望梅止渴
Quenching The Thirst By thinking Of Plums, by Dr. Wong Wee Nam
Two days ago I wrote an
article on the PM’s National Day Rally 2017 Speech in which I had expressed my
puzzlement over his choice of three subjects to speak. To me they were low
priority topics in view of the many issues bothering Singaporeans like the
economy, terrorism and the poor health of the MRT system.
Isn’t he not worried that the problems may cost the PAP votes? Apparently not.
If anything it has raised his status a bit. To the 70% the first part established
the PM as being very concerned to give Singapore’s future citizens a headstart
over the rest of the world.
In the second part, he is seen as a very caring father figure who will go the
distance to look after their health, and in the third he is going to modernize
the country making us proud.
Whether these three policies will bear fruit eventually will be left to be
seen.
Yes, life has been hard for the average citizen, with these visions of the
future, they give them hope amidst their misery. Let the voters think of their
children and grandchildren’s future. Voters think less of their problems than
worry about the future generations. Whatever pains that are present in 2016/17
will be mitigated by the glorious years that would come in 2022. Whether we
will achieve our goal is another matter. Doesn’t this remind us of “The Swiss
Standard of Living” aspiration?
I am a believer of good early pre-school education. The aim must be to prepare
the lower-income student adequate enough to bring him/ her to the same starting line as the
rest of the cohort. Otherwise it has failed. Those who can afford can go to the
private play schools and kindergartens, supplemented by good nutrition, good
home environment and extracurricular/classes like swimming, ballet, art and
holidays, get a head start. Even at the pre-school level, there is already a
difference in mental and social development between the various social classes
and a disparity in linguistic and motor abilities even before they start.
For the children of the poor, English is a second language and if they have not
mastered this in pre-school, they would be greatly disadvantaged when they
start school. The formal school would also not be able to remedy this
deficiency because the classes, too, are big and teachers are rushing to finish
the syllabus. Not only will they struggle with English, they will also have to
struggle with problem mathematics and in understanding science that uses English.
In 2009, research by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
showed that reading skills are more reliable predictors of economic and social
well-being than the number of years spent in school or in post-formal
education. Moreover, when in school, it is not likely for a child to develop
the self-respect without some mastery of reading and verbal skills. Only with a
good pre-school foundation can this gap be closed.
According to a working paper, Young Children Develop in an Environment of
Relationships, by the Harvard’s National Scientific Council on the Developing
Child, “Children who develop warm, positive relationships with their
kindergarten teachers are more excited about learning, more positive about
coming to school, more self-confident and achieve more in the classroom.”
For children of the lower social class, therefore, there should be specialised
pre-school centres, adequately financed and run by the state, with well-trained
professional teachers and specially-designed programmes.
The class size should be small enough so that the teacher can pay attention to
each and every child’s needs and the curriculum should be cognitive-orientated.
Teachers must be trained to have the skills and attributes to detect and help
the child overcome common behavioural problems so that the relationship would
be one that is nurturing, stimulating and reliable.
With such a big responsibility, the teachers must be paid adequately so as to
encourage them to stay in the profession and accumulate more experience and be
a better teacher with time.
Harvard’s National Scientific Council on the Developing Child recommended that the early childhood education include:
1. All early childhood programs must balance their focus on cognition and
literary skills with significant attention to emotional and social development;
2. The science of early emotional and social development must be incorporated
into services in support of parents;
3. Providers of early care and education must have sufficient knowledge and
skills to help children who present with early emotional problems early on,
particularly those who exhibit significant aggression or difficulties with
attention and “hyperactivity’;
4. Expertise in early identification, assessment and clinical treatment must be
incorporated into existing intervention programmes; and
5. Suspected abuse or neglect must be investigated.
In today’s world, knowledge and technology are advancing so rapidly that if any
individual is unable to keep abreast, he/she will be left far behind. The
change is especially rapid in education.
The children of today must be taught to live in tomorrow’s world. Otherwise,
society will not only have to shoulder the burden of the ageing population but
also a huge percentage of an inadequately educated population.
The more fundamental solutions would be to reduce income inequality, give the
poor a decent income, make healthcare affordable.
Can a person in misery be made to forget his/her suffering with some hope? Will
this exercise work again? It is hard to say. However, it worked many
centuries ago.
During the period of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao led his troops on an expedition
and had to march through a wilderness of barren rocks. It was summer and the
weather was extremely hot. After a while, with the scorching sun burning down
on them, the soldiers became very drained and thirsty. They were almost on the
verge of mutiny.
Cao Cao knew that if he did not solve this problem, he would have a rebellion
on his hands. Suddenly he had a brain wave. Urging his men, he called out,
“There is a big forest of plums ahead. The plums there are juicy and very sour.
We can have a feast of sweet and sour plums to quench out thirst once we go
over this hill.”
On hearing this, the soldiers started to salivate profusely. The very thought
of sour plums made they mouth water. Their thirsts were temporarily quenched
and with the morale greatly raised, they managed to continue to march forward.
From this story, people have derived the phrase “quenching thirst by watching
plums” (望梅止渴)
to refer to consoling oneself with hopes.
Given the enormous scope of the pre-school problem, raising the issue really
makes the people think less of the present and more of the future. They will
quench their thirst with imagery of the plums. Can you beat that?
[Dr. Wong Wee Nam stood for the National Solidarity Party in Hong Kah GRC at the 1997 General Election. He is presently an opposition supporter and activist. This posting is posted here with his kind written permission.]
My March 2010 interview with Dr. Wong can be read on this website at the following link:
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