so SYF has concluded and the two schools that i tutor received a Distinction and an Accomplishment. it's great and all until you realise like 90% of the schools achieved the same results. roughly 70% achieved Distinction. what?

i'd try not to use rhetoric. hehe. i think MOE is going in the wrong direction in this one. the intentions are okay; performing arts should be about the art, not the competition, kids in lesser off schools will not feel the utter sense of disappointment, students are too stressed and the like. but they really do sound like the typical excuses used to defend mollycoddling.

i, for one, am utterly against mollycoddling. every time i see an example of parents trying to overprotect their kids from God knows what i make a mental note to myself to not follow in their stead when i have kids. i believe parents should not interfere with the child's CCAs and academics. i have seen too many examples of parents blaming the teacher for their kid's average grades. when a teacher tries to discipline a child, the parents freak out and make police reports. as a result MOE suspends teacher. what?

parents might rebut with the point that some teachers are really inadequate. ever wondered why? (oops, rhetorical question)

when MOE does not protect the teachers in regards to parental complaints, you lose a little of that sense of, should we say, "nobility" of the profession. teaching is probably the most important profession in the world. you are educating the next generation. inspiring them to do great things. imbuing them with the knowledge and the values in which to succeed in life. when you limit the teachers' power to do all those, that sense of nobility disapppears, as well as welfare for the teacher. less and less people will be attracted to the teaching industry, and thus teaching (in Singapore) has turned from "i want to be a teacher, regardless of my grades" to "my grades damn jialat so i become teacher lor".

i think, in order to solve the current education conundrum there should be this two pronged approach.

1) MOE to protect the teachers against parental idiocy (and by extension mollycoddling)

2) NIE really needs to get its quality control lever up. NIE CANNOT be a last resort for A' Level students.

"wah my A' Level Cs and Ds leh.. how ah"
"go be teacher lor"


i have friends in NIE whom i know will be excellent teachers in the future. i, unfortunately also have friends that i think should stay away from kids.

i guess what pisses me off so much regarding the new SYF grading system, that it is almost the brainchild of parental idiocy and MOE's reluctance to stand up to that. of all the methods to encourage the arts and discourage competition, you choose the one that totally eliminates the competition factor.

sounds pragmatic right?