What Has Gone So Wrong With Our Understanding of Human Potentials?

1. Nothing has gone so wrong than the acceptance of single channeling of human capabilities and achievements. Be sure, I am writing this piece not because I was at the back of the class every time when it comes to exams. I did pretty well up to university level! I am pointing out this not because I hated it and did not go through this path of ‘superficial success’. But truly because of the following reasons:

Kids' talent are so deep. Only real project based learning will unearth the raw potentials

 a)      It is not fair for my childhood friends who did not manage to answer well in exam nor be excited sitting long hours in class just to listen to boring stuffs. While they were so invigorated to do something that they just barely managed to keep it at the back of their minds. Many students can excel in many areas of activities that are not academically and socially ‘accredited’ as highly potential for future success. The worst is they have no ideas how fast world is changing and how it also redefines the definition of future success!

b)       It is a waste or mismanagement of human resources. We are at certain point of our lives the product of industrial economy. As economy is so powerful change agents of a society, we are educated in a way that satisfied the need of industrialism 1) to be within the scope of ‘the agreed’ (never try to be out of the box, or challenging the status quo, we will be thrown out and cursed for your entire lifetime!) 2) follow instruction (help me find the manual and downgrade my ability to think with novelty and ingenuity). 

Even Tony Fernandes himself admitted how he immensely benefits from sports and cultural activities during childhood and adolescent years, primarily attributable to his business acumen.

c)      The best ways to kill students’ self-esteem and self-fulfilling prophecy’ is by way of exam-based assessment system. I was lucky because I had talent to figure out the tricks of getting high marks in exam (the skills no longer useful when I am growing up!), but it leaves irreparable injuries and wounds to most students who perceive themselves as the rubbish of schooling systems, disappointing their parents who spent money for their “education” and it is simply because they fail to make their way through exams. How detrimental have we put human dignity to kneel down so discreetly yet so painfully than the misery of both the World Wars combined!

d)      If we want to seize our future destiny, the only way is develop talent of every citizen as probably a national agenda pronounced by all stakeholders. If it takes life of a man to wake up a nation to discover its soul and let the man be me. But I need your help in making it happen through Global Talent Network.

My father laid down my path to earn considerably small successes to my ways through to adulthood and gave me space to grow organically with the taste of failure, mistakes, encouragement and discouragement and Prayers.

 

 

 

 

Now this is my turn to empower my kids to see the future. I might not be seeing the future, but they will (as much as my father did). Does that sound like a rocket science to you? It is about doing it now.

2. Thus, the solution is to embrace a new conception of human ecologies that entails the diversity of human talents and potentials. Our sacred understanding of human potentials has been dictated during industrial revolution in the Europe and US, ‘cascaded’ to Malaysia through British colonialism. It was the best education possible and perhaps the critical milestone for Malays opened up to ‘the literate world’. But it was the story of the yesteryear. Never be mistaken of our legacy and our destiny. In between is no correlation but only a revolutionary path that is going to take us up to the future, even at the expense of disdaining our past!

We need to give kids autonomy to choose independently what are their passions and interests, not by dictating them but guiding them through. The moments they choose something, let them take the full responsibility to live their lives, not the parents' 'unfinished dream'.

3. Life is pretty easy to take its way arbitrarily, without us having control what will happen as a consequence. So as to our future, our kids’ future and our nation, throw away the narrow understanding of human potentials, get a new one that is going to lead yourself, your kids, family, communities to a more promising future.

School of Talent : Welcome to the future school

Nations that Develop Talents of their citizens will dominate the future - Peter Drucker

Our education system is currently at the crossroad. Malaysians are so divided on the issues whether UPSR and PMR either have to be abolished or not. If we ask 100 people, we are going to get at least 200 answers!

Well, it is quite easy to take side and give our answer, YES or NO. But what is more important how can the proposal solve more fundamental issues in our education system such as this:

If we abolish UPSR and PMR, what is the 'destiny' of all textbooks that have been printed out and took a whooping cost of billion ringgit? Is a student still required to make reference to textbooks that imply the industrial brainwashing to a linear thinking person, who eventually when they grow as an adult always seek for a manual for a life changing problem?

The answer lies in heart of the problem itself. We are so mesmerized with 'getting better or incremental development' in our schooling experience, such as getting more As than anyone elses in this country as the ultimate measure of schooling excellence. So it becomes a national benchmark for every students to get as many As as possible.

The question is, if 60% of our students score all As in their UPSR, PMR and SPM, does that mean they are cleverer than students before them? or does that mean our nation's future is so bright and promising by having those A scorers to fill up our economic needs and lead our country to be high income nation?

Surely, the answer is to transform it to a new model of education that addresses the needs of 21st century society.

to be continued....