This video is 20 minutes short.
Watch it only when you have time to reflect.
Its something we Chinese with our 5,000 years of wisdom already knew; but few actually practice it...
We briefly talked about it in my previous blog post.
Confucius said one!
We often hear the above statement thrown out carelessly, don't we?
School never teach us this, school never teach us that...
As if without spoon-feeding, we cannot function alone in the real world or think for ourselves?
Quick!
What's the purpose of an education again?
I didn't have much (formal) education myself, so I'm not an authority on the subject. But to me, if I can read, write, and count, I'll consider myself "educated"!
On a side note. Another important purpose of education is to teach youths how to be good citizens; or to be a good person.
Its usually reflected in the school motto.
That's how "attas" schools set themselves apart from "every school is a good school".
Its the Values they impart to their students.
Big daddy, as one of the biggest employer in Singapore, is perfectly aware of the limitation in recruiting 10-year series memorizers that can ace exams, but once in the real world, are totally lost when they don't have existing SOP (Standard Operational Procedures) or past precedents to work with...
What they want are youths who can transfer what we learn in one context to an entire new one (举一反三).
Hence the decades of education "reforms" that's still ongoing.
When its old fogeys lamenting school never teach... I'll give them a free pass. After all, they are products of the old regime. Plus the fact life probably has not been too kind to them...
But when youths use school never teach as a "shield", then its pretty obvious they have not got the memo: "师父领进门，修行在个人."
Which is China to mean, "Think for yourself!"
Wait a minute.
Maybe that's a better definition for an educated person?
The ability to think for ourselves!?
Time flies!
End of this year, I'll be 55 years young!!!
Its true.
After banging into walls and falling into multiple sink-holes through crash got sound, I can read people better, now that I'm no longer a "spring chicken"...
Then again, at my weekend sales gig, I do serve old fogeys in their 70s and 80s who still behaved like "bei kambings" when it comes to gullibility!?
How can it be?
I mean low IQ that cannot help. But life experiences got to count for something... No?
I guess it doesn't help if you have the habit of "delegating" or "outsourcing" decision making to others all your life...
That's a convenient way to not take any personal responsibility for your actions!
But the downside is like having 1st year working experience times 30 years.
Any new hire can beat you in their 2nd year...
The ability to see through people is an important EQ skill set.
If nothing else, it helps to determine who we will surround ourselves with.
Money lost pales in comparison to the disappointment in being let down by people whom you thought had your best interests at heart...
