams are just but a projection of my thoughts? Am I responsible for their actions? Am I in control of their actions as well or are they other individuals also in their dream state? It would be horrible if there was a massacre there and knowing it’s what my mind wanted. No, I can’t be responsible for the action of others, I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s actions.
Are we all then sharing dreams? Are we all dreaming together? Some of the people I know here are also in my dreams, but when I checked with them the next day it confirms that we do not share dreams. Maybe time is not relevant as some of these dreams are recurring and no matter what we did there, we will still wake up here in our time, our linear time that we are so used to with befores and afters.
I want to believe that dreams are little windows. Little windows that allows us to peer into our other lives in other dimensions. Maybe I live somewhere else in one of these other dimension, maybe I know a totally different set of people in one of these other dimension, maybe I have a different wife in one of these other dimension, maybe I’m of the opposite gender in one of these other dimension.
The one recurring dream of my childhood, I’m stuck in a small brick tower filled with water. It’s almost like a medieval public pool but not filled enough to let anyone in it climb out. The people trapped together with me are all trying to stay afloat and at a specific time a frail woman dressed in black robes will open up an underwater gate to let her pet shark feed. I’ve never been eaten before as I’ve always somehow manage to miraculously climb out after some frantic swimming even when I’m an average built slender female wearing a skin tone one piece swimsuit with my white swimming cap. I would dash to the bathroom door only for it to open up into a train station and that’s my cue to wake up. Have never been able to pass that point.
Maybe our dreams are truly us peering into our other lives in other dimensions. Maybe there is an edge to the other dream dimension that we are allowed to reach but not surpass, maybe we are only allowed to peer into specific windows of time there, Nothing earlier, nothing later, just that specific little snippet. Maybe our other dreams are but slices of other specific times in other dimensions that we exist. Maybe there is one me in each dimension and dreams allow the multiple me to be strung together for that brief moment in my dream.
I live different lives in each of these different dimensions and have different friends. Sometimes I meet the people I know here in this reality in my dream world and my affinity with them grows stronger. There must be a reason for us to also meet in dreams. I always want to tell my friends that I dreamt of them the night before, but I’m not always sure if they are ready for this kind of intimacy. Actually I’m not sure myself if I’m ready or not too.
The seduction from the other dimension is very real.
So Clié graduated from primary school and is going to secondary one next year. PSLE was stressful no doubt, but we are all super happy as she met the target she set out to reach and during the process, her attitude and hard work is commendable. If you read my previous post I’ll give a C+ to our School’s Grading system you will know what I mean.
I just read Rachel’s post on My Take On PSLE and it motivated me to share my take as well on this big exam that all our twelve year olds have to go thru.
PSLE or exams to me is somewhat a reflection of life. Think about it… PSLE is not seen to be fair to many of us just like life does not seem fair to many of us as well.
Good Grades > Good Job > Good Pay > Good Life. Good Grades certainly helps but it’s not a sure win ticket.
BUT
Good Grades is definitely useful for schools to pick out the best exam smart students who apply for their school. It’s kinda like a demand and supply thing as students with good grades proves statistically that they are able to score in exams so why not choose “the best” when you can. It’s just like us going to the supermarket and picking out the best 5 tomatoes from the lot.
Schools as a System
Schools were meant to be for education and a place for Institutionalised learning. It definitely still is, but the pressures to perform by teachers and schools and the expectations parents have on their kids and schools have made everything more exam focused.
PSLE and Exams in general is a system and systems are meant to facilitate a certain objective. Earlier this year I saw a documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’ and it opened my eyes to a new perspective of what the education system is for.
Education System Animation from Waiting for Superman
There are many type of jobs in our society that needs to be done?and jobs need different types of people. Some pay better, some pay lesser. Some require more thinking, some require less thinking. Some are more demanding, some are less demanding. Some have more responsibilities, some have less.
So I sat my kids down in the middle of this year and spent 2 hours plus sharing with them that school is also a system and how it tries to match people to jobs. When they go out to work next time, there will be :
The Boss – There is usually one person. The CEO, The Founder, The person that will be fully responsible for the entire organisation. They think long-term and strategically, they tell people what to do.
The Managers – There are quite a lot of them and their key role is to manage. Their Boss tells them what needs to be achieved. They think mid-term and tell others to do things and check on them.
The Workers – Workers do what they are told and there are lots of them. They don’t really have to think much just follow the work instructions.
So I drew a diagram not to proportion, to vaguely let them see some kind of connection between grades and positions in an organisation, then asked them which band they want to be in. They clearly wanted to be more then just a worker.
More can be debated and discussed with them, but I think just getting them to have a different perspective of exams right now is sufficient.
Judging Non Exam Smarts Students
There are 2 kinds of kids I see:
Exam Smart Students (generally good grades) – Can remember / knows what answers to give to earn them the marks they want. Basically knowing how to work with the system.
Non Exam Smart Students (generally not big on grades) – Can’t relate to syllabus well / Don’t understand why they need to learn?things they are not interested in / fearful that their innovative answers will be wrong and they will look silly?/ In some cases they switch off or reject the system.
To judge a student by their PSLE grades is like judging a book by its cover too soon and judging a twelve year old kid at?PSLE can have a few detrimental effects.
They feel that their thinking is strange
They feel that others are better then them
They feel that they are a failure
They accept that they are not as good
They stop putting in effort
They stop thinking
I fear that my kids think lesser of themselves if they don’t do well at PSLE, hence as parents we always reassure them that their attitude is more important then their grades.
But for many years, parents have shared their views about PSLE and have even asked the authorities to scrap PSLE altogether especially as it forces their kids who go to Normal Technical to have their education path fixed as they will have to go to Technical Institutions after their N levels.
Writing on his Facebook page yesterday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat reiterated that the changes to PSLE scoring will “take some years to implement and will not affect the immediate batches of students”. Adding that PSLE scoring is tied to the secondary school admission process, it will take the MOE “a few years” to prepare for the changes.
I’m not sure what changes MOE will make, but I hope it will give our kids a fair chance in proving their worth and not wasting too much of their youth in any educational path detour before being able to meet their basic aspiration of graduating from university.
The Gahmen need to do more?
Without a doubt the Gahmen should do what it takes to create the best possible environment for our kids to learn together with developing great character and the kind of values that we as a society want. I agree with that whole heartedly, but I also understand that overhauling a nation wide education system or even implementing changes will take time and to be honest I have seen some stuff happening during my kids primary school experience.
Programme for Active Learning (PAL) -Both Cleo and Clié enjoyed it. PAL tries to strengthen the emphasis on non-academic programmes and is conducted within curriculum time. PAL modules provide our students with broad exposure in two areas, Sports and Outdoor Education, and Performing and Visual Arts. It aims to facilitate the well-rounded development of students in the five learning domains (cognitive, moral, social, aesthetics and physical) and help students to develop social emotional competencies. See MOE’s video here.
STrategies for English Language Learning And Reading (STELLAR) – Aims to strengthen both language and reading skills as well as promote a positive attitude towards reading in the foundational years. View www.stellarliteracy.sg to find out more. My kids are still not readers leh… I think its not as simple to get?kids to read.
Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) – Encouraging students to learn more actively and independently by nurture a curiosity that goes beyond the formal curriculum. Syllabuses are trimmed without diluting students’ preparedness for higher education. That is what the communication to parents is, but I somehow feel at times the homework is still quite a lot. Can’t comment about what happens in school as we as parents don’t really know.
Every School A Good School – I agree with this move to shift the mindset of elite-school-ism and to reshuffle the school students and teachers and perception so that its a lot more balanced and that parents don’t all go crazy to start off their kids life of education with competitively trying to get into elite schools and getting that edge thru countless enrichment programs.
Direct School Admission (DSA) – Provide students an opportunity to demonstrate a more diverse range of achievements and talents in seeking admission to a secondary school. Read more on MOE’s site.
At least this is what I have experienced being a parent and somewhat know thru communications from teachers. There could be more, they could have not really implemented it, I don’t know, but I know the Gahmen is trying.
What I think we Parents should do
The Gahmen is putting in effort and like it or not, some changes will take years, some will take decades and I’m not going to rely fully on the Gahmen or wait. Blame the teachers and the system all you want, but when your kids grow up and become someone you are not proud of in the future, I think as parents we will then realise we can only blame ourselves.
I think as parents we should do our part too and?actively play a role to instill the truly more important things we want for our kids. There are too many things I can say to this, but let me just say 3 that is at the top of the list in my head.
1. Curiosity
The world is an amazing place and there is only so much the school can expose all the kids to. As parents we should show them how large, interesting and diverse the world is. The more they see, the more they ask, the more they know, the more they can make informed decisions and be better problem solvers. Only by knowing more things do they know more about themselves and also what their likes and dislikes are.
I’ve heard too many stories of uni graduates not knowing what to do after they have completed university. I’ve also heard too many stories of people after working for a few years not knowing what they like to do with their lives.
So exposing kids to as many things as possible I feel is the role of a parent.
2. Partner with Teachers
Parents can only spend that much time with their kids daily. It is not possible to know intimately what our kids are strong / weak / interest / disinterest are in school when compared to what their school teachers know.
My eldest daughter’s P6 form teacher is awesome. She puts in extra effort to reach out to parents to understand the situation at home and asks parents to collaborate with her to identify my daughter’s weak points and to adopt strategies that works well with the kind of learner she is.
This collaboration between parents and teachers is amazing and so effective. I’m not saying that parents should hound teachers and expect lots of time from them as they do have quite a number of students in their care and they have their own families too.
3. Love
Someone once told me that a successful person is measured by the number of people that turns up at their funeral and I think there is some wisdom in that.
We should provide our kids with a happy environment, teach our kids how to be happy, teach our kids how to make others happy. Teach them empathy by showing them empathy. Teach them to care by showing them we care. Teach them how to have a big heart by showing them love that they can understand.
Hug them, kiss them, play together with them, laugh with them, do silly things with them, be interested in what they are interested in, be their best friend and they will tell you honestly their struggles when the time comes and that to me is?the kind of parenting our kids of today need.
Conclusion
Singapore is still a wonderful place to live in and Singaporeans still have a good branding overseas currently and that is a result of many years of partnership between Singaporeans.
Many people have many things to say, many complains to make but that just perpetuates a negative atmosphere. The system is not perfect and never will be. However I’m comforted by knowing many people are trying, many people are giving suggestions, many people are doing their part, so lets come together so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.
My eldest daughter have always had difficulties with her studies. She tries very hard and it gets frustrating at times, but somehow “her grades don’t commensurate with her efforts” according to a recent report we got from her school after her Primary 6 form teacher intervened. She is dyslexic.
I started reading up on what being dyslexic really means…
Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty… that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling…
~ das.org.sg
Now it all make sense. Her difficulty in comprehension of questions in her exam papers, her speed in reading, her accuracy in spelling, her grades.
Grades. The universal marker of education. The way to see if the child is good academically at their age. The way to cull applicants into a popular school if there are limited places. A necessary measurement in life in our time and age, in our society, in our capitalistic meritocratic society.
In the same report her verbal cognitive capabilities ranked in the 79% percentile and this meant a lot to me. It clearly showed that there is still a measurement in there that truly showed me the daughter that I know.
I do interview a lot of potential hires at work and there are definitely things I’m looking for. Passion, Integrity, Communication Skills, Thinking on the feet, etc. When meeting new friends, I also automatically look out for things like Sincerity, Empathy, Humour, Coolness and especially Chivalry in guys, etc. There is a huge disparity in what I’m looking out for in a person professionally and socially when compared with what schools are looking for in a student.
These are two different things I agree. I’m not saying that the education system is totally broken, as Singapore teens ranked No. 1 in problem solving in a recently international benchmarking organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), kudos to MOE. But at the same time, I’m also not saying that it’s perfect as well as many kids like mine are still not flourishing in the current institutionalised education system which is really giving their self-esteem and self-worth a daily beating.
The Ministry of Education of Singapore have spelt out the Desired Outcomes of Education across primary, secondary and post secondary education and I quote…
He has a good sense of self-awareness, a sound moral compass, and the necessary skills and knowledge to take on challenges of the future. He is responsible to his family, community and nation. He appreciates the beauty of the world around him, possesses a healthy mind and body, and has a zest for life.
The Key Stage Outcomes of Education according to MOE…
At the end of Primary school, pupils should:
be able to distinguish right from wrong
know their strengths and areas for growth
be able to cooperate, share and care for others
have a lively curiosity about things
be able to think for and express themselves confidently
take pride in their work
have healthy habits and an awareness of the arts
know and love Singapore
At the end of Secondary school, students should:
have moral integrity
believe in their abilities and be able to adapt to change
be able to work in teams and show empathy for others
be creative and have an inquiring mind
be able to appreciate diverse views and communicate effectively
take responsibility for their own learning
enjoy physical activities and appreciate the arts
believe in Singapore and understand what matters to Singapore
At the end of Post-Secondary education, students should:
have moral courage to stand up for what is right
be resilient in the face of adversity
be able to collaborate across cultures and be socially responsible
be innovative and enterprising
be able to think critically and communicate persuasively
be purposeful in pursuit of excellence
pursue a healthy lifestyle and have an appreciation for aesthetics
be proud to be Singaporeans and understand Singapore in relation to the world
These look like great outcomes to desire for our kids, but looking at what they go thru at school daily and how they are graded have made me disillusioned.
How is it possible for Schools to seriously look at and start to emphasise on the desired outcomes listed by MOE? Cooperation, Sharing, Caring, Curiosity, Expression, Confidence, Pride, Awareness of the Arts, loving Singapore like mentioned above? Schools are seriously looking at syllabus as those are the main matrices being look at when deciding if a child is doing well in School.
There are also other factors, things like Discernment, Empathy, Kindness, Digital Communication, Resilience all much needed in our current time and age to be Happy and Successful.
I don’t know the answer, but let me make some suggestions.
1. Grade and include desired outcomes in overall assessment
Make those desired outcomes gradable and make them attribute to the final score. 20% English, 20% Math, 20% Science, 20% Mother Tongue, 20% Cooperation + Sharing + Caring + Curiosity + Expression + Confidence + Pride + Awareness of the Arts + loving Singapore.
I mean that is what MOE is setting out to do right? So let’s do it.
2. Emphasis on Happiness
Success used to be defined as having more money, having a bigger house, having a nice car, having a great lifestyle and that all came down to having more money which is an outcome of having a good education. This is what most parents say and some are still saying.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Rather then just going to school, how about some real work life experience as well? Attached a kid to a job from young. Look at Logan LaPlante who shared at Ted about how he is sometimes working at a ski shop and how much good that is doing to him.
I’ll teach my kids photography, filming, how to edit videos, but would be great if I can send them to work somewhere.
Conclusion
I don’t study pedagogy, I’m not a school teacher, I don’t totally know the challenges the schools face. I do however have 3 daughters and I love them loads and want them to be happy.
I would love parents to stop bashing the education system as its made out of many passionate teachers. The institutionalises education system is so massive that it will take years to change and not to mention getting parents to change their mindsets as well and stop “investing” in expensive tuition, but fun stuff for their kids to be better and happy people.
Our education system deserves a C+ in my books, but hey there is definitely room for improvement and I think we just need to work hard at it.
If you have more ideas, lets all list them out. Let’s give our kids the best we can give them.
Happy 49th Birthday Singapore. This year there will be no official National Day song, but what that means is that there is an opportunity to do a great one next year (SG50) and for anyone to do one this year. So net net, we might get more songs this year. Here are a few Songs that have surfaced and I’ll add more to this post when I find them. Do comment at the bottom if you find any new ones. Thanks.
Really nice rendition, very nice feel to it and I think it will be another classic by the Sam Willows. Home by Kit Chan is already an all time favourite by Singaporeans and a new arrangement was done back in 2011 accompanied by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO).
Although I loved Sam Willow’s rendition, it somehow lacked that cliché mass audience touch. Not a bad thing at all as I think they stay true to their style and their fans will love it and they will get new fans from this version of Home I’m sure.
Singapore, We Are Ok! by OWL International
They are back at it again. Their CNY Song earlier this year already crossed a million views and for Nation Day, they seem like doing a series of videos too.
NDP 2014: the mrbrown show: jiak simi
Mr Brown did one last year (which to me was pretty darn good) and this year he did a tasty one too. I think him and his team of musicians were kinda hungry when they did the lyrics. I lol when Bak Chor Mee came out. lol. See all his NDP songs here.
National Day Parade 2014 MV – What Do You See
I loved the original version by Electrico and Mr Brown’s LeKuaSimi was hilarious, but I think this 2014 version added racial diversity, trendy hipster-ness, drone videography, hawker food, education, old people, young people, happy faces and the amazing logo which I think you will agree with me that is somewhat what we all expect. So in a way, it met my expectations.
National Day Parade 2014 MV – We Will Get There & One People, One Nation, One Singapore
This is the official one for 2014. I think its a nice rearrangement. Not too complicated. Not trying too hard.
Spot anymore? Pls share share.
Update: 9 Aug 2014
LORONG BOYS | A Gift to Singapore 2014
Beautiful instrumental by The Lorong Boys who are 5 award-winning Singaporean musicians who are equally comfortable playing on the hallowed stage of the concert hall as they are on the streets of the heartland.
My Singapore 2014 Moments of Love by Lorraine Tan
This is high production quality and backed by lots of sponsors.
Update: 10 Aug 2014
National Day Medley – HubbaBubbas
Really nice upbeat medley with some beatboxing and great vocals.
Unofficial NDP theme song 2014 – There’s no place like home
Audris Ho does a nice original number for Singapore 2014.
