If there was a contradiction of terms, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat must have missed it. At the unveiling of a "character development" toolkit, Heng said that character-building is a long-term process. MOE introduced an ethics syllabus in 1959, civics and moral education in 1992 and 1994, and national education in 2007 (recommendations on NE made by Committee of Supply per Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State (Education)), just 4 years ago. Note the intervals are getting shorter and shorter. Maybe the latest guidelines for Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) will have an even shorter shelf-life.
One principal at a SAP school in the West made a lasting impression on parents and guardians some time back during an occasion of the announcement of the PSLE results. She asked the pupils assembled in the school hall to stand up, to turn around, and face the moms and dads seated at the back. Take a bow, she told the kids, for without their patient love and nurturing, that day in school would not have been possible.
On the wall of that hall, the school had painted in large characters the values it aimed to impart to the young minds:
礼 (li) - courtesy
义 (yi) - righteousness
廉 (lian) - integrity
耻 (chi) - sense of shame
忠 (zhong) - loyalty
孝 (xiao) - filial piety
仁 (ren) - humanity
爱 (ai) - love
A committee member of the St Joseph's Institution Old Boys' Association commenting on the new MOE initiative said that teachers must be prepared to venture out of their comfort zone. Really? Is it hazardous duty to teach, amongst others, righteousness, integrity or a sense of shame?
Shame - 耻 (chi) - is not just about exposing the navel line, as in the Abercrombie & Fitch ad. It's about the shame of setting a bad example, of lying to the people you pledged to serve, of hiding behind manipulated data, while enriching oneself by ripping off taxpayers. It's moral hazard pure and simple, and teachers should not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
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我看到媒体报道了一个故事。故事里的事，是那昨天的事。
ReplyDelete故事里的事，说是就是，不是也是。
故事里的事，说不是就不是，是也不是。
故事里的事，说对就对，不对也对。
故事里的事，说不对就不对，对也不对。
故事里的事，说好就好，不好也好。
故事里的事，说不好就不好，好也不好。
Well said!
ReplyDeleteShameless lying two-faced kuku from MAS who did nothing to protect public interests while allowing financial institutions to peddle toxic investments products. Lagi shameful!
ReplyDeleteLooks decent.
ReplyDeleteTalks sweet.
Appears like gentilese.
All the above are
superficial.
'礼 (li) - courtesy
义 (yi) - righteousness
廉 (lian) - integrity
耻 (chi) - sense of shame
忠 (zhong) - loyalty
孝 (xiao) - filial piety
仁 (ren) - humanity
爱 (ai) - love'.
These are the qualities
that have to be sincerely
from the heart and mind.
And not ACTED ON to
project a misleading
goodness in oneself.
How about changing history accounts or not giving people the rights to clear their names after decade long of wrongful accusations a shame?
ReplyDeleteNot honoring your ancestors historical roots must also be the biggest shame?
"Shame - 耻 (chi) - is not just about exposing the navel line, as in the Abercrombie & Fitch ad. It's about the shame of setting a bad example, of lying to the people you pledged to serve, of hiding behind manipulated data, while enriching oneself by ripping off taxpayers. It's moral hazard pure and simple, and teachers should not be afraid to call a spade a spade."
ReplyDeleteLOL, in other words, before trying to educate others on morality, the government should educate themselves first.
I think the PAP MPs should attend civic and moral education classes. They seem to have loss their morals since time immemorial.
ReplyDeleteStart with the greatest pretender : Pretend to plant a tree once in a while and never bother to be present at Meet-the-People sessions to listen to the people's problems, some more dare to threaten voters like a gangster with complete immunity.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the moral message they are sending, that it's OK just to pretend & even threaten ?
Hmm..this is a hard one. But let me try and put us all immortals through a simple test in a given example here: -
ReplyDeleteWhen gahment brings in FTs, did you show some 礼 and welcome them with big arms? Slowly as more arrived and take away your jobs, train seats, hospital beds, school place, hdb slot etc, did you stand by your fellow singaporeans and show 义 & defend them instead? And when you have to put a stick in the sandpit and draw the line, did you dare do so with 廉 ? And when gahment/FT start calling you 'underserving' 'losers' or 'unwilling & incapable' did you just quietly accept the 耻 ? And after all these, did you still stand by the PAP and vote them with 忠? Right after election, start calling everybody else who didn't as "no 孝" to your ancestors? And in the meantime, show more 仁 to all FTs/new residents by cooking curry for them, and in return, shower them with more 爱 ?
Kee chiu if you pass 4 out of 8. Anything below, you need a moral lessons.
How many times have you heard - from those teachers or civil servants who constantly say "I have to vote for PAP otherwise my job will be in jeopardy. No choice".
ReplyDeleteI think those same groups of teachers/civil servants should come out with integrity, and tell Heng Swee Keat "I want to give you moral support, but I have questionable morals" to teach these people.
The only two moral values educators and politicians are teaching these days is around us everyday, unfolding in front of our children.
ReplyDeleteForget about Be hungry and Be foolish.
Is all about Be Kiasi and Be Kiasu
Now if you don't mind, i am filled with a full sense of shame now...
Moral Education in school is to foster gratitude to the people in power; people who claimed to have made life better for the heartlanders. It is also to ensure obedience to authority so that the children grow up to be docile citizens, easy to control. Singapore is the only country where trouble is preempted. How else can you explain why the Occupy Raffles Place died off when so many retirees had lost their retirement funds and had got back no compensation; compare that what HK govt had done for their citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the use of trying to teach the students Moral Education when teachers themselves can be immoral?
ReplyDeleteAn example of one immoral teacher is the ex-Chinese language teacher in the news today caught for molesting boys in a local school. He is reported to be bespectacled gentle soft-spoken man who sucked the private part of the young boy in a computer lab in the school. He also molested a few others in toilets in the school.
Also, what about the MOE scholar Jonathan Wong who was caught possessing child porn on his computer proving he had paedophiic tendencies ? What about the male teachers and staff who surf the net, chat on IM chat and chatrooms from their lab and office computers hunting for women to meet for fast fling, affair or sex gratification?
How can we talk about CCE when this is allowed to happen in the backdrom of schools?
Moral education should be set as an example & taught by Parents.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need to let a bunch of loose-feet stomp young journalist going around snapping pictures to act as moral police in the name of citizen-journalism. Do they have enough life experience, what kind of moral police are they?
And while the public may be outraged at Adelyn hoseybo who slapped her mother, it doesn't give them the moral right to make her picture public and publish her phone number in viral....this is taking 'sense of shame' too far.
There are kinder outreach, counseling and approach to such cases. As for those perpetrators of school children, they need mental help, more the exception than the rules.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/10/asia/9871477&sec=asia
ReplyDelete上梁不正，下樑歪。没法解决！
ReplyDeleteThose staying in guarded bungalows are those that need moral education and they are all adults.
ReplyDeleteChildren learn from what they see, hear and experience. Many are able to tell that their parents, teachers and other elderly people, lying, bullying, cheating, stealing and doing unethical and immoral acts. THEY DARE NOT EXPOSE, TELL OR TEACH THE ADULTS because they know they WILL BE PUNISHED FOR DOING SO.
So, me says NO NEED TO TEACH MORAL, JUST STOP DOING IMMORAL DEED WILL DO. Do have a suggestion though; do teach ethics and virtues if the Authority is comfortable.
Why do me says 'if the Authority is comfortable'? The Reason is Singaporeans are crying loud that we have leaders with little or no conscience and the kids hear them regularly. As such, is the Authority in a good position to teach values?
patriot
礼 (li) - courtesy
ReplyDelete义 (yi) - righteousness
廉 (lian) - integrity
耻 (chi) - sense of shame
忠 (zhong) - loyalty
孝 (xiao) - filial piety
仁 (ren) - humanity
爱 (ai) - love
As for the 88 year old who roams Sg's cul-de-sacs looking for fights, how many of these qualities has he offended? And is it time to repent?
National Education was introduced in 1997
ReplyDeleteIt should be enforced onto all teachers and school staff. Otherwise, its seems hypocritical for them to teach it without proving they are qualified or fit to teach it.
ReplyDelete