Reforming the Education System

Fisting really hurts ~ Everybody.

We should really think about what we're teaching our kids nowadays.
I remember when I was a kid, I read an article about how our tongue receptors are not geared towards a particular area.
Each and everyone of the nodes on our tongue is capable of detecting all six flavors.
I remember thinking I was retarded and that was something wrong with me when I couldn't taste the sweet stuff when bitter was on the tip of my tongue.
And this is what my syllabus taught me, so you can imagine my confusion when faced with multiple choice. It was ABCD, all of the above, the imaginary E!
But alas, twas not to be. Reprinting, updating textbooks cost moolah, and somebody in a position of authority did not take into account that science is an ever changing subject of study.

So, point no 1: Teaching outdated information.

Then there are subjects that have no place in our day-to-day lives and should have been removed to make way for much more useful nuggets of information.
Scrap moral, make way for economics.
Scrap certain parts of maths, additional maths, make way for geography.
Make biology about humans as the emphasis, knowing what happens to our body is important.
Make maths more orientated towards our day-to-day use such as "per liter", "per kilo", calculating the sensibility of going into debt, of home loans, of calculating investments.
Make economics a compulsory subject. Lord knows that we would have much more entrepreneurs if they knew they could make a living besides being doctors, lawyers, engineers and businessmen.
History: really, do I even need to explain this one?
Geography, knowing the geographical make up of our society, how to read a map, how road systems work, how public transportation works, start with the home country in the beginning, branch out to ASEAN, then to Asia and finally the world. Know the make up of a particular country, its economics, the main language, it opens up avenues of thought and gives us more daring citizens.
Chemistry and Physics could be combined and more focused on our daily lives. How your television works, how to cure acid burns, how detergent works, deodorant, medicines, emphasis on the day-to-day, the mundane, the common sense that is becoming increasingly rare.

And Living Skills. boiling a pot of water, how to wash your own clothes, how to clean your own house, how pouring water on your computer is not a good idea to clean it, how to pump petrol, take public transportation, where to find information pertaining to everything else.

Think kids can't take this sort of information?
dumb it down for them, make it relevant, make it something they can use.
We're adults, we're smart people. You're telling me that we can't figure out a way to get kids interested in things and skills that they should have in their day-to-day life?

So point no.2 : Syllabus overhaul.

And teachers, need to be paid better. There should be a system of teacher evaluation, of feedback, where they need to be understood by their students and be taught.
So a weighted system where the students' results and their evaluations are brought in with more emphasis on their learning capabilities than on their personalities.
Promotions, benefits, requirement of research papers, teachers are the first line of defense against dumbness in our society should be treated as well as any corporate drone because their contribution to our nation is human capital, which equal profits, which equals bigger GDP, which equals more money going around for everybody.

So point no.3: Better teachers.

We should really think about it, because there's a war coming.
And the nation with the best resources, natural, human, technological, will survive.
Otherwise, we will become a footnote to someone else's history and we won't even warrant a chapter.

This town ain't big enough for the both of us, said an unspecified movie character at a particular point in time.

In Malaysia, we're seen as a country of well mannered, helpful, polite society that always tries to help our lost tourist amigos and generally not decaying into moral ambiguity, drugs, sex and violence.
Actually sex isn't bad, but thats a discussion for another day.

What I'm really winging (win-ging) about is that this isn't true.
What did I just say? Am I calling everybody out there rude and uncouth?
Did I just taint the name of my country?

No idiot. If you thought that, then yeah well, name calling is appropriate.

I'm talking about statistics. Majorities and minorities.
And common sense and reacting differently in different social situations.

Lets take a common event, you meet someone for the first time, you know you're going to be seeing a lot more of time (classmate, colleague, parent) so you make an effort to be polite, considerate, helpful, smart.
Now take an entirely similar scenario, when you're taking a lift and you're not sure if you're ever going to see this person and if they matter in your life.
Would you hold the door for them? Would you step into the lift before they've stepped out? Would you make way or even think about making way to make everybody's life more comfortable? Would you ask which floor they were heading to?

I'm not saying you're rude if you don't. I'm saying that we're a nation of hypocrites, a third world mentality with first world amenities.
If not for the awesome food and long queues in our country we would have descended into chaos and anarchy a long time ago. They keep us pacified so much easier than tear gas and water cannons.

Furthermore, look at traffic jams. EVERYBODY has been cut off by an asshole at one point or another while driving here.
If we were a polite a society as we like to think, this would happen much less frequently.
Its just due to the fact that we're in a protected shell, we know that there's no consequence to us if we make it (assuming we're the asshole), and because the person we cut is probably just as scared of us of confrontation.

So we do that. We become assholes when we know that the consequences don't matter.
Polite? Only in certain situations.
Friendly? When we need to be.

It's not wrong to be, there are many excuses to not do so. Take your pick:
1) no time
2) not worth the effort
3) everybody else is doing it

congratulations. you're now part of the herd. enjoy the rest of your life lying to yourself, that you're better than others when really, you're not.

otherwise, wise up to the reality. we're not all saints. we can think of ourselves as such, but that just makes us arrogant assholes who as we know, are capable of much shitting.
know yourself, be aware, be better, not because you want something, but because you can be.