The Education of educating

Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don't know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.-Sir William Haley

My mom is worried that my younger sisters and brother seems to have lack of initiative when in come to doing their homework or revising for exam thus resulting in poor performance in examination…well not that poor…just that they seems to belong in the average group rather than the outstanding one. Which is not bad but considering the school they attend is full of lecturers, teachers and doctors children, not to mention each of them attend almost full week of tuition class so the pressure to perform well is much higher. Unlike me who attended a new school with a bunch of air force children and during a time that nobody really care much about tuition.

I can’t really blame them. Frankly speaking I have the same problem during my schooling days; especially during standard 4 and above. I hated text book, I don’t like English lesson because the teacher bores me and math confused me. To add the confusion there were so many homework’s to be done and most of time it only manage to make me hate the subject more. The result…poor performance in me exam but miraculously somehow I still manage to be in the top 5 of the class. How I achieved that….it seems my poor performance in monthly test was due to my lack of understanding for fundamental. The moment I grab the fundamental than everything else will be easily understand. Therefore I have to thank the teacher who held revision class before finals because that is the only place I learnt to understand the fundamentals of math, science and English. It’s amazing that the things I don’t seem to understand most of time was actually simple.

I still have the same problem of lacking interest during secondary school. I like to learn on my own and at my own pace; I like to really understand the fundamentals rather than jumping to all the other hard stuff… My mom learnt early on (during primary days) that sending me to tuition class only worsen my performance therefore she stopped trying to send me to one and frankly speaking everything with timetable in it never interest me. Thank God for my knack of reading books because that is my only saving grace. I like to know about a subject rather that knowing how to complete my work book…hey sometimes I didn’t even submit my work book because I didn’t complete it. Luckily I sat in class full of people like me so the teacher stop making us submit any homework. But although I didn’t do my homework I still read the subject for the fun of knowing it.

Hence based on my experience, I know that when it come to learning, each and every person have their own unique style. The most basic thing is to understand the fundamentals. Once you understand that everything else will fall into place. Not everyone can learn in a strict timetable, I only read text or revision books when I felt like it…of course you have to keep track of your test and exam but grabbing what fundamental is crucial. Don’t be ashamed to keep reading the first few pages of introduction and simple example. Always keep in mind that you know nothing.

One of the reasons I think student start hating a subject in school is because they never get to grab the fundamental, the pace is to keep moving forward to harder stuff. The teachers have a syllabus to finish; today the introduction, tomorrow we move to example by the third day the teacher expect the student to thoroughly grab the concept and survive and their own and those who don’t understand just have to stand aside feeling like a fool. Too much homework can also sometimes hinder us from understanding a subject because we are to focus in completing it rather than understanding it.


I do hope my sisters and brother have enough curiosity to learn about new things rather than learning just to sit for exam. Once you understand things….answering exam is much simpler.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. - Jim Rohn