Hey guys, I bet you saw my tweets already. I could go on for quite awhile on twitter but that would be spamming your timeline. Instead I decided, at the last minute to do this blog post to basically offer my opinion on this whole matter.
Brace yourselves for a lecture, but trust me it's a good lecture. :)
First off, our current system, how's it like. We go to school in the morning, go through a shitload of lessons, most of which are theoretical concepts drilled into us through hours and hours of repeated examples and questions, most of which we have no idea what we're actually doing but just by FOLLOWING THE FORMULA we were taught, we're able to obtain the answer. We don't know what the reasons behind learning it are, we don't know what the use of it is in the real world and we most certainly have no idea how the shit it actually works.
That is basically what you go through everyday in school and that is basically what your Primary to Secondary school life is all about. Being drilled in the theories and concepts, which includes maths and scientific formulas, different rules of grammar and vocabulary and a whole load of other things that we forget by the time the lesson ends and our minds are dead.
That's not all, I'm sure many of you have tuition. Extra lessons paid by your parents which you are forced to attend against your own will to "improve your understanding of the subject". Truth be told yes tuition is helpful to a certain extent because it's conducted at a smaller scale (Group tuition) or even at a personal level (home tuition). The problem is, it still follows the same concept. Drilling theories and all the awesome stuff that makes shit sense to you because firstly, you just need to memorize it and vomit it out on paper without even knowing how it actually works. Secondly, as usual you forget lots of it after the lesson ends.
When was the last time the teacher actually demonstrated something out live in front of the class. For maths, bringing in those gigantic set squares, protractors and what not into the class. And actually showing you on the board some stuff? Hardly? Yes I agree, most teachers walk into class with a shitload of work sheets that end up you never do by yourself and get help from those that actually understand the lesson.
So my main point here is, I can't change the system and neither can the government that quickly because firstly, schools in Singapore do not have enough resources to buy so much equipment or items to make the lesson "more lively" like actual models of stuff that you learn in science or maths. Nonetheless I find video lessons very helpful, especially if it's interactive. NOTE, there are two kinds of video lessons, the type where the narrator talks on and on in that super boring voice when eventually you fall asleep to, OR the type when the video pauses and you get to actually work with whatever is inside. THAT's the kind of video lesson I like.
More ever, teachers and the society alike are always asking students to "explore" on their own. Well that's fine with me but what the heck is there to explore if I don't even know what to explore? Please teachers, at least give us some websites or books that we can ownself look into if we really don't understand your lesson, in which most cases it's like that, or at least tell us where we can look for more info. All I ever hear at the end of lessons are "Ok class, these are the homework for today, please complete them by when and when".
Homework, yes it's useful in helpful us recap and revise what we learn during the lesson...if we understand it. Whenever teacher says if you have any questions come find me after school...yea well the thing is teachers always have meetings after schools until dunno what time and students have CCA's also. And you wonder why so many people are stressed.
To end this post off, just want to say even after you read this, if you actually did, know that I'm not trying to fight the system, I just want to offer my opinion on it. There are certain reasons why we can't change our education system in such a short time but I just hope in the future, something better will happen.
@livinginsg
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