Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Because He is not around and I have taken to talking to myself in the office, I thought it might be healthier to blog instead - I mean, it MUST be healthier to talk to cyberspace, right?
I was so pissed last night... mum came back with her matchmaking again, and said that I should get a bf and settle down, that just because it is a trend not to be attached, I should not follow suit, and that I should be practical.
I wasn't so much pissed about her pushing me to get a normal relationship (though she was more direct than she had ever been before), but I was pissed over her words, 'trend' and 'practical'.
I was pissed that she:
(a) Thought I am supposedly single just because of some stupid trend,
(b) That I should be practical and follow the social norm of settling down; the irony being that it is also a 'trend' of some sorts.
One would have thought that by now, she would at least know me well enough to know I am supposedly single because it is my choice and that the last thing I'll ever do, is to do something coz society dictates it, or coz it's a 'trend'.
I could find some poor bugger and be bf/gf to make my mum happy - I thought about doing that years ago - but decided not to coz it's just not the way I function, and it'll be unfair to the poor bugger.
Why can't people accept that sometimes other people do certain things just because????
I was so pissed I kept quiet last night coz I didn't trust myself to speak, and if you keep quiet long enough, the topic will die a natural death.
But urgh... I know she cares, but how can a mother think the best thing for her daughter is to follow the norm?
Friends, shoot me if I ever even think about following a norm just because it is the norm, and not what I want... i mean it, just shoot me. Then you can show this blog to the police to justify your actions and not get charged for murder.
Anyway, on to more pleasant topics.
There's a thing in the Today papers about gifted kids in SG. Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said that our Gifted Program 'aims to nurture an admirable individual, one who will be an inspiration and a pillar of strength for his or her community and also a valuable global citizen'.
Reminds me of this rather huge debate in the papers/forum section some time ago about gifted kids and integrating them into 'normal' classes so they'll be more in touch with reality.
There were all sorts of letters to the forum sections in both English papers, but the ones I remember the most were the ones by students themselves from both the gifted program and 'normal' classes. And basically, both groups of students scorned each other.
Personally, I have my doubts about the integrated classes. Once you have a label on yourself as a 'gifted student', you're basically condemned by 'normal' students and you also start getting a certain bit of arrogance. It's just the way things are - don't tell me that when you were a kid, you were in total awe of the gifted ones; you would have at least participated in a joke or two about them.
Indeed, we do need all the smart people we can get... but I'm not sure just how helpful the gifted program is in making them what Mr. Ng said they should be. There should never have been separate classes, just additional classes for the gifted ones. And now, with the sort of stereotypes the gifted program has created since its start in 1984, I'm not sure things can be undone.
Just look at our scholars. Remember all the jokes about how scholars go on to work in govt departments and start implementing policies that are not at all practical because they have no idea what the real world is all about.
You can say I am stereotyping, and maybe there's some truth in that. But you also cannot deny all that I've said is false.
The sad thing is, I don't see a solution in sight... do you?
I was so pissed last night... mum came back with her matchmaking again, and said that I should get a bf and settle down, that just because it is a trend not to be attached, I should not follow suit, and that I should be practical.
I wasn't so much pissed about her pushing me to get a normal relationship (though she was more direct than she had ever been before), but I was pissed over her words, 'trend' and 'practical'.
I was pissed that she:
(a) Thought I am supposedly single just because of some stupid trend,
(b) That I should be practical and follow the social norm of settling down; the irony being that it is also a 'trend' of some sorts.
One would have thought that by now, she would at least know me well enough to know I am supposedly single because it is my choice and that the last thing I'll ever do, is to do something coz society dictates it, or coz it's a 'trend'.
I could find some poor bugger and be bf/gf to make my mum happy - I thought about doing that years ago - but decided not to coz it's just not the way I function, and it'll be unfair to the poor bugger.
Why can't people accept that sometimes other people do certain things just because????
I was so pissed I kept quiet last night coz I didn't trust myself to speak, and if you keep quiet long enough, the topic will die a natural death.
But urgh... I know she cares, but how can a mother think the best thing for her daughter is to follow the norm?
Friends, shoot me if I ever even think about following a norm just because it is the norm, and not what I want... i mean it, just shoot me. Then you can show this blog to the police to justify your actions and not get charged for murder.
Anyway, on to more pleasant topics.
There's a thing in the Today papers about gifted kids in SG. Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said that our Gifted Program 'aims to nurture an admirable individual, one who will be an inspiration and a pillar of strength for his or her community and also a valuable global citizen'.
Reminds me of this rather huge debate in the papers/forum section some time ago about gifted kids and integrating them into 'normal' classes so they'll be more in touch with reality.
There were all sorts of letters to the forum sections in both English papers, but the ones I remember the most were the ones by students themselves from both the gifted program and 'normal' classes. And basically, both groups of students scorned each other.
Personally, I have my doubts about the integrated classes. Once you have a label on yourself as a 'gifted student', you're basically condemned by 'normal' students and you also start getting a certain bit of arrogance. It's just the way things are - don't tell me that when you were a kid, you were in total awe of the gifted ones; you would have at least participated in a joke or two about them.
Indeed, we do need all the smart people we can get... but I'm not sure just how helpful the gifted program is in making them what Mr. Ng said they should be. There should never have been separate classes, just additional classes for the gifted ones. And now, with the sort of stereotypes the gifted program has created since its start in 1984, I'm not sure things can be undone.
Just look at our scholars. Remember all the jokes about how scholars go on to work in govt departments and start implementing policies that are not at all practical because they have no idea what the real world is all about.
You can say I am stereotyping, and maybe there's some truth in that. But you also cannot deny all that I've said is false.
The sad thing is, I don't see a solution in sight... do you?
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The solution would be to focus on actually educating children rather than focusing on test scores.
In order to "think outside the box" one has to first be shown that there actually is a box.
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In order to "think outside the box" one has to first be shown that there actually is a box.
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