Education won't solve social woes

SOMEONE once asked Confucius how he would deal with the problem ofoverpopulation, and the answer was ""educatethem''. That was 2,500 years ago. But some things haven't changed with time. ""Education'' is often mooted as the way to solve social ills … fromovereating to gambling to sexual addiction. Its basic assumption … the more you are told what is right, the lesslikely you will do what is wrong … is naivelyoptimistic. Fifty years ago, a university graduate was almost unheard of. A childwho started school at age seven would be out ofit by 12. That was all the education many of our founding fathers had, buttheir lack of formal education was no stumblingblock to their achievements. As the late Dr Wee Kim Wee, who did not complete his formal education,said: ""My university was the university oflife.'' Confucius advocated the development of a person's character, inaddition to academic training. However, thatdefinition of education is often narrowed to mean only that which is taughtin schools. Today, most children receive at least 12 to 16 years of formaleducation, but that hasn't solved many of their woes. The fact is, more formal education simply does not equate to beingbetter educated and having a better character. How effective education is has to be seen in the context of a risingindividualism among the young. We come from the I-Me-My generation that is used to instantgratification. Hence, the claim … ""I know what's best foryou'' … made by traditional figures of authority like parents, teachers andeven the government is no longer taken at facevalue but questioned. A modern teenager's beliefs are rooted in ""what works for me'' … nomore benchmarking my behaviour against what youthink I ought to do, but I make decisions based on what I think I like(subs: pls italicise) to do. As such, science textbooks and abstinence organisations - for all theyare worth - are destined to remain sciencetextbooks and abstinence organisations. Why? Many of the prescriptive measures dished out to youths merely assertthe ""what'' and ""how to'', and seldom delveinto ""why'' something is right or wrong. People say that being promiscuous is wrong. My retort is: Why is itwrong? Is it because promiscuity will lead to thespread of infectious diseases that affect society? But if I use a condom, I can help prevent the transmission of HIV/Aids.Does that make permissive behaviour right? If our notions of right and wrong are reduced to a matter of ""whatworks must be right'', then I fear we are slippinginto a dangerous moral relativism. And if that happens, education … which is supposed to teach one torecognise right from wrong … will be madeincreasingly irrelevant. And being promiscuous is right … if not for you … at least it is forme.

Construction safety in Singapore

With the recent published findings of what went wrong with the Nicoll Highway accident, it is interesting to note the current problems plaguing much of the construction industry.
As a managing director of a reputable scaffolding company here once told me, "while it is good and nice to talk about safety measures, the reality is that time pressures, coupled with financial restrictions do make nearly impossible to abide by every rule in the book" - perhaps it will be good for some of our Ministry of Manpower officials and the various construction-related organisations here to drop by work sites for a look (and i am not talking about planned public relations visits).

But the more critical issue that I am trying to make on this point is that safety is not just about straffing a harness on a worker nor just simply having more checks - safety is linked to how an employee views his worker - that his life is not just about dollars and cents, but linked to the infinite worth that he is being created also in the image of God.

After all, if this foundational presupposition that man is made in the image of God is discarded, then one can always argue that losing one worker (and perhaps compensating his family with say, 50,000) is worth the risk if the project can be completed in a shorter time (especially if the company is able to save costs). Better still, if the death of a worker is not reported, then there isnt even any public relations concerns to worry about -

The same MD told me once when he was working together with his workers on site doing some high-risk work when his site foreman urged him to come down from his position saying that "you are the boss's son, you cannot be doing such things"...

The reply: "These men are also the sons of other parents, are you telling me their lives are worth less?"

Passing of Pres Wee

Nothing much else to say - except that he is well respected by many in Singapore. I guess what we can all learn would be a sense of humility and being down-to-earth, something that many in power may find difficulty in doing. As Dr Wee said, "My university is society" - I absolutely agree - if only those in university would understand the simple yet profound message of this statement.
It seems that the more developed the education system here becomes, the longer a person studies in school - and yet end up not very much better than our forefathers - an irony.