Personally, I prefer the Western perception of self but I cannot deny that the Chinese values impacted my life most.
My behavior and personality are very much shaped by the Chinese perception of self. Since young, I was taught Chinese values at home and in school. To a large extent, these values have influenced me to be the person I am today.
I tend to be more Chinese in my approach and thinking. Let me illustrate with an example. I respect my teachers, listen to their instructions and do what I am told to do. I do not question unless when necessary. Even with my friends, I refrain from arguing with them as I feel that we should respect one another, not just those more senior than us. I am a product of the Chinese teachings from my parents and teachers.
Also, peace which is another Chinese value is the motto in my life. I have met people who have been unpleasant. Some were verbally abusive and when you let them off, they came back and hit you even harder. While most people would flare up easily and retaliate, I choose to give them a second chance. I think fighting back is not going to solve the problem. It may even aggravate the situation. I deal with such people by keeping a distance from them. I like to settle things in a peaceful way. I practice tolerance which is what the Chinese preaches.
While the Chinese perception of self has influenced me so far, I feel that as I grow older, the Western perception of self appeals to me more.
I feel that Hwa Chong is making conscious efforts to encourage the students to speak up. We are give oral participation marks and at secondary 3, we have new subject like Socio Economic Studies. Personally, I enjoy SES lessons the most. It is one lesson you feel free to voice your opinions and have no fear about being scolded by the teacher. As students, the freedom to say what you want is a privilege and I appreciate Hwa Chong’s efforts in this area.
With freedom of speech, some of us may even ask for more freedom to do what we want. However, I feel that the freedom should only be given when we are more mature.
I think that giving too much freedom when we are not ready for it can be disastrous. “The Google Way” portrays freedom as a wonderful thing which allows workers to work in a less stressful environment and come out with innovative products. However, what it fails to show is the undesirable consequences that come with it.
A common misconception that some of us have is more freedom means less stress. In fact, having more freedom may create more stress. This is because there is no standard protocol to follow and you have little guidance.
So not all of us are ready for more freedom, you need a lot of self-discipline. There is no doubt that some are good enough but I also feel that we should accommodate those who are weaker. At the end of the day, the stronger ones will survive in a system with less freedom but the weaker ones will struggle in a system with a lot of freedom. Therefore, I feel that the current system meets our needs and we should remain status quo.
While I like more freedom in the years to come, I must say that the Chinese perception of self will still be the cornerstone in my life. I believe you need both to balance up. When you have more freedom, you must not forget the respect for others. We must always remember that words hurt more than action and we should not do onto others what we do not want others to do onto us.
In conclusion, the Chinese perception of self has played a big part in my life and will remain to be so. I look forward to more freedom as I mature and can take responsibility for my own actions but I will remember the importance of respect for others and loyalty to my family, friends and country.
Done by : Alastair Pang (3S2 19)
(745 words)
Hi Alastair, I like how you pointed out that freedom doesn't exactly lower our stress levels at times. Without structure, we would have to come up with everything ourselves and thus creating more work for ourselves in the process. However, this is still a question on self discipline as a person without self discipline would abuse this freedom and ignore the work needed to be done. On the other hand, with self discipline, we would feel a sense of responsibility to complete the task on hand and do it well.
ReplyDeleteI would like to disagree with your point on the "stronger ones are good enough to cope in a system with more freedom while weaker ones would struggle in the system". I believe this is not true as it is not dependent on the academic abilities of the student but the ability of the student to suit an environment with more freedom. For example, a student who is creative and innovative might not fare well in the structured education system as it restricts his freedom to express himself while a person who is more organised and systematic might fare better in a structured education system. Take Bill Gates for example, he once mentioned that he failed many of his examinations in school while his friend passed all of them with flying colours. Now, he is the CEO of Microsoft whilst his friend is an engineer in Microsoft. Thus, you can see that a person might not do well in examinations, which are largely based on structure but in the environment with more freedom, he might excel better than others.
Lastly, I would also like to comment on your point that the Chinese perception of self has played a big part in your life and will remain to be so, with reference to your previous point that you enjoy SES lessons as your are given the freedom to voice our your opinions. Many Singaporeans today might face similar issues too. Generally, many of us come from Chinese families which educate us with the Chinese perception of self. However, due to different factors such as media in the form of the internet, social networking and subject like SES which expose us to the big picture, we tend to adopt a preference for the American perception of self as we are finally given the space and freedom after being confined in the Chinese perception of self for so long. Thus, we have to, as you have said, balance and adapt to accomodate both perceptions of self as ultimately, there are always two sides to a coin and both perception of cells have their pros and cons.
Aik Yang (3S218)
You feel that you are most influenced by Chinese perceptions of self, and I should say the same for myself since both of us were brought up in families with Chinese backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteYou also mentioned that Hwa Chong is making conscious efforts to encourage students to speak up in class with the introduction of Oral Participation and Socio-Economic Studies. However, I personally feel that Oral Participation is not a very good way to motivate students to do so, as this will make the students adopt a more practical mind-set and not express their views freely when no marks or incentives are offered.
In your opinion, more freedom may create more stress. I feel that this depends on the person. If a person is able to make use of his freedom to explore his own interests such as in Google, the freedom may make him feel more motivated and less stressed as he is pursuing something with passion. In contrast, if the person working in Google is too dependent on other people for instructions and lacks creativity, more stress may be created as the person is frustrated by the seemingly paramount task put in front of him: freedom to do what he wants.
Lastly, I would like you to clarify what you meant by “stronger ones” and “weaker ones” in paragraph 11.Does “stronger ones” refer to the ones better academic results or are better able to make use of the additional freedom? Are the “weaker ones” the opposites of the “stronger ones”?
Lin Yulong (3S217)