Month: November 2019

My student attended the compulsory S3 OBS last week. I suppose the goals of OBS are to let the students learn to be more independent outdoors and bond with their friends. There is one other important aim: to let the students mix with other teenagers outside their social circle and comfort zone. I think this is the most pertinent. My student, who is from a neighbourhood school, related how he was in the same group as a student from one of the branded schools. One would think all the students from the top schools would excel in this too, like in their academics. However, one cannot be more wrong about this particular boy. During one exercise, the students were asked to clean their pots and pans and they had to show them to the i/c who would then give the green light to proceed to the next task. The top school student refused to use soap to clean the dishes, saying “oil would separate itself from water.” The i/c obviously sent him back for more washing until my student taught him how to clean dishes. My point of the story is it’s great for students to take part in such OBS programmes. The top school students get to leave their ivory towers and learn they have much to learn from others. This is important because many of them go on to take on government jobs, doing policy work. They must know the ground and also know more than theories from books. On the other hand, students from regular schools can see they are just as good, if not better than the rest. You know how we always scorn the official tag that “all schools are good schools.” We shouldn’t because it’s true to a certain extent. Sans the resources a so-called elite school may have, the students and teachers from ALL schools have so much to offer, regardless which district it is located in. In this case, my student is obviously more street smart and more independent than the other boy and I am very proud of him. The top school student also got to learn about surviving in the real world. Key thing is the world didn’t decide their fate after PSLE. (Important message ahead Thur’s PSLE results.) Life is a marathon and I think my student is getting ahead in the game. ☺️ #obs #psle #allschoolsgoodschool

Posted on by Wallace

My student attended the compulsory S3 OBS last week. I suppose the goals of OBS are to let the students learn to be more independent outdoors and bond with their friends. There is one other important aim: to let the students mix with other teenagers outside their social circle and comfort zone. I think this[…]

Very proud of my student J. We talked about the capitalist system today and discussed whether it is fair for billionaires to earn astronomical sums of money, following @elizabethwarren ‘s request for billionaires to pay more taxes. I said @this_billgates , the second richest man in the world, would have to pay $6b a year under Warren. My student just messaged me to tell me I was wrong. Gates had just overtaken @jeffbezos as the world’s richest man. I am wrong. Thank you for reading widely and pointing this out to me. I ❤️ this.

Posted on by Wallace

Very proud of my student J. We talked about the capitalist system today and discussed whether it is fair for billionaires to earn astronomical sums of money, following @elizabethwarren ‘s request for billionaires to pay more taxes. I said @this_billgates , the second richest man in the world, would have to pay $6b a year[…]