Mind Is Not a Vessel to Be Filled, but a Fire to Be Kindled Essay

Education may be an ordinary word to close to populate, but very few actually understand the deep intend beneath it. In this dynamic world, we need to be equipped with the required skills and hard work to survive. Understanding the didactics ashes is integral to throw oerboard students to understand the purpose of studying, the purpose of passage to school everyday. Is education in Singapore really holistic? Are in that respect flaws? What is education? By definition, it would be something along the line of transferring knowledge.I beg to differ. In my opinion, education consists of more than just knowledge. From Kindergarden to University, students ar put through the day by day r asideine of waking up early in the morning, going to a place where teachers teach the alike(p) old stuff. By that, I am referring to knowledge. Knowledge is power, you might swear. Indeed, beingness knowledgeable helps you stand out among the rest during the tests and examinations. But is tha t all to the highest degree education ? Acing the tests and buy offting a degree? Im afraid no.Years subsequently years, Singapore universities and institutions argon well-known on the global front for being able to produce students with top grades. These results just keep getting improve and better. Foreigners come to Singapore for education. Most people might therefore look at education in Singapore is perfect. I also acknowledge that these be true, but hardly to a certain extent. On the other spectrum ( which is unremarkably not shown), there be students who are not performing as well as their peers, students who are doing well but facing a lot of unnecessary stress.This is prevalent as well. The obsessive reliance of schooling to produce grades, online forums to discuss ways to headstart my child in education. I find no meaning in these. This is passive learning. Similarly, there are exceptional cases which bring out the ugly truth about education in Singapore. Stud ents faking degrees to earn scholarships, jobs , graduates saying vulgarities during graduation ceremony to rejoice over the achievements, even local scholar prosecuted overseas for doing unethical things ofttimes(prenominal) as watching child pornography.If education in Singapore is so perfect, why would such disgraceful incidents occur? Let us look at some possible reasons. Memorizing dictionaries, memorizing textbooks, doing thousands of assessment books, attending endless tuitions and secondary classes These are some things most pupils in Singapore are going through. They turn over my sympathy. Everything I have described until now is about passive learning, which revolves most results and lacking in true meaning of education. Now, let us heave into another aspect.Imagine this a child who does his work consistently, revises on everyday basis, reads sorespapers everyday. Everything without being told. Seems like a utopian child? No. It is possible. The only thing he has compared to other students is the fury. The burning passion inside him to learn, to employ knowledge. This drive pushes him to do everything on his own. in that respect is no tuition, no supplementary classes, reasonable number of assessment books. Yet, this child is scoring As for his subjects.In Singapore schools, Ministry of Education is encouraging a whole new approach towards holistic education. Co-curricular activities, Community Involvement Program, Civics & Morals Education these are programmes put in place after much effortful formulation of the education ministries. There are even more recent policies such as not revealing top students for national examinations such as Primary School Leaving Examinations. I respect them for that. However, there are rooms for improvement. CCA, short for co-curricular activities, is a word that is often hung in the pupils mouth.Whether they say it out of pride in a good way or bad way, I do not know. This brings me to the point of CCA m ismatch. Students who find out they are not good enough for a CCA only after a few years in that CCA, students who feel indignant as they feel they could have gotten into better CCA. What are the consequences of this? Students not attending CCAs regularly, students complaining about how sien ( boring and uninteresting) their CCA is. This leads to stereotyping about CCAs and split between different CCAs, especially Sports vs Non-Sports. opus you might say it is good that CCAs are bonded together as a team, the purpose of bonding is wrong. They are making fun of other people and things they do. In the long run, this testament not work. Another thing is when pupils do not attend CCAs, the school has no choice but to wont deterrence methods such as demerit points. To tackle this whole situation, there is Direct- School- Admission put in place to reduce scenarios like this all the same the advantage is limited. After talking about limitations of the current education system put in place, I have some suggestions.What I will say is also something simple passion. Again, a simple word moreover deep meaning behind it. If a student is an active learner, problems such as late/no submission of work, lack of concenter during lessons, hurt of notes, game/social networking addiction etc will all be eliminated at once. Students will not complain Life is Tough or There is too much work yet too little eon etc. Teachers no longer have to chase after the students for work, carry students boring supplementary classes.Teachers no longer have to scold students, which deviates their think on teaching that will result in drop in productivity. This will lead to more supplementary/remedial classes which make students get tired of learning. Ultimately, they lose passion in learning. This evil cycle of disquieted chase, forced homework, drilled practice will keep on going until the students change their attitude. If the students take charge of their own learning, they will automatically focus during lessons and give constructive feedback that can engage the whole class in a positive manner.This will accelerate learning so much that the teachers will be more willing to teach and even device fun activities for pupils to play and learn at the same time. At the same time, the students will strive to do their best in everything including daily worksheet, assignments. Ultimately, success ( which is good grades people chase after) will follow them. Therefore, I powerfully feel that passion is much more important than knowledge. To put this passion in them, I think teachers, parents and students themselves all play a essential role to kindle the fire within them.They can help throw encouraging environment to allow pupils to share their opinions on certain topics and allow them think out of the box. They can reduce things such elitism stereotyping to abet the pupils to exchange feedback healthily and letting them learn from one another. Occasionally, havi ng useful motive courses in schools by professionals also might help. Once this fire is lit, the challenge will follow. Students will start finding joy in learning and unknowingly, they will get good grades without even getting stressed or tired.