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Singapore is finding out, it is not always hunky-dory when it comes to snagging some of the world’s ‘best’. Because just as the world’s supposed best may themselves be musing, the stakes for them too could pretty high when they are seen negotiating with a nation not well known for its political liberalism or tolerance of opposing viewpoints.
In interviews with newspapers the city-state’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam views the tie-up as a ‘cancelling’ the shortfalls brought on by Singapore’s exam-smart meritocracy vis-à-vis America’s talent-led meritocracy.
Shanmugaratnam minced no words over to which system he was seeking first and foremost.
Without acknowledging outrightly he let it be known that Singapore’s system of education has not been at its sterling best as it had has commonly touted to be as. In short it was not delivering!
The mere fact the nation has to continually look beyond its shores for talent despite a very stressful and rigorous system second only to Japan – the latest being the former chief of Malaysian state-owned oil company, Petronas, Hassan Marican – is but an indication its education system is quite not what it was cracked up to be in terms of unleashing creativity, drive and entrepreneurship and leadership qualities; character traits the nation needs so very vitally out of its young populace to continually to stay ahead of other regional economies.
It’s not that the primates demanded equality — some capuchins collected many more pebbles than others, and that never created a problem — it’s that they couldn’t stand when the inequality was a result of injustice. Humans act the same way. When the rich do something to deserve their riches, nobody complains; that’s just the meritocracy at work. But when those at the bottom don’t understand the unequal distribution of wealth — when it seems as if the winners are getting rewarded for no reason — they get furious. They doubt the integrity of the system and become more sensitive to perceived inequities. They start camping out in parks. They reject the very premise of the game.
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Using the General Social Survey data from 1972 to 2008, we found that Americans were on average happier in the years with less income inequality than in the years with more income inequality. We further demonstrated that the inverse relation between income inequality and happiness was explained by perceived fairness and general trust. That is, Americans trusted others less and perceived others to be less fair in the years with more income inequality than in the years with less income inequality. Americans are happier when national wealth is distributed more evenly than when it is distributed unevenly.
the point is you really never know what’s really going on with people that keep them from living up to an ideal. You never really know what invisible burdens they carry that they did not choose for themselves. This is why it’s so hard to know where the line is between laziness and self-indulgent excuse making, and a sense of mercy and realism on the other.
The ideology of meritocracy, though, depends on the fiction that there are no meaningful differences, in terms of nature or nurture, among us, and that we’re all starting from the same place, and have the capacities to excel equally, no matter what. It’s this ideology that can lead people to think that if you’ve failed, it must be your own fault. Sometimes it really is your own fault. It’s the must be that’s problematic.
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. He busted his ass and pulled himself out of poverty, so why can’t others? (is his thought). What David can’t see is how unusual is his intelligence and his work ethic. I wish I were as smart as he, and I really wish I were as focused on work and self-discipline as he is. David is a true outlier in these qualities.
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As much as I admire David for his achievements, I can’t get past the fact that he is so unusual, and doesn’t seem to know how unusual he is (this is in part because he is a fairly modest guy). I suspect that if David had been of average intelligence, he would have a very different story to tell today. Or if he had been raised by parents who didn’t teach him as well as he says his parents did, same deal. I say this not to belittle or to downplay David’s admirable accomplishments, but to say how they have created within him a faith in meritocracy that encourages him to blame others for their own failure to thrive.
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The Myth of the Meritocracy
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Intelligence is a process, not a fixed, gene-determined, thing. This process begins very early on, before we can even really see it, and we therefore often confuse these early, invisible stages with some sort of innate giftedness. Then we test kids and report the results as innate differences--this one is gifted, this one is not. This one has extra promise; that one does not. We send the "gifted" ones to good schools with small class sizes, better-trained teachers, better infrastructure, better relationships with parents, and higher expectations. We send the apparently-unpromising kids to under-funded, teach-to-test schools with minimal expectations.And then we tell ourselves that we live in an educational meritocracy. Jennifer Senior's piece helps expose that fallacy.
Well-to-do, highly educated parents are volunteering to help at elite schools to raise the chances of their children being admitted there, and thus gain a headstart in the paper chase.
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instead of paying money for a school place, parents are paying in service, said a social studies student.
“The scheme works in favour of the well-heeled parents who have the time and qualifications to do it,” she said.
“What happens to the ill-educated and poorer parents who are unable to do so?”
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Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, in a visit to a premium girls’ school last November, admitted that the primary school admission system was not meritocratic, as a child’s family background played a part.
Whether a child went into a good school was based on the social class of the parents, Lee had said.
“So it’s not so meritocratic. That’s inevitable in any society.”
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“[Some schools] give preferential treatment in admitting children of alumni or students from wealthy families who can afford their high school fees”.
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the MOST POWERFUL RAFFLESIAN is making a (not very subtle) attack on A Capitalist School In Dover.
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The meritocratic route to oblivion
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Part of the problem with meritocracy is that it homogenizes in the name of diversity: It skims the cream from every race and class and population, puts all of the best and brightest through the same educational conveyor belt, and comes out with a ruling class that’s cosmetically diverse but intellectually conformist, and that tends to huddle together rather than spreading out to enrich the country as a whole.
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meritocracy co-opts people who might otherwise become its critics
Should a child’s fate be sealed by an exam he takes at the age of 4? Why kindergarten-admission tests are worthless, at best.
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