Complacency in Modernity
Nov 20th
I’ve just read Five Things the U.S. Can Learn from China (TIME article) and although it talks about America in particular, I suspect that much of it applies to many other developed countries, including Singapore.
(Whether or not Singapore qualifies as a developed country is another topic altogether, but suffice to say that it possesses many of the characteristics of one.)
The article seemed to attribute much of the differences in attitudes to the different Eastern/Western mentalities and cultures, and I do find Singapore to be an interesting case study to determine the veracity of this hypothesis. With a predominantly Chinese population, would the average Singaporean mentality not reflect that of China’s, with its can-do attitude? Unfortunately, I think that would have been accurate a generation or two ago, but no longer.
Some would accuse our youth of being poisoned by Western media and culture, of watching too much Friends and assimilating the idea that young adults need their independence from their parents, that we should enjoy our childhoods rather than study all day, that we should enjoy our lives rather than work all day. Some of these attitudes probably hold some merit to them, but the fact remains that our society has changed and that it has probably made us less competitive as compared to rising nations today.
Personally, I think it’s all to do with complacency, rather than any cultural differences. Our youth (my generation included) are growing up in an increasingly comfortable and protected environment, and much of the motivation to improve their own lives seems to have vanished across the years. People are quite content to merely maintain their current standards of living, and at the same time seem less willing to put in the effort required to do so.
Assuming this is the case, will China eventually fall victim to the same phenomenon? Time will tell, but I’m guessing it’s a cycle all rising nations will go through. Only in this case, with a population of 1 billion to satisfy, it might take some time for the effect to start surfacing.
Panasonic GF1
Oct 31st
Got my GF1 at last! This is actually my third interchangeable-lens camera – I’d started small with the D40 and then upgraded to a D90, but I’ve decided to abandon the DSLR format and go with µ4/3 instead. I made a small loss from the old camera (S$30), but I think that’s a pretty small price to pay for nearly four months’ worth of DSLR usage (plus the whole learning experience)!
I haven’t really used the new camera all that much yet, though I did manage to get a few shots in the camera shop and the zoo (was bringing some foreign friends around), and even with the default settings, it’s looking pretty good! Probably not as nice as with a DSLR (depth-of-field isn’t really all that shallow even at f/1.7), but it’s definitely a lot more portable!
Facebook spying
Oct 22nd
I had some Facebook friend requests from students as early as during my practicum, and I’d deliberated for some time before deciding to accept those requests. The basic idea was that hey, I don’t really have much that I’m hiding anyway, plus it seemed like a way to get to know the kids better. I don’t actively stalk their profiles (who has the time?), but occasionally some really funny gems end up on my main page anyway.
Essentially, the head prefect had failed to write his name on his examination script, and when the discipline master (who was invigilating) made a fuss about it, he’d sheepishly owned up – much to his classmates’ amusement. I wish I’d been there! =P
This one was rather sad really. Here we see ‘elite school’ kids bragging to each other about… how little they study. Which is totally funny (painfully funny? funnily painful?), because of course I wasn’t doing anything of the kind a decade ago!
(…or was I? I can’t really remember. But I suspect it’s possible. How very depressing!)
A little work pride
Oct 22nd
This will sound a little pathetic, but I’m actually taking great pride in a detailed answer scheme for the end-of-year examinations that I helped to kick-start. The previous one was alright, but this one has made marking so much easier!
(How exciting a teacher’s life is.)
Approval ratings
Oct 7th
So the elective modules have come to an end. I’ve had my fair share of students sleeping in class, but I wasn’t particularly strict on them since it’s, after all, meant to be for enrichment. Hearteningly enough, I also had a fair share of students listening rather raptly. Even more encouraging was another bunch of feedback I’ve managed to dig out from alternative sources =P
I know that these represent a very small sample of students (who bothered to blog about their experiences in a Google-able manner), which is possibly self-selecting in the sense that those who hated the module chose not to discuss it at all. However, it’s still good to know that there’re at least a few students who’d enjoyed themselves, and I hope I’ve given some of them at least a greater understanding of what Psychology really is, and who knows? Perhaps some of them will even go on to read it at university.