11/24/2015

Prejudice and bias in our education system

An interesting article titled ‘ Time to look beyond the Western view of the Middle East’ by an educator, Koh Choon Hwee, appeared in the Today paper on 23 Nov.  such articles are rare in a system where everyone blindly get along with western views as the official and right views of events around the world, including domestic issues.

Koh Choon Hwee discovered through her teachings in the schools that our young have been set up with very simplistic views of the Middle East as a region of deserts, camels and veiled women. How so, and she explained everything in these few words:

‘After passing through an education system in which we are more likely to study Shakespeare rather than the Persian poet Hafez, we have inadvertently been imparted with an understanding of the world as viewed from the British Isles and an ideology of the current world order that is viewed from North America, with is associated prejudices and blind spots.’

Having such a viewpoint is not so innocent as it seems. It has far reaching consequences in the psychic and mentality of the people. What is good to the west, favourable to the west but bad or unfavourable to us, would get pass as acceptable if one does not take time to consider what it should be. If the Westerners said your father is bad, your gene is inferior, the unthinking will go on parroting the same silly stuff without knowing that they have been made victims and happily going along with it.

The fault does not lie just with the education system. It is the whole system that make the people think like they are westerners, transforming ourselves ‘into an Anglophone society, and there are logical consequences of these policy decisions.’ The main media(print and screen) is the biggest culprit if you look at the amount of silly articles copied from western media and passed off as the truth, the right things to read, the right way to think.

As a result, our people do not see the world in a balanced perspective and least of all in our very own perspective. We don’t have our own perspectives. Many open and close their mouths thinking and parroting views of westerners unconsciously and making a fool of themselves unknowingly.  The schools and the media have a heavy responsibility to educate our people to think for ourselves, to be discriminating, and to start thinking that what is good for the West is not necessarily good for us.

They even published stupid stuff and comments by foreign con men and women and fakes rubbishing our own people as stupid and no talents without questioning. In the same breath they are also rubbishing our institutions of higher learnings, the faculties, for wasting public money to produce waste. And none even notice this and simply agreed that our institutions are dysfunctional, only good for beauty contest. As a result we have turned our people into unthinking daft and accepting that we are daft submissively and apologetically. So everyone could only think about more training and attending more courses to be better. They forgot to structure a course to teach them how to think and how not to be stupid.

PS. This sickness, to see the world from the western perspective and to think and behave like Westerners pervade the whole society right from the top. Even academics, supposedly intelligent and critically thinking people, also act the same way and write their rubbish using western world views to look at things and events instead of from out own perspective and interests.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

'The invasion subsequently came under heavy criticism from the international community as well as from within the United States and Europe. Not only were there no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, the invasion destabilised the country and the region, turning it into a haven for terrorists from which the ISIS arose.

Back then, PM Goh Chok Tong supported the war, saying: “It is clear to everyone, unless that person wears blinkers, that this is a war to remove the weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein.” The PAP Government offered to send support personnel to support the US-led coalition troops.'

Above is from an article in TRE by The Democrats on our stupid participation in a war that we should not be involved. This is a clear example of our stupidity, to let the Americans think for us and the only thing we could do is to parrot everything they said. No think required.

Anonymous said...

Rb // They even published stupid stuff and comments by foreign con men and women and fakes rubbishing our own people as stupid and no talents without questioning. //


When the two late former DPMs GKS and TCC were around, people bought newspapers bcos news were worthy and advertisers "tag" along to get the exposure.

Recently, overheard some uncles commenting in a coffeeshop.

They said their children nowadays buy newspapers on rare occasions or some occasions just FOR the advertisers promotional offers, and definitely not for the news or analysis or commentaries. Where news were the drivers for newspapers sales under the old guards like GKS and TCC, nowadays IRONICALLY advertisers are driving some of the sales for newspapers. ...... Dunno to cry or laugh at such state of the 200th GLOBAL ranking MSM .....

Anonymous said...

We have very bright young journalists who could write pretty good analytical stuff. We also have many half baked anglophiles writing stuff like they are angmohs and thinking like angmohs and only for angmoh interests.

On the other hand there is a lack of senior journalists that could think original to write things of substance and relevance for the readers.

The simple way is to copy silly articles from silly western medias as the good stuff to stuff our readers with western rubbish views and ideas.

So pathetic of an unthinking people.

jjgg said...

Anon 9.52... Young people full of ideas, vim n idealism...old people full of family, mortgages n career moves..

Anonymous said...

@AnonymousNovember 24, 2015 9:52 a.m.
// We also have many half baked anglophiles writing stuff like they are angmohs and thinking like angmohs and only for angmoh interests.//

RB, somebody ( ghost writer? Ha ha ha ) referring to your distance relatives Chua Mui Mui and Chua Hoon Hoon?

Anonymous said...

Anon // So pathetic of an unthinking people. //

R u referring to the 70%?

Or PAPigs?

Anonymous said...

Or PAPiglets?

Anonymous said...

Don't be hypocrites lah. Sinkies will be sinkies. If you got a steady $20,000 a month job, only 40hr work week, with 30 days annual leave, and confirmed at least 4 months annual bonus, you will also write like the SPH and MediaCorp journalists.

Only those whose money or job security not at risk then talk cock sing song. Or naΓ―ve fresh grad SPH reporters earning $3,500/month who are full of idealism and think they can just easily get higher-salary jobs in Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Reuters if they kena fired from S'pore-govt media (not true).

Anonymous said...

Where there are sycophants, the fools just lap it up .......?

Anonymous said...

// Don't be hypocrites lah. Sinkies will be sinkies. If you got a steady $20,000 a month job, only 40hr work week, with 30 days annual leave, and confirmed at least 4 months annual bonus, you will also write like the SPH and MediaCorp journalists.//


Ya?

Tiok?

Only hypocrites are the subscribers?

Anonymous said...

/// Koh Choon Hwee discovered through her teachings in the schools that our young have been set up with very simplistic views of the Middle East as a region of deserts ... ///

Very good.
But Koh Choon Hwee is a product of the PAP school system.
Koh Choon Hwee definitely did not say:

" After passing through an education system in which we are more likely to study Lee Kuan Yew and other PAP leaders rather than non-PAP Singaporean heroes like Lim Bo Seng, Elizabeth Choy, Tan Kah Kee, Adnan bin Saidi, & Sybil Kathigasu

we have inadvertently been imparted with an understanding of Singapore as viewed from PAP and an ideology of the current Singapore that is viewed from LKY's Hard Truths, with its associated prejudices and blind spots. "

Is there any truth in the above paragraph?
What do you think?

Anonymous said...

Why didn't Koh Choon Hwee discover through her teachings in the schools that our young have been set up with very simplistic views of Singapore as an island where only PAP people are patriotic, qualified, overworked and underpaid people?

What do you think?

Anonymous said...

Read My Singapore News for the most accurate readings of what's Sin and what's in Sin.

Why pay to read PROPAGANDA and get misinformed, worse brainwashed??

To be misled by one man is bad, to be misled by the state shall mean going the way of the dodo.

b said...

There is bias and prejudice everywhere. Our job is to overcome all those prejudices, beat the system and emerge as the winner.

Anonymous said...

You may think you are a winner. Wait for the turn of your children to be losers. Then you won't act like khongcum. You think you smart your children will also be smart?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

This Koh person is truly an idiot.

We live in an age where kids are internet mavens before they reach secondary school.

Do you really think that your "teachings" (or lack thereof) are really going to have a marked effect on kids growing up in a very wealthy society in this day and age?

Try to "spoon feed" kids with the "official" story, and they will Google and Wiki and search blogs etc. to find out for themselves. Kids are definitely more empowered now when it comes to finding stuff out.

>> As a result, our people do not see the world in a balanced perspective and least of all in our very own perspective. We don’t have our own perspectives. <<

EVERYONE'S perspective is a BIASED perspective. That is one of the things of being an "individual".

Funny, redbean frequently elicits feedback for his posts by positing the question: "What do you think?".

What the fuck does he expect? Of course he's going to get a biased opinion in response.

We all make up our own minds on things. Opinions are biased, facts are colored and distorted, emotions bring meaning to every narrative. And that is perfectly alright. πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½πŸ‘πŸ½ Don't worry, the world and its human occupants are "imperfect".

However life still goes on and for some of us, it rocks awesomely...with all the imperfections, delusions, misinformation...

Got human nature?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

P.S.

Stop treating kids like you want to run their brains and their lives 24/7.

For those who don't and still champion micromanaging children, I hope they grow up to hate you and fuck you up by taking REVENGE when you're old and frail.

Got karma, motherfucker?