I have just written about flash mobs and creativity and schools. That was a reaction to a post on Facebook by a friend of mine on a video of purported flash mob scene in Singapore. It depicted a highly rehearsed flash mob doing a dance sequence smack in the middle of Raffles Place. Of course it was not a flash mob in the true sense of the word where almost total strangers congregate together almost spontaneously to do something on a mass scale. This, it seems, was a rehearsed advertisement for a a phone company. Just a few days prior to this event, the local daily, the Straits Times featured an article on flash mobs being used by commercial or business entities.

Education and flash mobs have a lot more in common then we normally think. Today, both are being taken over or hijacked if you like by business considerations. The result of these hijackings is a well-run and structured activity that has lost its way.

Only for those are unaware, will see the activity as true to its original intended purposes. Today, behind flash mobs you see a business motive. The same is true of education. Business motives run education. While this is perhaps true of mass “education” since the start of the Industrial Revolution perhaps even more so today we have lost sight of what education is truly for. For the individual it is seen as the passport to the acquisition of material wealth. For the businessmen, it is to teach the populace to be just skillful workers of the 21st century. While this is important, shouldn’t education have other and more important goals?

What we see instead are statements of intent that will actually narrow the goals of education even further to that of the business world. In the US, the Obama Administration panics and its education goal is to prevent America from being left in the dust economically by its global rivals. Hence the Obama Administration’s emphasis on Math and the Sciences. To drive home the importance of it, it intends to link teacher pay to teacher performance which everyone knows is an euphemism for linking teachers’ pay to their students’ test scores. School districts get money if they toe the line. In Singapore, even the madrasahs have to adopt the national curriculum  so that its graduates are economically more viable. Getting funds for the madrasahs from the governing body is easy as long as you participate in the economy-centered new madrasah syllabus. In addition, “philanthropists” like Bill Gates have also linked funding from his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to linking test scores and teacher pay.

The result is that education becomes a “bottom line” endeavor just like businesses. Education is reduced to numbers and statistics, just like businesses. Education will be ever changing depending on the trends in the market place, just like businesses dance to trends in the economy. The people involved in education like the teachers and students will become just digits, just like the way businesses treats its workers. A humanizing endeavor has been reduced to just cold economics. So while outwardly, education appears to be taking place in our well-planned and organized schools, the reality is that education have surrendered even further perhaps to the demands of businesses just as flash mobs are increasingly tools of businesses too.

I often get appeals for help to provide private tuition for English Language for a young child. Sometimes I do want to help especially if the child is very young. However, usually my offer to help will get turned down.

This may seem strange since the parents of these children were the ones who had asked for help. The truth is that many of these parents seem to think that only private tuition is the answer. In Singapore, by private tuition, it usually means drilling children on examination-style questions. This is what parents want. There may be a place for that somewhere, I seriously doubt it will be of any good when a child is trying to pick up a second language, English in this case, and he is still only seven. I strongly believe that providing him with only the usual drill-and-practice approach will only put him off the language and stifle his learning the language.

But every time I suggest another approach to these parents, they will inevitably disagree. I usually suggest a program that involves giving the child greater exposure to the language. This would include reading, writing, listening and speaking. I would steer clear of classroom type exercises. The idea is just to let him get familiar with the language in every way possible.

In my program, reading is important and I would give every opportunity possible for the child to read or listen to someone read. At that age story-telling also becomes important. Stories never fail to entice kids. It is just a question of picking the right one. I would let them read almost anything that interest them. My son who is eighteen still reads his cereal boxes though of course he has gone beyond it too. If children love to read about aircraft, then get books about aircraft and pilots. If it is animals, then bring in the jungle into the picture.

Singing songs would be part of the things that I would do to encourage language acquisition. Songs are a great way to bring fun to language learning. Teaching them the lyrics, explaining the meaning and context of songs can all help him be a good listener and speaker.Get them to sing to listen to their own voices speaking the language. Does wonders for confidence.

Audio books allow for them to listen to stories. Or read to them. Provide them with examples of good reading. Again choice is important. Let them listen to the kinds of stories they want to hear. Word games and even tongue-twisters are also great fun. Use them.

Get them to write short letters to their mum, dad or grandma. Allow them to draw and decorate. Use lots of colors. Get these people involved so the children can see that writing to someone will get a reaction and lead to communication, and not just marks!

And I would bring them to a public library just to show them that you can get books and other reading materials without buying them. Show them where to get them in the library. Teach them how to find them. Having said that, I would also make it a point to bring them to book shops to buy books! This is to teach them the idea that we should invest in books. Books are just as vital as toys!

Most of all, let the parents know what you are doing and explain why. Getting them involved through following you to the libraries and bookshops and just sitting in with you can teach them wonderful ways to help their children master a language.

So for young children don’t put them off a language through tuition. Give them exposure to the language. But don’t let it be a chore and don’t be a bore.

(PS I do believe the same can work with older kids who have difficulties with language acquisition.)

A friend recently shared a video on Facebook purportedly of a flash mob doing dancing in the middle of Raffles Place, the heart of Singapore’s financial district. I commented that it was not a true flash mob as I lacked spontaneity as the dance was clearly choreographed. I also suggested that it was typically Singaporean, that is, we don’t seem to know when to be spontaneous. Spontaneity had to be choreographed and organized it seems over here.

This reminded me of another occasion when I experienced this utter lack of spontaneity among Singaporeans. It happened a few years ago while I was still with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The MOE was organizing an international conference on ICT use for education. As part of the conference, there was a chance for some young Singapore teenagers from a well-known school to perform using Creative Technology’s digital musical equipment. I happened to be there at a rehearsal at Suntec City. The performance was musically great only thing was that all the teenage school student musicians were not even smiling, or even moving their bodies. They were out of synch with the music. I recall telling them to lighten up and smile to no effect.I remember remarking to my boss, “It is sad when our education system produces kids who don’t know how to enjoy themselves.” As I recall the actual performance was of the same quality.

Creative Technology which produced those digital musical instruments once tried to introduce its Zen MP3 player in a most uncreative manner. In the TV advert we are shown a scene showing a traditional Chinese scholar in full traditional Chinese scholar garb, trying to remember. The Zen which was a portable MP3 player was linked to something so outdated and out of synch with what an MP3 player is used for. Compare this with Apple’s iPod advert when it was introduced. Apple was targeting a lifestyle while Creative Technology was targeting Chinese culture by associating “Zen” with traditional Chinese scholarship? You get the picture.

Today, I came across an interesting write-up about creativity. Looking at the ideas described in the article, I wonder if these ideas can be incorporated into the Singapore education system. Joey Reiman, CEO of BrightHouse, an Atlanta-based innovation consulting firm said:

“The five last bastions of thinking are the car, the john, the shower, the church or synagogue, and the gym.”

He believes that people should be “encouraged to visit a spot conducive to reflection and let their neurons rip.” Now where do you find that in schools? Even in subject areas where creativity is supposed to be key as in art, music and literature (and dare I add the sciences?), creativity is not prized as highly as meeting the examinations requirement of the subjects. Business-like KPIs add further nails to the creativity coffin in schools. Can we imagine an award like Maddock Douglas‘ annual Fail Forward award, which is designed to celebrate endeavors both ambitious and disastrous in schools in Singapore?

Not likely. Not likely in an environment where there is one right answer for everything. Anything else is marked with a red cross. Not likely where rote-learning is the norm. Not likely where conformity and rules are over-emphasised.

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