mega-school

i got into a funny argument wit H last night over the sizes of our schools.

"my new school is sooo big, its like midvalley mall"

"oh really? mine is like 1utama! hah!"

we both paused and started laughing. but we do both agree that we are impressed with the sheer size of schools in singapore. its not just a school, its mega-school!

which made me think of our lesser counterparts in neighbouring countries. their newest school is and has the size and architecture of my old primary school (circa 1970's to 1985).

my old primary school had long been demolished and replaced by a spanking new mega-school.

you can build the tallest twin towers and the biggest malls, so whats stopping you from investing in the future by building (not neccesarrily huge) quality schools where students are motivated to go and study. they do spend 10 hours daily holed up in there.

then again H reminded me that its not the school that matters. its the students. the motivation lies in them. no amount of sheer grandeur of the school or equipment can help them if they refused to help themselves. but she agreed that it will help the better students to be even greater.

we started imagining the impact we would have, if the likes of our great leaders such as LKY and Dr M had been given the opportunity of excellent educational facilities and environment in our mega-schools. would they be greater leaders (than they already are now)? or would they be too molly-coddled (cant go under the sun, air-con not cold enough, whine-whine, sob-sob; etc)

maybe hardship and poor education facilities is a good thing after all. hah!

we'll see. thank u for reconnecting last night, H.(singaporean teachers with malaysian husbands committee. haha!)