I understand why top students - the A+ types - learn physics and
calculus. I get why they study classic literature and the details of history.
The kids in this brainy group are the future professors, scientists, and
engineers who will propel civilization forward.
But why do we make the B students sit through these same classes? That's like
trying to teach a walrus to tap dance. It's a complete waste of time and money.
And most students fall into that middle category. I assume this ridiculous
educational system is a legacy from a day when generic mental training was good
enough for just about any job.
In our modern world, would it make more sense to teach B students something
useful, such as entrepreneurship?
Unfortunately, our culture continues to place highly on a
college degree. Parents and teachers can seldom imagine other
possibilities, especially for the intelligent. Employers lazily use
college degrees as a cheap way of screening job candidates. Socially,
people who don’t go to college are often regarded as weirdos.
I think it's a bad idea to evaluate our school system based on
international test score comparisons. While it's important that our top
students are as good as top students everywhere, our biggest untapped resource
is our B students. Maybe we should start teaching them useful skills.
Simply put, school isn’t for everyone. Although there tends to be a
stigma attached to being a high-school or college dropout, a number of
well-known and highly successful men began their careers by taking a
calculated risk and dropping out of school
Richard Branson is worth $2.8 billion and that’s not too shabby for a guy who didn’t even finish high school.
Branson suffered from dyslexia and had a hard time with educational institutions. What he lacked in schooling, however, he made up in
curiosity and entrepreneurship– when he was 15, he had started two
business ventures: growing Christmas trees
Branson dropped out at the age of 16 to start a youth-culture magazine called Student. Later Branson opened a small
record store in London called Virgin which lead to recording label.
Now Virgin became a veritable giant (branching out into things like
airways, telecommunication and so forth) and Branson was knighted in
1999 for services to entrepreneurship.
More education doesn’t mean you’ll be more successful. It’s all about
your drive. Your passion in life and sticking to it.
Life is a journey. And we mark the milestones in our own way. Some are
good at keeping diaries and scrapbooks, but I believe most of us just store
these moments into our memory banks.
For most of us, final SPM
paper we took marked the end of secondary school education and it
marked a turning point in our lives where we moved from studying
together to embarking upon vastly different pathways. It marks the
beginning of numerous decisions that we have to make and includes
getting a lot of advice from school counselors, worried parents and
knowledgeable seniors, counsel from helpful relatives, visits to campus
open day sessions, mountainous stacks of college brochures and reading
the education sections in local newspapers and websites trying to figure
out what to do in the next phase of life.
Every year, without fail, each time the public examination results are
announced, there will be the usual stories about the top achievers.
But if we look at things in the proper perspective, the life of a
budding teenager, or a young adult, is not determined at this point, whatever
the examination results.
Statistically speaking, super-duper achievers are very much in the
minority and many people do bloom and reach their full potential much later on
in life for example like me which my SPM result is not that good.
So, my encouragement to
you is don’t worry. Try different routes. It took me many years to
find my passion but when I did, I never looked back. But looking back, I
would not change my past. Each experience I had, good or bad, helped
me learn about myself and developed me. And all these experiences
helped me find out what I didn’t want to do and what I was truly
passionate about. So, my take is, enjoy life after SPM. Don’t fret. But
keep exploring and keep experiencing and you will surely find your
passion in life
And so, today, I wish all students who have just collected the SPM
results, by all means rejoice in your distinctions, but do not despair over
your credits and passes.
Life is a journey, and the SPM is just a little stop along the way for
you to pause and reflect, and to move on.
As we stood for the recessional, Gaudeamus
Igiture (Let Us Rejoice), I silently wished all the student well and prayed
they would not compromise their values in their pursuit of success.
Note:- I am not intelligent (based on my SPM Result) so I have to work "smart"
The enigma of the origins of chess has puzzled historians
for decades. Some claim that the chess game elements branched from different
sources, which evolved and transformed into modern chess.
Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in
some incipient form. The most commonly held belief is that chess originated in
India, where it was called Chaturanga, which appears to have been invented in
the 6th century AD. Although this is commonly believed, it is thought that
Persians created a more modern version of the game after the Indians. In fact,
the oldest known chess pieces have been found in excavations of ancient Persian
territories.
Now I want to compare life as if it would be a game
of chess. I think of it as I am representing the white and black is what I have
to overcome in order to reach my life goals. My life goals is to be happy,
reaching success as a writer, have many nice friends, getting a good
girlfriend, raising successful children, being healthy, having financial
freedom and helping other people to become successful.
I think it is important to understand that it is
you who control the pawns, how they move and what happens to them rather than
thinking that you are the pawns and they are controlled by God, your genes,
patter in society, just random or any other such idea. Personally I believe
that if you can establish the thinking that you are responsible for anything
that happens in your life or did not happen which you wanted to happen then you
have come far on your way.
The black pawns is every kind of obstacle or
problem coming or standing in your way in reaching your goals and the game is
if you can reach your goals despite any and all reasons. I believe you can,
within reason.
In chess you predict what your opponent is going to
do and each and every move has a consequence and meaning in the overall game.
The same is in life. If you can predict what will happen in the future when you
do certain actions and how your actions affect everything else I believe you
are good on your way.
Did you ever play chess and stood up and walked
around and saw the game from black’s side? Try to do the same in life. See life
from other viewpoints and angles. Try the unknown, test things, learn,
discover.
Probably the biggest difference between a game of
chess and life is that in chess you know all the rules on how everything works.
This is not so in life. In life you start as a child without a manual on how to
live. Your parents and school will learn you a lot but most of the things you
have to learn yourself. And many things are not easy. It is expected that you
get good grades in school, find a good place to live, a job you like, a good
wife or husband and successful children. This is not easy and some things can
be very hard.
Perhaps you have seen the famous quote that says
that your enemy is your greatest teacher? Well, in my example, I like to see it
as the black pawns is what you learn from. Study how they move and what they
do. See every setback as a new opportunity.
No matter how much you learn there is more you can
learn. Never ever assume you know all about something. When I was a kid I read
in an excellent article that an important point in becoming a genius is to
learn something new each day. Focus on the things that will make you win over
black and reach your goals in life.
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we
would literally astound ourselves.” – Thomas A. Edison
