hm.

Dear Teacher, do you think i am too stupid to do well?

http://enewslink.asia1.com.sg/brsweb/read_8.brsw?this=result&QDT=1&QFLST=HD%3AHG%3APD&DB=BT%3AST%4006-07&QSTR=%28%28teacher%29%29.HG.&DTSTR=%28%28PD+%3E=+20060929%29+and+%28PD+%3C=+20070301%29%29&PSZ=10&MAXL=200&SUMY=1&HLT=0&LSTN=0&ID=000046409@ST06

This article talks of the differentiation between academic standards of students in Singapore, especially with reference to the EM3 stream in primary school.

I feel this situation is plainly one of stereotyping and condemnation. These students take a few tests early, and then they are placed together with others who do not do well. There is then an impression that they cannot do well ever again, and that they are doomed to fail in life. (Side note: many of such students move on to the Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) after secondary school, and certain people dub ITE as It’s The End.) This is a generalization that they can not improve, and they cannot work harder to strive for something better than what they achieved at 10 years old.

The EM3 stream has been done away with a few years ago. However, there is still the case of students taking foundation subjects, or subject banding, as mentioned in the article. Some students who might be good in one subject but bad in the rest might have to take all subjects at the foundation level, because of fixed primary school subject combinations. This is unfair, in my opinion, because certain students with gifts in particular areas will not get a chance to develop.

The main question, however, is what we can do to dispel the impression that they are useless and dumb forever. Coming from an EM1 stream myself, and having been part of the more academically gifted classes for the whole of my childhood so far, I do not actually have the impression of them as dumb goons. Instead, they are very much like us, and have similar interests.

The article also talks about the Rosenthal Effect as the teacher directly impacting a student based on his/her expectations towards that student. I feel this may not necessarily be very glaring in the Singapore education system, because teachers do not focus so much on one student alone. However, in RI, we have yet to see whether the Raffles Academy programme, targeted at students with “intellectual gifts” as well, will produce students who do significantly better. After all, there is a higher expectation of them to do well as well.

I would like to conclude by saying that education is but one part of our life process, and it by far does not mean anything to whether one will succeed in later life. Bill Gates is a stellar example; a man who drops out of university is now the richest man on the world. Thus, we should not discriminate against people who are academically weaker than us, because it is possible that we might end up working for them in the future.