PW

Hmm. Went to see my pasts last year and the 5 from 2010... So, I was that emo in the past? Though thankfully, i think I've become a slightly happier person, but one who still enjoys brooding on issues etc. for me, the time spent alone thinking about things issuing satisfying (this brings to mind a certain article called "the joy of quiet"... I think...)

Anyway, I received my PW results today and I was really happy! (for a short period of time)... It felt like I had this great crushing pressure relieved (如释重负）and my heart was beating really fast... Then I sat in the wrong seat -.-

But of course, there's no denying that I got a B for Chinese... So, based on these two experiences, and when my friend SMSed me a reply of "Shit." when I asked hi, how PW was, I felt like typing a short blogpost... So here I am.

I have typed this when I received my O level results, but it occurs to me more strongly now, knowing the sense of crushing defeat when you expect/ get a B (or below) especially when you know you've put in so much effort. It's so painful you're willing to block out the world, not care about other parties' concerned queries, etc. Education in Singapore seems to be a zero-sum game that requires some people to suffer in order for others to "win", in a sense, and derive their happiness.

It seems to me that this may be necessary. After all, There is a very real need for assessment of children's or any student's abilities- how good is he/she at solving math problems, for instance. But there is a trade off involved, which is that those who are not performing as well tend to firstly be classified unconsciously by teachers as weak, and this biased form of thinking would then favour those perceived to be smart, who generally live up to expectations, and disadvantage those who are perceived as less academically inclined - and they too feel that the teachers aren't focusing as much on them and hence their grades are correspondingly weak due to the lack of encouragement.
Secondly, the economy as a whole suffers. If students were graded based on how hardworking they were, the willingness to learn, and learn from mistakes, then that would be a far better skill for use in the working world. Studies have shown that whatever is left of our knowledge after graduating from school can be condensed into a short two weeks or so. Thus, what is more important is the inculcating of values such as being hardworking as staed above rather than a focusing of how well one can memorise and regurgitate content. At the very least, exams need to incorporate much more application skills rather than rote memorisation. Otherwise, discouraged students would not want to study, and would be less likely to earn a higher-paying job due to the lack of connfidence and lack of skills. In the macroeconomics lecture I just had, it mentioned that structural employment also has a "discouraged worker effect" where retrenched people become less and less likely to be reemployed after falling into unemployment, due to the loss of working skills and simply being discouraged to want to apply for a job. This could be caused by the zero-sum nature of education. Hence, it can be seen that getting rid of or minimising the association of grades with education would benefit society as a whole as individuals would be more confident and competitive, leading to an increase in national output.