If you feel amused or provoked by anything you read in the Education Gadfly, write us at [email protected]. From time to time we will publish correspondence that we think might interest other readers.
Dear Gadfly,
I enjoyed Chester Finn's two articles on Singapore. I have also heard reports from other sources that Singapore is looking to "nurture individualism and creativity." Some of this appears to involve introducing more discovery-learning-type modules to the classes. Without any data, I would suggest that this is as pointless and likely to be as unproductive as trying to teach generalized problem solving. I don't think the cause of the difference in individualism and creativity between Americans and Singaporeans is class size, uniform curriculum or nation building.
I would suggest as an alternative that the fundamental difference is the difference between the societies themselves. Americans fundamentally value free speech and view the free exchange of ideas as a national creed. We honor individual genius and the inventors of new things. By contrast, Singapore is not a politically open society. Free expression of novel or challenging ideas is not encouraged and, it appears, often not allowed. In this climate, the open expression of inventive or individual ideas will be suppressed in almost any context. I don't think it is possible to say "in this context you
can be creative and fully open," while at the same time saying "we neither think nor say things contrary to certain views." We have often put up with some level of offensive speech to ensure that new, important ideas, and challenges to accepted ideas can appear. This may be changing in various contexts, but it certainly has bred a culture of both individualism and creativity in many domains.
Michael McKeown
Mathematically Correct