HK's Education Culture

My dad is a non-conformist, and thankfully so. I dislike doing what everyone else is doing (they're probably just giving into marketing or believing something the government said) or thinking what everyone else is thinking (ie "education has salvific power" as Mr Tall, expatriate blogger from Batgung so eloquently put it. In fact most of this article's sources come from that blog.).

Quoting dad in reference to the stock market and the methods people use to raise their children: "Most people are wrong. If you follow the sheep herd, you can't succeed."

I found a genius article that further support his argument of "if you're not born with intellectual capacity, there's not much you can do to expand it". Ok fine, I reworded it from "if you're stupid, you're stupid". He criticizes the mentality of "more difficult is better" when chinese moms are impressed by schools that teach at a more advanced level. If it's so simple why not just enroll everyone in a higher grade?

*Gasp* Not everyone's IQs are cut out for college: "Intelligence in the Classroom
Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them."

I like this quote:
We live in an age when it is unfashionable to talk about the special responsibility of being gifted, because to do so acknowledges inequality of ability, which is elitist, and inequality of responsibilities, which is also elitist. And so children who know they are smarter than the other kids tend, in a most human reaction, to think of themselves as superior to them. Because giftedness is not to be talked about, no one tells high-IQ children explicitly, forcefully and repeatedly that their intellectual talent is a gift. That they are not superior human beings, but lucky ones. That the gift brings with it obligations to be worthy of it. That among those obligations, the most important and most difficult is to aim not just at academic accomplishment, but at wisdom.

And it doesn't matter if your IQ isn't sky-high! "What's Wrong With Vocational School?
Too many Americans are going to college."

Because of society's (in particular HK) overrated view on education, there is academic inflation in which babysitters might need a degree in Education.

And finally, this article, the author of which is from the Ivy Leagues, humbly reflects on the disadvantages of an elite education.

I must quote him:
One of the great errors of an elite education, then, is that it teaches you to think that measures of intelligence and academic achievement are measures of value in some moral or metaphysical sense. But they’re not. Graduates of elite schools are not more valuable than stupid people, or talentless people, or even lazy people. Their pain does not hurt more. Their souls do not weigh more. If I were religious, I would say, God does not love them more.

I am disgusted by 'my kid is better than your kid', 'so-and-so's daughter is going to (insert name school)' talks over dim sum at yum cha by a bunch of 'see lais' (middle aged chinese women notorious for being loud, opinionated and nosy).

And Mr Tall, HK expatriate blogger, provides an excellent summary of the HK education mentality and situation, which explains why salaries for fresh grads have plummeted and have not recovered yet. As I'm in my early 20s, I feel and see this situation, and the bleakness of those still struggling to worm their way into the career world and into a decent living so that they can forge a family (which means buying a house, and since housing is so expensive, that's very stressful....but that's another post altogether).

My dad encourages me to go to school to learn. That's why I'm doing a Masters... I don't put my faith in it elevating my salary or necessarily and automatically entitling me to my dream career. It might do all those things, but that's not the whole point.

The older you get, the smaller you feel in light of all the issues you see in the world.

Christmas

It's been soo long since I've last blogged and I can simply chalk it up to being occupied from day to night.

It's not perfect but I must say I am enjoying life.

I've taken a strong liking to potatoes until I heard on a radio show while in a taxi, that each spoonful had like 45 calories. Or something scary like that. I don't remember the exact numbers but I think I had about 4 meals with potatoes in it that week.

Hence: Salad-soup diet after all the gravy and potatoes.






I also had a record breaking amount of chocolate.

I wanted to talk about global warming in this post but nah... too lazy, and plus, it's time to go out again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!