Whats lacking in our education?
Heading a group of Chinese-language teachers on a recent trip to China, the author visited schools in Beijing and Shandong province. He shares his observations and reflections with our readers.
HAVING visited two schools in China recently, I can't help but applaud the ideal of education upheld by the principals.
Like Singapore, China is witnessing a generation of young students who dislike reading. To tackle the problem, the principal of a primary school in Jinan city, capital of Shandong province, started a school-wide project of bookplate-making some years ago.
Now, high on the must-do list for the school, the activity has been taking place annually on a large scale. Not only are all the pupils required to make bookplates but the teaching staff are called on to help, too.
The art instructors are to teach the children how to make printing blocks out of plaster, with which bookplates will be printed. Teachers of other subjects will recommend to their pupils titles suitable for outside reading, highlighting the significance of attaching an Ex Libris onto a book they have read.
Then, pupils and teachers will put their collective works on show: bookplates along with brief reading reports. This has become the most eye-catching item among the school's achievements.
This way, not only are the children encouraged to read more, but a refined aesthetic sense is cultivated in them.
The principal's idea stemmed from a plain desire. With the aid of the time-honoured art of block print, he hoped to instil in the children a love for reading and appreciation of beauty, so that they can enjoy fun and pleasure while they learn and study.
A similar objective is achieved in a Beijing secondary school by having the students run a TV station of their own.
All work involved, from programme planning to backstage chores, is done by the students themselves. Even the student director of the TV station was elected on a one-man-one-vote basis by the whole school including the principal, teachers, and students.
The school provides limited funds plus basic facilities such as a simple film studio and tolerable equipment of post-production.
On a sultry summer day, I had a talk with the students working in the stuffy editing-room , and was deeply moved by their spirit.
The principal regularly shows the TV productions thus made during school assemblies, and invites all students to discuss and comment on the works about their contents and techniques.
As the TV productions are done as an extracurricular activity, the students' schoolwork is not compromised.
When interviewed by the visitors, the principal shared her experience, joy and pride in helping the students run their own TV station. She did not touch on the children's scholastic performance or results in various competitions.
I cannot help comparing education in Singapore with that in those two schools.
Our country values a strong administrative background in a school principal. The head of an educational institution must be an excellent administrator, but may not have a clear idea of education or the drive for bold moves beyond the set rules.
Of course, an educator is different from an administrator. But which is more needed for our schools?
Is bookplate-making or a student's TV station so peculiar to those schools in China that it can't be emulated in Singapore for lack of ideas and facilities? In fact, the activity per se doesn't matter, but the initiative to boost the students' motivation does.
The essence of education lies more in activating a desire in the educated to study on their own accord.
In Singapore, waves upon waves of new policies, re-set targets, appraisals and assessments tend to make even the most competent principals feel inadequate.
Besides, a principal is judged by his executive abilities rather than his commitment to the ideal of education.
Of course we have no lack of educators highly actuated by ideals, but they hardly have the urge to break through the various restrictions. Principals and teachers alike may have lots of fresh ideas of how to do a better job, but they have yet to take an even tougher challenge and uphold the ideal of education for the benefit of their students.
Here we have a perfect education system, which provides a regular environment for normal growth. Yet our practices, on the whole, still encourage excellence and fulfilment of potentials while neglecting the balance between intelligence and character in the educated.
Education should be different from business management. If our principals can free their minds to pursue their ideals on a reasonable assumption, we can expect to see more of their cherished dreams come true.
•The author is editor of Thumbs Up , a weekly newspaper for Primary pupils. Translated by Allen Zhuang
我們的教育欠缺些什麼？
● 蔡深江
作者最近率領本年度模範華文教師訪問中國山東和北京，參觀當地的中文教學情況。這是他的感想。
最近在中國參觀了兩所學校，校長辦校的理念讓人暗自喝采。
中國也面對新生代學生不愛閲讀的問題，濟南一所國小的校長於是在學校推行製作藏書票的活動。
不但是全校各年級學生要製作藏書票，老師也必須參與制作。整個製作藏書票的活動成了學校最主要的一個工程，每一年浩浩蕩蕩舉行。
美術老師負責課後教導學生以石膏刻製版模，其他科目的老師則鼓勵學生閲讀課外書，點出製作藏書票的意義。
最後，所有師生的作品都展示出來，藏書票加上簡單的讀書報告，成了學校最漂亮的成績單，不但達到了鼓勵閲讀的目的，也巧妙地提煉了學生的美學觀念。
校長的出發點很平實，只是想通過藏書票這個古老的印刷方式，結合美的教育和閲讀習慣，讓學生通過一種更輕鬆有趣的認知過程，加強學習效果。
北京的一所中學則是讓學生成立電視台，從節目的策劃到台前幕後的大小工作都由學生負責，連擔任電視台台長的學生也是通過校長和全校師生一人一票選舉產生。
校方則提供相當有限的製作經費，以及設立簡單的攝影棚和條件不是很好的剪接後製場所。
我和負責同學在悶熱的剪接室交談，夏初的暑熱使人難受，然而我對學生們的精神十分佩服。
校長用週會放映學生拍攝製作的節目，並且讓學生公開討論，辯論解説節目的內容和製作水平。
學生在課餘時間進行攝製的相關工作，不影響他們的正課學習。
面對訪客，校長不談學生的學業成績和其他輝煌的比賽記錄，專心分享她和學生成立電視台的用心、效果以及驕傲。
我不得不將本地的教育情況帶出來比較。
新加坡信奉的是完整紮實的行政經驗，能當上一校之長，一定是出色的行政官，卻不一定有清楚的教育理念，或者敢大膽推行規定以外的政策。
教育家和行政官是兩種很不一樣的角色，我們要的是何者？
難道這兩所學校的作法非常特別嗎？或是本地學校沒有這樣的構思和條件？
其實活動的設計本身並不重要，推動與激發學生自由學習的原動力，才比較接近教育的本質。
在一波接一波的教育政策、預期目標、評估與成績的壓力底下，再勇敢的校長也會力有未逮。何況，制度重視的是校長的執行操作能力多於對教育的熱情。
本地當然有充滿理想的教育工作者，在種種限制中卻不見得有打破體制的衝動。校長和老師也許不乏推動教學的新點子，然而，能不能以學生的角度出發，為教育堅持理念，是一個更大的挑戰。
我們的教育有完善的體系，也提供了中規中距的成長環境，然而，整個教育過程鼓勵的是追求更傑出的表現與更好的可能，忽略了在心智與人格發展上的平衡元素。
辦教育應該不同於管理一家公司，如果學校校長敢於擺脱束縛，在合理的假設上追求一些理想，相信我們會看到多一些執着的夢想成真。
•作者是國小生週報《大拇指》主編
Heading a group of Chinese-language teachers on a recent trip to China, the author visited schools in Beijing and Shandong province. He shares his observations and reflections with our readers.
HAVING visited two schools in China recently, I can't help but applaud the ideal of education upheld by the principals.
Like Singapore, China is witnessing a generation of young students who dislike reading. To tackle the problem, the principal of a primary school in Jinan city, capital of Shandong province, started a school-wide project of bookplate-making some years ago.
Now, high on the must-do list for the school, the activity has been taking place annually on a large scale. Not only are all the pupils required to make bookplates but the teaching staff are called on to help, too.
The art instructors are to teach the children how to make printing blocks out of plaster, with which bookplates will be printed. Teachers of other subjects will recommend to their pupils titles suitable for outside reading, highlighting the significance of attaching an Ex Libris onto a book they have read.
Then, pupils and teachers will put their collective works on show: bookplates along with brief reading reports. This has become the most eye-catching item among the school's achievements.
This way, not only are the children encouraged to read more, but a refined aesthetic sense is cultivated in them.
The principal's idea stemmed from a plain desire. With the aid of the time-honoured art of block print, he hoped to instil in the children a love for reading and appreciation of beauty, so that they can enjoy fun and pleasure while they learn and study.
A similar objective is achieved in a Beijing secondary school by having the students run a TV station of their own.
All work involved, from programme planning to backstage chores, is done by the students themselves. Even the student director of the TV station was elected on a one-man-one-vote basis by the whole school including the principal, teachers, and students.
The school provides limited funds plus basic facilities such as a simple film studio and tolerable equipment of post-production.
On a sultry summer day, I had a talk with the students working in the stuffy editing-room , and was deeply moved by their spirit.
The principal regularly shows the TV productions thus made during school assemblies, and invites all students to discuss and comment on the works about their contents and techniques.
As the TV productions are done as an extracurricular activity, the students' schoolwork is not compromised.
When interviewed by the visitors, the principal shared her experience, joy and pride in helping the students run their own TV station. She did not touch on the children's scholastic performance or results in various competitions.
I cannot help comparing education in Singapore with that in those two schools.
Our country values a strong administrative background in a school principal. The head of an educational institution must be an excellent administrator, but may not have a clear idea of education or the drive for bold moves beyond the set rules.